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Future of education

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SI TeamIndians unanimously agree that new technologies provide positive support for higher education
• Indians rank their higher education system as satisfactory - whether concerning the education they personally received (86%, including 43% very satisfied), current higher education system (85% say it is high-quality, 48% fully agree) or the education for future generations (92% including 57% fully).

• India’s scores are significantly higher than other countries surveyed.

Nevertheless, they do believe that their higher education system must transform continuously: concerning the different aspects tested - transformation of formats and learning tools, programs or role of teachers, 70% of Indians feel upgrading of teaching skills is important & 40% feel teachers are indispensable.

• India along with France believes transformation as a key while other countries have stressed on evolving the education system.

• Recognizing quality of their current model, Indians are pitching for digitizing their higher education. Most agree that digitization can transofrm higher education: 99% feel digitizing higher education is a good thing, 74% voted it as a very good initiative (versus 29-65% in other countries). 84% feel new technologies can achieve the desired transformation. Digitization shall bring in positive changes to benefit coming generations (96%, including 75% fully agree), improve teaching skills (95%, including 71% fully agree) & make education accessible to everyone (92%, 67%).

• Considering these data points, India seems more convinced on capabilities of digitization to facilitate access to higher education.

Indians also perceived very concrete consequences of involving new technologies in higher education. Digitization can supplement theoretical education via virtual reality (93%, including 57% fully agree) and other learning formats (92% including 61% fully agree). Indians support personalization of education (92% including 58% fully agree) and development of teamwork through information sharing (92% including 59% fully agree).
Teaching will be less a vector of knowledge than peer-to-peer learning

Role of teachers remains critical. While Indians believe digitization is necessary, that does not diminish importance of teachers &
learning methods. 55% feel teachers will use new learning methodologies to help students acquire relational skills like creativity & critical thinking.

• Acquiring these skills is voted highly: creativity (53%), leadership (50%) & teamwork (40%) are considered important to develop through higher education.

• A similar response is received from SA respondents. However, UK and USA have voted for analysis & leadership skills. While France voted for open-mindedness & adaptability as their top relational skills.

Strong interest for social & cultural diversity
• The student population is internationally mobile*. 92% Indians feel their higher education system prepares them for international opportunities (including 60% fully). Moreover, India (28%) views opening up to international opportunities as a strength, behind France (30%).

Nevertheless Indians believe their education system caters to students across socioeconomic backgrounds (54%), quality of its teaching (52%) and diverse curriculum (48%).

Quality of studies offered remains most significant asset for Indians(47%) followed by student services and to be in sync with digital transformations in higher education system.

An educational system which must fight to preserve the environment
• Emphasizing on higher education for all, 41% feel institutions must above all raise awareness against social inequality.

• For Indians, inaccessibility of higher education is less a question of tuition cost than material conditions: 38% declared a need to improve living conditions (housing/food/transportation) versus 24% who seek increase in scholarships.

Another core topic to be promoted through higher education is preserving the environment (43%). 58% feel that higher education can impact preservation of environment by modulating its curricula (32%) and its programs (26%), rather than financing dedicated projects (41%).

• Ability to adapt program content and create curricula dedicated to environment preservation is seen much more important in India than France.

• Gender equality is important, and most Indian respondents feel higher education system must ensure greater representation of women both in learning (92%, including 61% who are very favorable), and teaching (91%, including 60% who are very favorable).

A fairly positive impression of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on higher education
• Indians believe Covid-19 pandemic will impact delivery of higher education for years to come: 82% estimate growth in discipline like healthcare (66%) and social economics (51%). 91% agree that teaching will be dispensed remotely - at least partially (45%)

• Comparing with other nationalities, Indians have overwhelmingly voted to a complete shift towards remote-learning.

o 87% of Indians have a positive judgment of remote teaching during the lockdown, including 48% very positive.

o In fact, 92% feel digitizing higher education is a good thing. While we did observe a 7-point drop versus the measurement last January, this drop does not have a negative impact on the popularity of new technologies which are still largely approved.

• However, the negative impacts of the crisis are also felt: despite a high propensity toward international travel from Indian students, 91% of those surveyed declare that they will probably limit their travel in the years to come because of the pandemic
Source: Press Release