Ed Byrne, president and principal of King¡¯s College London, believes that any university not exploring the world of distance education will find itself in ¡°real trouble¡± because no institution is ¡°immune to disruption¡±.

Speaking during a debate at education company Pearson about online learning¡¯s impact on global higher education, Professor Byrne said: ¡°If I look ahead and think of the range of things universities do, we¡¯re going to have to have superb technological environments everywhere ¨C whether it¡¯s in e-education¡­or on-campus [education].

¡°Will the traditional large lecture last beyond the next 10 to 15 years? Personally, I doubt it. I just don¡¯t think it¡¯s a format any more that¡¯s aligned with the information world that we¡¯re moving into.¡±

He said he hoped that ¡°the need for accelerated, exponential change will be met by the sector¡±. But he added: ¡°I think places that just ignore all this ¨C business as usual, nothing changes ¨C will be in real trouble in every aspect of what they do.¡±

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Professor Byrne warned universities ¡°to be careful¡± that they do not ¡°outsource¡­academic delivery, quality and cohort¡±, but there are things that providers such as Pearson ¡°are doing better and more efficiently than we can do by ourselves¡±.

Rod Bristow, president of core markets at Pearson, with whom King¡¯s announced last year to help deliver online postgraduate qualifications in mental health and law, said that he was ¡°not convinced with the avalanche analogy¡± that distance education would overwhelm the traditional delivery of higher education.

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¡°I don¡¯t see that. I also don¡¯t think it¡¯s necessarily that healthy for us to be focusing on the word ¡®disruption¡¯. It¡¯s easy to disrupt things; what we¡¯re trying to do is actually create a better experience, more access, higher quality for learners,¡± he said.

¡°If we just concentrate on the quality and the accessibility, maybe that will result in some disruption, I¡¯m not sure. I don¡¯t think disruption is the goal.¡±

john.elmes@tesglobal.com