Under “Enhance the Relevance of Higher Education” (page 5 in the Higher Ed report), the PTF recommends
Implement strategies to ensure curriculum reforms and programme delivery and assessment to develop knowledge, skills and competencies required by the employers and the industry.
This recommendation comes from a centralised control paradigm - a qualified authority needs to figure out what the needs are, revise the curriculum and assessments accordingly, and then deliver it. Not only does this deny undergraduates the opportunity to figure out for themselves how their personal strengths/aspirations can be harnessed for the needs of the economy, any failure in this process (and it’s impossible to get this syllabus reform process done perfectly given the diversity of needs in the market) results in lost opportunities for the undergraduates.
Based on our “forecast” for University 4.0 on Medium (use this thread for feedback to that), we should empower undergraduates to figure this out for themselves.
Of course they should be supported in this - the University can conduct surveys of the industry and share the insights to the students, the university can facilitate industry interactions (from visits to internships to projects) to increase students’ exposure, etc, but ultimately we have to accept that there is no “one-size-fits-all” answer; each student has to figure out what works for their capabilities and aptitudes.