Welcome to The PIE Review #26
Normally, we would have distributed copies of
this issue at events around the world such as the
NAFSA Conference... right now, the prospect of
10,000 people being able to freely mingle in a conference hall
is a distant dream and I look forward to a time when we can
meet many of our readers in person again.
But the versatility of the education sector has been evident
since the global pandemic upended international education
and life as we knew it. We have seen country-level responses
with flexible visa policies and system-wide shifts online within
learning establishments. We’ve been busy – not at PIE HQ
– but from our own homes keeping you connected in person
via webinars and with daily news, opinion and analysis as the
seismic changes that will impact for some years play out.
And in this remotely-created magazine, we touch on some
very pertinent themes. Targeting tomorrow’s students focuses
on Gen Z, who are right now making choices about where and
how they study, with one eye on a likely global recession and
their employability; that elusive metric driving many decisions.
In Real life learning, remotely, we find out how integral
professional internships can be in helping build employability
and how many providers have pivoted to online experiences;
project-based assignments with companies are now a new
norm that can benefit both parties.
There has never been a better time to consider Online pro-gram
partnerships, of course. Experts in this field point out the
conversation has abruptly moved from “if ” to “when” regar-ding
universities keen to move course content online. To do
this well, it takes a lot more than a Zoom lecture, they explain.
And in Multiplying access, we learn more about the world
of specialist student finance: an area that might become a lot
more important as we all navigate “the new normal”.
Amy Baker
Editorial Director, The PIE.