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Challenges Facing Universities in 2021: 5 Higher Education Challenges

Challenges Facing Universities

The constant advance of time has led to the generation of new educational trends, so the challenges for Challenges Facing Universities, are to adapt their system, structure, and operation to the demands of today. This post shows you some of the challenges facing universities and how they can face them. And no, not all of them are related to technology and the situation resulting from the healthcare crisis. If you want to know more, join us!

Changes in the educational paradigm.

It is a reality that, after the health crisis caused by COVID-19, the challenges for universities have increased. For this reason, adjusting to specific teaching patterns is a process to which both teachers and students are still getting used to and looking for the best way to adapt. It is one of the challenges facing universities that must be resolved in the short and medium-term.

And, little by little, they are achieving it. This progress can be seen in implementing hybrid education in universities, where educational models have taken advantage of the benefits offered by the face-to-face style and online classes to form a unique and beneficial teaching system for the student.

Universities and the rest of the educational institutions were forced to adapt to the necessary changes. It is how the traditional education systems, which were based on aspects such as the following, changed:

  • Classroom work
  • Physical interaction
  • Practical evaluation
  1. Adaptation and implementation of new technologies.

In line with the previous point, one of the challenges for Challenges Facing Universities is integrating new technologies and modern teaching procedures into their teaching system.

This means that elements such as online education and online universities acquire much greater weight within their structure. But are these training centres prepared for this change?

While it is true that the computer era has been taking place since the 50s of the previous century, the situation arising from the health emergency caused many people to resort to the use of digital devices and platforms to stay connected.

But what does higher education need to incorporate technology effectively?

Resources:

Electronic devices (tablets or laptops. Even smartphones).

Internet connection (even guaranteeing optimal connectivity).

Training:

Students should use the resources available to them with the mindset that it is an educational tool rather than an entertainment mechanism. Although many people consider that technology is only for leisure and fun, many others are betting on it, thinking it is helpful for university education.

And, of course, this kind of challenge for universities also means that teachers must be trained to use these kinds of tools. Prepare teachers and teach them how to take advantage of technology for learning; in this way, they will be apt to train young people in this area.

2. Need personalization learning.

The teacher can no longer be a transmission channel and the student a mere recipient that stores information. The dynamics of education in universities must go beyond that since the process is tedious for the student. In addition, the mere repetition of content is not productive and does not work in real life.

With a personalized experience, the student will feel sufficiently motivated to be fully trained and stand out from the rest. And we are not only referring to the subject of classes but other important factors must be considered.

One of the great challenges for universities is to personalize the whole experience for the student, have fluid communication with them, and promote the attraction of potential students to their campuses. The university can no longer view students from afar because, like any shopping experience, people are more attracted to the place that cares about their concerns.

3. Focus on emotional education.

Believe it or not, emotional intelligence is an essential element in learning. The emotional section should also be addressed despite being dismissed by the traditional education model, which only focuses on teaching academic material and little else.

Universities should not be seen as centres where people only go to acquire content and, in the end, receive a diploma. For real success, factors beyond the knowledge you can acquire must be taken into account.

And this emotional learning must go hand in hand with academic education. One of the challenges of universities is to generate integral professionals with aptitudes and attitudes by life.

Although ideally, this process should begin at an early age, with higher education, people enter adulthood and begin to have a sense of what the real world represents. Therefore, they must learn to deal with their emotions and form an autonomous, positive and empathetic adult.

4. Encourage creativity in learning.

Although the creative process should be inspired and encouraged from childhood, the education sector is little to promote this kind of behaviour. This is a mistake since thinking creatively is a great added value for any professional.

Although many people consider creativity an innate talent, this ability can be developed and worked on. Suppose it is carried out under optimal conditions and this type of behaviour is encouraged in educational training centres. In that case, it will be a new tool to be used by the student, which will help him better cope with his difficulties and will also be one of the challenges the universities have already overcome.

It is why creativity seeks to modify those patterns that are ingrained in university education. One of the ways to help students be more creative is to give them the space to foster their creative thinking, and, in turn, teachers should reinforce the qualities of their students and help them be a better version of themselves. I can even give you an example from my personal life. I was lucky at university – my teacher encouraged my creativity a lot. When I needed to write my paper or essay, he insisted that I take the topic I was interested in. He always encourages me to ask additional questions and observe things from different sides.

5. Make education convenient.

While graduating from a university campus involves dedication, perseverance, and discipline, one of the significant challenges for universities is eliminating the barriers that allow students to access this achievement.

Many of the students who attend these campuses tend to be:

  • Part-time or even full-time workers.
  • People with families to support (fathers and mothers)
  • People who are available with distance education

For this reason, higher education must find ways not to limit, as much as possible, the access of these students to achieve their goals. When we talk about these types of challenges for universities, we are referring to challenges such as the following:

  • Limited class offerings
  • Complicated degree requirements
  • Difficulty in registering for courses

Helping the student achieve his or her ambitions will motivate him or her, despite his or her particular difficulties and efforts. For example, if a student has access to his grades, it is a good start, thanks to the simple to manage digital platforms.

The fundamental idea (and one of the most complex challenges for universities to manage) is to avoid student dropout and facilitate, as far as possible, their access to the degree. Gathering the necessary skills and knowledge for the degree is the student’s job (with the direct influence of the professors, who must be fully trained to give them the integral tools for this purpose).

Conclusion:

Universities have to start focusing less on the subjects that the student masters and start worrying more about the student himself.

Ideally, they should look for creative and innovative processes that meet these challenges for universities. Also, they should count on the help of the States to be able to face a great part of their functions (especially if they belong to the public sector) and to return to the role they had as training centres, with the addition that now they will play a more important role in the integral and human aspect of people.

 

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

trump

Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.

Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

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