The University of Adelaide (UoA) has announced that face-to-face lectures will no longer be held on campus from 2026 onwards, leading to amazement and indignation from lecturers and staff.
This decision, which coincides with the rebranding and merging of the University with the University of South Australia, encompassing a singular ‘Adelaide University’, promises to replace in-person teaching with “rich digital learning activities” that “provide a consistent experience for students” and that will be “self-paced and self-directed.”
In a press release published on Friday, September 13, Professor Joanne Cys and Professor Katrina Falkner said the University was responding to the needs of modern students.
“A blend of teaching and learning approaches maximises benefits for students and educators,” the press release said. The University’s online FAQ, last modified in July, does not list lectures as a class type to be delivered or undertaken in study.
This decision has angered staff members at the University, who say that the decision exacerbates the death of campus life. In an interview with The Guardian, Dr Andrew Miller called it an enormous concern.
“This happened on the basis of consultation with limited cohorts of people. This flies in the face of co-creation, and professional autonomy and expertise,” Dr. Miller said.
The decision, however, was not universally panned. Dr Christopher Moore, a Communications and Media senior lecturer at the University of Wollongong, said the departure from traditional lectures was inevitable.
“That’s not to say there won’t be an on-campus experience. [This allows for] a focus on much more engaging tutorials, seminars, workshops, studios, practicals, labs, et cetera,” Dr. Moore said.
Dr Moore, who specialises in Digital and Social Media, moved away from traditional in-person lectures in 2019 and says the key to the process is making video lectures engaging.
“For many, COVID turned people off online lectures, because it was rushed and reactionary. It takes a lot of thoughtful writing, editing, and investment to make an effective lecture in a video format. If you’re using PowerPoint slides on a video call, you’re gonna turn students off,” Moore said.
Adelaide University is the first of Australia’s research-intensive Group of Eight universities to abandon face-to-face lectures in the teaching environment, and it is unclear whether this will start a chain reaction across the country.
