Regional universities and the revolution in higher education

The revolution in higher education is already well under way, and regional universities are leading the charge. This paper describes the nature of the revolution by examining the changes in higher education that have already taken place, and predicting other far more radical changes yet to come. It suggests that the increasingly universal acceptance of information and communication technologies will have profound implications for the methods by which courses are taught, the underlying pedagogies employed by educators, and the types of interactions that take place between educators and students, and outlines the reasons why regional universities are playing such a significant role in the front-line of the revolution. Institutional hierarchies that understand the nature of this revolution, and consequently change the ways in which their institutions operate, are likely to survive and prosper. Others that are inherently more conservative, perhaps being mindful of previous successes, and hence reluctant to divert from the ways that served them so well in the past, may find their students seeking other alternatives.