From inside Coventry University

An even closer working relationship with industry. Also, more online delivery and international opportunities. Our students will be given the opportunity to complete their programmes at multiple locations internationally, allowing them to gain experience from different cultures and therefore setting them up to achieve the necessary soft-skills for when they venture into the working-world.

I also think we’re going to see a whole host of new areas given greater focus. We will see courses outside of the traditional subjects becoming more important, such as computer science or electrical engineering. New courses such as Cyber Security, as well as Electrical Automotive Engineering and Data Science courses are now becoming more readily available too. The world is changing and so universities will have to look at what courses they offer to meet the demands of a new world and emerging technologies.

These changes were always going to happen, even pre-Covid-19. Students from this generation will have had a completely different experience from those in the past, and Covid-19 has certainly accelerated that transition of how education is delivered and how universities operate.

We’re also going to see a lot of universities over the next few years start investing in ventures that allow their students to gain multiple types of learning, as opposed to just sitting in a lecture theatre.

Remote working will be more common going forward. Collaborative working will become a lot more interesting too, because even though multinational companies did communicate within their different units in years previous, it definitely wasn’t to the scale that has occurred in the last year, due to the pandemic.

There are also a lot of things within the workplace that have become prominent factors, such as reducing our carbon footprint – something almost every company will prioritise in the coming years. Because of this, I think lots of practices within the workplace will change in order to make sure they can reduce their carbon footprint and utilise renewable energy.

Covid-19 introduced other factors that will further affect the workplace too. The pandemic caught almost everyone by surprise, however most managed to adapt quickly and impressively. There needs to be mechanisms in place to deal with similar situations that may arise in the future. I believe that these considerations and changes will be a part of the working environment going forward.

The changes have already started. If we look forward to the next few years - autonomous vehicles, automotive cybersecurity, emerging technologies, connected systems, entertainment systems – they’re all going to grow very quickly. At university level we are not only going to have to change the way we are teaching, but also what we are teaching and where.

At Coventry University, we have strong links with industry and have already started discussing with partners in the automotive sector to help us look to the future. So we’ve introduced new courses that we didn’t have before, such as the MSC in electrical automotive engineering and the MSc in connected autonomous vehicle systems. We also looked at different aspects that are not necessarily something you think would be needed in the automotive industry, such as how to adapt interior design trends within vehicles.

Simply put, yes, there is a skills gap. However, there are also gaps that have not been identified yet and will be required to be filled over the coming years. Through our research centres and institutes, we look to identify those gaps and discuss with our industrial partners how they need to approach upskilling their workers moving forwards. It is highly likely that a skill-set that is required now, will need to develop in the next 5 to 10 years.

This then shows how we can support our learners and develop current and future courses in order to ensure that future gaps can be filled.

I would say it is essential! It is important, first of all, to establish what skill-sets are required for the current market that we are in.

We take the lead from industry in terms of what skills graduates should have. For us to be able to do that, we need to have an efficient working-relationship with our industrial partners to understand their needs, requirements and their future direction. Only then can we develop programmes, courses and initiatives that produce the highest quality graduates for the industry.

We are lucky to work in a field that is very dynamic, but one that also comes with challenges because things can change so quickly over such a short period of time. Because of this, universities need to make sure they are keeping up, and this direct link with our industrial partners, is a successful way to do so.

So, alongside the technical know-how, there are a number of softer skills that students will need. Communication and presentation skills are essential. Skills such as being adaptable to working remotely is important to embed into students before they graduate too.

We also feel it important for students to understand what it is like to work within diverse, multinational teams that could be distributed all across the world and make sure that they understand things like cultural difference. This includes the context of working within a multidisciplinary group as well.

In the UK, we need to start looking at how to increase the number of non-male students applying for STEM based courses, including different genders and different backgrounds.

We need to learn what we can do in order to provide a more inclusive experience for a diverse population of students. Logically speaking, this should help future applicants understand that those opportunities are available to them, as they feel represented in the STEM community.

A lot of work is being put in to increase diversity of applicants in STEM courses. At Coventry, we’re working hard to create a diverse, inclusive environment that supports people from all backgrounds, with a range of different abilities.

Dr. Reda Al Bodour is an Associate Head of the School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics in the Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing and an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Coventry University. He leads the School in all matters related to Quality and Accreditation and is a member of the Faculty’s leadership team which is responsible for its overall operation, management and strategy. Reda has been part of the Coventry University team for almost a decade and, in addition to his academic responsibilities, has played a key role in establishing links with industrial and commercial partners as well as other academic partners both nationally and internationally.