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In 2030, one company - Universality - controls 71% of all higher education.
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This film documents what it is like to study at, teach at, and work with Universality.
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Universality - the singular college for the connected world.
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It's incredible to think how quickly
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Universality has changed the marketplace for Higher Education in the UK.
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Using OER materials and peer support,
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both of which are available to all for free -
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and coupling this with paid for tutorials, practical sessions
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and examinations and accreditation
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it has offered opportunities
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to students and employers to benefit from Higher Education.
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It has also completely changed the nature of academic employment in the UK
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In this short film we will be talking to some of the key stakeholders.
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Our students
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"Learning that fits the way I live my life... and the needs of my employer"
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"I`m investing in my future. I pay only for what I need"
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"It's the flexibility that works for me.
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I only pay for what I use and I get where and when I want it.
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I've been studying chemistry mainly through watching lectures
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and interacting with the materials.
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though I paid for a couple of tutorials too.
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I can't afford the practical week though
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I'm saving up to take the level one exam next year.
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Formative tests are predicting a B for me at the moment
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so I want to get a bit more work in
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The other students have been really helpful
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in pointing me towards the right materials.
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And it will take me a year to save up the fee as well.
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Our associated employers...
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we employ graduates who can start work on day 1.
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We can access training and qualifications
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that directly meet our immediate business needs.
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SIMON HAZELL, HR DIRECTOR, BEACON MEDIA:
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"We've employed exclusively graduates for years,
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but we've always found we've had to retrain them
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in our way of doing things
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before they can start work.
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In business, we need to find employees that meet our immediate needs,
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but by the time we've retrained them for six months
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we might as well not have bothered
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- we need something else."
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"With Universality we have our corporate training
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built in to what the students learn,
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so they start with us
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and they've already got the skills and knowledge they need to do a good job,
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instead of a degree in something irrelevant.
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No more graduate trouble makers,
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just good workers ready to start their career with us"
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Our staff...
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I build my reputation and earning power
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through releasing open resources.
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I work with employers to make sure that that students have the right skills.
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DR HEATHER CAMPBELL, ANTHROPOLOGY TUTOR, UNIVERSALITY INC.
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"Working for Universality was a natural result of the popularity of my materials,
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one of my lectures had the highest student and peer satisfaction rating for over two years.
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Now I'm paid based on these ratings
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and I'm reaching millions of students every day."
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"At my level I don't get involved with tutorials or student support,
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unless the student is willing to pay the premium.
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I do a lot of custom stuff for key business partners,
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it's very well paid.
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There were some nice things about the old universities:
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the sense of community, the sense of being a part of history...
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and I quite enjoyed some of the research too.
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But these days I'm recognised as being a good tutor,
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and I've got a huge international profile as one of Universality's rising stars."
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The government...
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we are delighted by the way universality has invigorated the HE market.
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Universality awards accredited UK degrees.
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THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CAROLINE SPENCER MP, MINISTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
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"We all loved the Universality concept,
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but it still came as a surprise how quickly it became the dominant mode of teaching.
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Like Spotify did with music in the late noughties,
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it made most business models look antiquated.
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It's hard to believe that in 2010
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there were more than one hundred UK universities
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- these days 71% of undergraduate qualifications worldwide
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are awarded through Universality.
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We were hoping for something like this
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when we seperated degree awarding powers from teaching, back in 2012.
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Some people are worried about a monopoly,
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but why worry when so many students are learning so much
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that could benefit them in their career."
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Our Chief Executive Officer...
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we use open educational resources
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and then charge students for support, testing, and to graduate.
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Our staff costs are low,
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and we make additional revenue via display advertisments and student fees.
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CHARLES VINCENT, VICE-CHANCELLOR/CEO, UNIVERSALITY INC
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"We've built a huge and profitable business,
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with millions of customers.
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It's a huge step away from the amateurism of the old university sector.
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Tutor's roles are now clearly defined,
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and we pay them for what they actually do
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and how much business they attract.
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And were an ethical business
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- we're putting all our materials online for free for anyone to use."
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"We charge students for tutorials,
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for face-to-face activities,
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for exams and graduation ,
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and the fees for the last two are reduced
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when they pay for other services.
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But even so, a third of our students just pay for the exams.
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Our Academics are paid to produce materials
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good enough to draw people in to paying for more services."
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"I'm delighted to be a part of this brave new world"
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Universality - the singular college for the connected world.
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this is only one possible picture of higher education in 2030.
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"...we deliver practices that we claim radical, but which simply replicate or re-produce a dominant political economy, in line with the ideology of accepted business models. So that which we claim as innovatory becomes subservient to a dominant mode of production and merely enables institutions to have power- over our products and labour, rather than it being a shared project..witness the desire for HE to become more "business-like" (Richard Hall, De Monfort University)
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It might be that you wouldn't choose to work or to study at Universality.
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The quotes below from Richard Hall and from Jim Groom
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might suggest some areas we may wish to consider.
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if we have an alternative vision.
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"What we have is an economy disinvesting its own workforce from the bottom up in the name of efficiency, cost cutting measures, and productivity - but in the end we're all just fodder for profit-driven system that depends up the exploitation of the many for the wealth of the few". (Jim Groom, University of Mary Washington).
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We have a lot of thinking to do
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"What we have is an economy disinvesting its own workforce from the bottom up in the name of efficiency, cost cutting measures, and productivity - but in the end we're all just fodder for profit-driven system that depends up the exploitation of the many for the wealth of the few."(Jim Groom, University of Mary Washington).
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CREDITS: Universality, Inic.
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Available under a creative commons attribution license.
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Produced by David Kernohan.
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Based on a workshop by David Kernohan, Sheila MacNeil, Heather Price and Li Yuan at ALT-C 2010.
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Cheesy stock photography from the Microsoft Clip Art collection.
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Music by "This Economic Climate"
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The opinions expressed in this film
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may not be those of the organisations and individuals involved.
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Any resemblance to any people, companies or institutions, living or dead, is purely coincidental.