Where today meets tomorrow - education leaders reflect

Anthony Bravo OBE, principal at Basingstoke College of Technology

Debra Gray, principal of Hull College

Professor Helen Scott, deputy principal (education) at The University of Stirling

Find out more about our Digifest 2025 keynote speakers.

Hybrid learning in the wake of the pandemic

Five years on, all three contributors are still reckoning with the consequences of the global pandemic.

Anthony said:

"It’s made the learners less resilient, much more fragile, and much more extreme in their behaviours."

Helen said:

"I think students have definitely been affected by their COVID experiences, and so have staff as well. There was definitely a point in time – maybe late 2022 – when everyone thought COVID would change teaching forever, in that we’d take advantage of all the knowledge we’d gained.

"But I don’t think it has. I think we’ve slightly gone back. I think there’s a psychological trauma that staff have, and possibly students as well, associated with teaching at that time. When colleagues are a bit 'anti' online teaching, if you dig a bit, it’s often because it was such a horrible time in so many ways."

Debra said:

"The pandemic forced us all online, but the real work has been in what came after - embedding AI, hybrid learning, and automation into the everyday reality of education. And, critically, doing it in a way that helps students and staff rather than just adding more tech for the sake of it."

Helen added:

"Convenience is important. Lots of students will say, ‘we don’t like online teaching, we want to be in a room with people.’ But when you ask them to come in for one hour on a Wednesday, they’re happier to have the convenience of online teaching for that.

"That’s not a criticism – just like staff, they’re dealing with rising travel costs, and all the other things they have to do in their lives. So we’re still deciding where we land on that."

Systemic problems in education

Keeping up with rapid changes in technology and society gets even harder when there’s so many complex problems already present within the tertiary education system.

Helen said:

"One thing we spend a lot of time thinking about is how to support our international students more effectively – it's a common problem in HE."

Anthony said:

"Obviously, finance is a challenge, as is curriculum reform. Human resources, too. It’s really difficult to get teaching staff for key roles like engineering and construction, when they can earn so much more ‘on the tools’, so to speak. In these certain areas, I think FE isn’t as attractive as it could be or should be.

"Workload is unfortunately an issue as well. The expectations of what lecturers need to do, and the hoops they have to jump through, has increased. I think that the latest Ofsted changes are just going to increase pressure, rather than decrease it. There’s a lot of balls to juggle – and then we expect staff to keep up to date with the technology, too."

Debra said:

"FE has finally started getting some of the recognition it deserves as an engine of economic growth. The problem is, the funding and policy decisions haven’t caught up with the rhetoric. We’re still being asked to do more with less, to pivot to every new priority that comes along, and to deliver world-class skills training while barely keeping the lights on.

"Funding remains unstable, competitive, short-termist, and woefully out of step with the scale of what we’re asked to deliver. Underfunding makes strategic planning difficult, puts pressure on already stretched staff, and forces colleges to do more with less, year after year.

"And as Anthony points out, the shortage of qualified staff in key technical and digital areas is reaching a critical point. We’re asking colleges to deliver cutting-edge skills in AI, cybersecurity, and green technologies, yet we’re struggling to recruit and retain the very people who can teach them.

"Pay disparities with industry, limited professional development opportunities, and outdated perceptions of FE teaching all make it harder to attract talent. If we don’t address this now, with better incentives, career pathways, and industry partnerships, we simply won’t have the workforce to deliver the skills the economy desperately needs.

"We need to change the way we think about skill shortages, too. There’s a growing assumption that the sole purpose of education, particularly in FE, is to fill immediate labour market gaps.

"Our role is to prepare students for lifelong adaptability, not just to meet the skills shortages of today. The risk of a purely transactional approach is that we become reactive - constantly chasing short-term industry demands, rather than shaping a resilient, future-ready workforce.

"We need to ensure that education remains broad, transformational, and empowering, giving students the critical thinking, creativity, and flexibility they’ll need to navigate industries that will continue to evolve."

Learning to ride the wave of AI

Predictably, generative AI, with all its dangers, uncertainties and opportunities, is a major preoccupation for our contributors.

Debra said:

"The major shift has been AI in education going mainstream, not just for students, but for staff. AI lesson planning, AI feedback, AI data analysis - it’s transforming how we work, and the sector is just beginning to wake up to its potential."

Anthony said:

"It’s had a massive impact on teacher workload in our organisation, saving teachers up to five hours a week. It’s also helping the students understand and learn – they're accessing more examples of learning techniques, wider approaches. The improvements in dictation software and speech to text have made a big difference too."

Helen said:

"There’s still a resistance to it, but you can’t ban AI. That train’s already left the station. It’d be like banning pens. These things have already been invented."

Anthony said:

"I’m looking forward to discussing how AI is helping teachers and students, but also the approaches we’re adopting to provide safety in AI – because it’s a bit like the Wild West at the moment. There’s no rules, there’s no laws – it's quite mad."

Helen said:

"Universities are coming up with solutions, but there’s a dark side, with some very sophisticated and slightly terrifying things happening too.

"There’s been reported cases of students getting trapped and blackmailed, buying certain tools and services. These unscrupulous people come back saying, 'we saw you put your essay though our tool. Give us money or we’ll tell your university'.

"Also if you’re not careful, staff can end up doing things like putting student work through an external AI tool that the institution doesn’t have a license for, or unwittingly contributing to datasets that essay mills can buy.

"It’s really difficult, and it’s our job to help ourselves and our students navigate that, because they’re going to be using it in their jobs, they’re probably using it already. We’re going to have to be quite quick and clever at changing our assessments, and working with students on that as well. It’s a big challenge, but it’s interesting – and I’m reasonably optimistic we can do it."

Debra said:

"The opportunities AI brings to education are enormous, from personalised learning and automated assessment to streamlined administration and improved student support. But right now, every institution is working in isolation, trying to solve the same challenges with limited resources and varying levels of expertise."

Practical advice

So what advice do our contributors have? How are they tackling these issues - and what will tomorrow bring?

Helen said:

"More of the same, probably! But perhaps we are due for quite a seismic shift in what we think universities are for? It won’t be an earthquake, more a slow burn I expect. Maybe not an existential crisis, but we’re definitely heading down that road. Universities that have invested in their technological infrastructure in the last decade are well placed to deal with all this stuff and pick it up really quickly.

"We’re careful in how we prioritise, always looking for what will help the students most in the long term. We also try to pool knowledge and work as closely with our networks and external partners as possible."