NEW DIRECTIONS IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

This chapter introduces some of the new directions in university teaching that concern the growth in the advisory and supportive services for students. A great deal of innovation in undergraduate teaching is going on in U.K. universities. The best known development in recent years has been the creation of the Open University, with its integrated multimedia approach to teaching and learning. Within the conventional universities the movements have been toward greater flexibility, both in content and structure of undergraduate degree courses and of postgraduate studies, and toward a greater involvement in professional training that has itself been subject to considerable revision. Flexibility has been introduced into undergraduate courses in a variety of ways. The content of courses has been altering—sometimes in response to changes internal to the discipline, such as when barriers between subjects break down; sometimes as new disciplines spring up through technological development, such as computer science; sometimes in response to outside stimulus, such as courses in environmental studies and pollution. The final group of changes in university teaching relates to professional training that is imparted in the universities, in the fields of medicine, engineering, or law. It is in this area in particular that the plea for relevance has been most evident in the course changes.