Proceedings of the 50th International Academic Conference, Paris

4TH IR – IMPLICATIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

JOHANNES ANDREAS GERHARDUS BEUKES

Abstract:

During the 4th industrial revolution (4th IR) the world will see the emergence of a new form of institutions of higher learning. These institutions will have no classrooms, no library and no onsite lecturers. The institutions will be inter-disciplinary, will have virtual classrooms and laboratories, the library will be online and the lecturers will either be virtual or can sit anywhere in the world. Higher Education in the 4Th IR is creating an exciting but complex opportunity which has the opportunity to transform the society for the better. Artificial intelligence is driving the 4th IR and the needs of the workplace will be transformed from a task-based characteristics to human-centred characteristics. Due to the merging of "man" and machine, the distance between social sciences and humanities as well as between technology and science will be reduced. This will necessarily require more interdisciplinary teaching, research and innovation. All the components of the "new" higher education system will be inter-dependable of each other but will also be independent of each other. This paper looks at the impact of the 4th IR on the mission of higher education institutions.

Keywords: 4th IR, 4th industrial revolution, higher education

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2019.050.004

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