Deakin University has outlined a ‘radical new approach’ to student engagement after it outlined its new Strategic Plan, which will focus heavily on ‘driving the new digital frontier.’

 

The Live the Future: Agenda 2020 university plan outline’s the university’s ambitious drive to become the country’s leading digital education driver, with an aim to enable globaly connected education for the jobs of the future and drive research that makes a difference to the community it serves.

 

Increasingly, Deakin will provide opportunities for students to engage with the university and each other via digital technology and mobile devices so that education is provided anywhere and at any time.

 

As well as off-campus students engaging via the internet, education resources will be provided for all students to learn and interact via the “cloud.” Students will also have the option to participate at one of Deakin’s Victorian campuses or in workplaces, hospitals, schools, in fieldwork placements either in Australia or overseas.

 

Deakin Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jane den Hollander, said the new plan responded to the rapidly changing landscape of tertiary education and harnessed the power and opportunities of the new digital economy.

 

“Learning at Deakin will be personalised and unchained from location,” she said.

 

“Today’s students rightly expect a premium learning experience which is user-friendly, self-service and available 24 hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week as they have come to expect in all other aspects of their lives such as banking and retail services.

 

 

“These changes force us to think about university credentials in a new way and to embrace the opportunities that they provide to deliver greater value in our own marketplace – and particularly to our students,” she said.

 

Deakin’s new Strategic plan is built on four key themes:

  • Learning – offering brilliant education wherever students are geographically or academically;
  • Ideas – making a difference through world-class innovation and research;
  • Value – strengthening communities, enabling partners and enhancing the university’s enterprise
  • Experience – delighting students, staff, alumni and partners.