Rethinking Teaching for the Knowledge Society

For over a decade now, universities have been aware of the pressures to expand access to higher education.1 The knowledge society needs more graduates, and those graduates will keep returning to study as lifelong learning takes its place in both work and leisure time. These are the positive pressures for expansion. But the knowledge society, fueled by the expanding higher education sector, is in turn generating more knowledge industries, producing additional, competitive pressures for traditional institutions of higher education. Those involved in university teaching in this digital age must cope with the fact that the knowledge industries are creating the means by which individuals can acquire the immediate skills and knowledge those industries need. As a result, many individuals are questioning the true benefit of a university education, given its cost.