The challenge for the reinvention is to enable students to thrive in a world that needs more imaginative, creative, and innovative talent, not generic workers that can fill seats at an office.

1. Reinventing Higher Education
The challenge for the
reinvention is to enable
students to thrive in a
world that needs more
imaginative, creative, and
innovative talent, not
generic workers that can
fill seats at an office.
Prof. Emeritus Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Ph.D.
Immediate Past Presifent, Asian Institute of Technoogy
Fellow of Royal Society of Thailand
7 November 2018

2. Crisis in Thai Education
Reduced Student Population
Crisis in Thai Education
Reduced Student Population

3. 27/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai 3
Crisis in World Education
Obsolete 19th Century Model
Crisis in World Education
Obsolete 19th Century Model

4. 27/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai 4

5. 27/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai 5

6. 13.4 % = 0.134x68.2 = 9.1 million
38.3 % = 0.383x68.2 = 26.1 million
Live‐Long
Learning Age
College Age
Due to reduced birth rate after 1997, seats available in
universities cannot be filled in Thailand.
Due to reduced birth rate after 1997, seats available in
universities cannot be filled in Thailand.
Population Pyramid

7. EDUCATION SYSTEM TODAY IS IRRELEVANT.
Education system that exists today was designed to serve
the industrial revolution in the 19th century. It needs
reinvention so students can be groomed with “universal
basic competence” to be able to adapt to the future world.927/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

8. Prediction of
Exponential
Changes
Projection on
Traditional
Model
Projection on
Today’s
Global
Megatrends
Today (2018)
2000 210019001800
Changes of the World
Time of the World
A.I. AgeDigital AgeIndustrial Age
Pre‐Industrial Age
Should Industrial-Age Model of
Education Create Graduates to
Serve the Digital and AI Ages?
Should Industrial-Age Model of
Education Create Graduates to
Serve the Digital and AI Ages?
©WKanok‐Nukulchai
10

9. “Today’s education is
not fit to the world of
tomorrow.”
WHY EDUCATION
MUST CHANGE:
11©WKanok‐Nukulchai27/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

10. Two Key Factors
That Require Education Reinvention
Global Megatrends
• Issues that have to do
with planet.
• How human choose
to live on this planet
(social, economic,
political).
 Issues about the
exponential growth of
disruptive technology.
 How human prepare
for future unknowns,
to avoid becoming
useless class.
Technology Disruption
1227/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

11. GLOBAL MEGATRENDS
1. Population Boom
Your
text
3. Climate Change4. Global
Connectedness
5. Wealth
Inequality
6. Aging Society
2. Rapid
Urbanization
1327/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

12. The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence, 2015 By Tim Urban
https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial‐intelligence‐revolution‐1.html
“We are on the edge of change comparable to
the rise of human life on Earth”. — Vernor Vinge
Singularity !
1427/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

13. “It is no longer possible
to acquire knowledge
once and spend the
rest of one’s life
applying them ”
Why Lifelong Learning?
15
©WKanok‐Nukulchai
27/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

14. Photo Credit : https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture‐desk/the‐web‐gets‐smarter
Even though knowledges (information) are available freely,
it doesn’t mean any human is competent to learn.
©WKanok‐Nukulchai
Information
Overload
Information
Overload
1627/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

15. Every human individual
should be equipped, at
least, with “Universal
Basic Competence”,
equired for his life‐long
learning in the future.
MY PROPOSAL
Worsak Kanok‐Nukulchai
©WKanok‐Nukulchai 1727/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

16. 27/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai 18

17. UNIVERSAL BASIC COMPETENCE
S = Science, T = Technology, E = Engineering, M = Mathematics
H = Humanities, SS = Social Science, En = Entrepreneurship, L = Law©WKanok‐Nukulchai 1927/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

18. 20
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/05/5-charts-that-explain-the-future-of-education/

19. Post-Graduate Professional Degrees
LEARN TO BE SPECIALISTS (2 YEARS)
Engineering
Architect
Medical Sciences
Political Science
Life ScienceLaws
Business
Management
Agriculture
Under
Grad
©WKanok‐Nukulchai2127/08/18

20. 13.4 % = 0.134x68.2 = 9.1 million
38.3 % = 0.383x68.2 = 26.1 million
Live‐Long
Learning Age
College Age

21. 27/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai 23

23. A UNIVERSITY MODEL OF THE FUTURE
(2) Continuous
Technological
Changes
(1) Global Megatrends
(3) Longer
Health‐Span
©WKanok‐Nukulchai 2527/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

24. Student’s Lifelong Roles of Future University
Holistic
Profession
Reinventing
Universal Basic Competence
Professional Credential
Life‐long Learning
4 Years Undergraduate
1‐3 Years Graduate
40‐50 Years Life Time
©WKanok‐Nukulchai
In the future world of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty,
complexity, ambiguity), all global citizens have the right to
“Universal Basic Competence” needed for lifelong learning.
2627/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai

25. Organized Info  Knowledge for Students Teaching/Learning
NEW ROLES OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Knowledge  New Knowledge / New TechnologyResearch
Adapting Knowledge/Technology  IndustriesEngagement
New Knowledge/Technology  LLL for the massReinventing
©WKanok‐Nukulchai 2727/08/18 W. Kanok-Nukulchai