Abstract:

Technology development leaps and nightmarish visions of a heated Earth boost the need for faster skills and competence development like never before. Lifelong learning (as a policy concept) has become the solution offered by policymakers all over the world. At the same time, the amount of learning offerings and education providers has exploded, and online learning has made education available for the masses. The internet has, in addition, made self-education popular and enabled anyone to be an educator. These smaller units of learning, both formal and in/nonformal have become crucial elements of skills development and are shifting the focus from degree education to shorter units. This challenges traditional higher education institutions (HEI) to critically reflect on their role and niche in the future.

HEI Research and development (R&D) activities produce new information and knowledge that would benefit individual learners, industry, and other stakeholders. Production of and access to new information is also something that differentiates HEIs from many other lifelong learning providers if utilized effectively. The key question is how this new information can be more rapidly and effectively recognized and productized into short education offerings.

South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences is a big operator in both lifelong learning and R&D in Finland. Focused interviews (N=16) were conducted to clarify the status quo and to understand the future possibilities and challenges of R&D synergies with lifelong learning. The results of evidence-based content analysis indicate that there is both a need and a shared ambition to enhance collaboration. However, common understanding of the phenomena needs to be built. In addition, the need to develop clear criteria and smooth processes for recognizing relevant R&D contents and developing short education offerings were identified. In conclusion, strengthening the collaboration of R&D and lifelong learning units is seen as an indication of modern organizational culture development, where close-knit and agile collaboration between different units enables the organization to better respond and adapt to complex (societal) challenges, and in this case also to claim their niche in the rapid skills-development market.

Keywords:

Research and development, lifelong learning, higher education.