Small but Smart: The Futures of Higher Education in Mauritius

Readiness for the future demands the ability to imagine scenarios based on a vision for the future and our awareness of what the future holds for higher education. Considering the role of higher education, we should be pragmatic and have an ideal. Today the question on higher education seems to suggest that our institutions are ‘perfectly adapted to an environment that no longer exists’. Did our predecessors make the wrong assumptions about the future they imagined, or has higher education evolved at the expense of its clients? We cannot predict the future with certainty, but we can envisage the possibility of chaotic changes in the near future. Technological innovation is the biggest boon and the biggest threat to the business model of existing higher education institutions in most countries today. The world is just recovering from the dramatic effects of a real black swan- the pandemic. Artificial Intelligence is the next black swan, one whose impact is still difficult to anticipate and has the potential to overcome its creators. Today, higher education institutions should be able to engage in disruptive reconstruction. Are our institutions ready for such a change? This paper will address the future of higher education in a developing island state, Mauritius. It will consider the paths to higher education in some significantly developed nations and identify some key elements that make for the success of higher education so far to draw scenarios for Mauritius. It will seek the views of leaders in higher education in Mauritius to gauge their preparedness for higher education in Mauritius. The paper will explore notions and visions of the future, drawing essentially from Sohail Inayatullah Casual Layer Analysis model and his ideas of anticipating the future, alongside Graham Molitor’s ideas of drivers and dynamics and of generating ideas and action, the process of developing creative and innovative solutions in response to emerging issues. They will serve as the theoretical basis on which the methodology will be developed for identifying and exploring the notions held by key stakeholders in higher education in Mauritius. Data collection will be carried out essentially using semi-structured interviews, including triggers for discussions which will include a number of new speculative scenarios for the future of higher educationwritten especially for this research, based on the model developed by the University of Edinburgh on Higher Education Futures. It postulates the idea that Mauritius should be able to make a diligent choice for the future of its higher education. It should be able to identify and create its strategic uniqueness in higher education vis-à-vis other developed nations. Doing so will require a synergy between policy decision-making, research, businesses, and the community. This synergy should be driven by the universities’ strategic planning for the future and by attracting key players who can assist the country in reinventing the future of higher education. We will ask whether higher education in a small island state like Mauritius should confine its vision to the horizons of Mauritius or should it develop a worldview system with a unique contribution to meeting challenges likely to face the future world. While drawing attention to what could be obstacles to the development of higher education in Mauritius, this paper professes a smart view for a small country.