Would you enroll in an Australian University that doesn’t have face to face lectures?

I was confused by this announcement last year. Adelaide University announced a shift in its educational approach by eliminating face-to-face lectures starting in 2026.

Apparently, this decision marks a move towards a more flexible and modern learning environment, aligning with the needs of contemporary students. The university plans to replace traditional lectures with “rich asynchronous digital activities,” allowing students to engage with high-quality digital resources at their own pace and convenience.

This quote in a media release “rich asynchronous digital activities,” dismayed a lot of people in South Australia and the educational industry. What did this mechanical jargon actually mean?

It caused mixed reactions among students and staff. Some students are anxious and confused about what will replace traditional lectures, especially for STEM, health, and medicine degrees. They worry about the viability of self-paced, digital activities for complex subjects.

Some educators express concern over the potential loss of campus life and the impact on student engagement. Others believe that the shift towards digital learning is inevitable and can enhance the overall educational experience by focusing on more interactive and engaging teaching methods.

My questions include – What about rural and international students? I was a rural student who moved to Adelaide for my undergraduate degree and lived in a university college where I had a rich social life and many life lessons about living away from home. I made friends within my course and in other faculty because we ate lunch at the university, we went to the pub near the university, we met friends of friends and had an organic spontaneous social life.

The point of university is not purely to absorb information, but to learn from your classmates, to learn from debates and mistakes, and become a rounded individual capable of teaching yourself with the ongoing lesson of life.

I was the first person in my family to go to university but I was able to network and make friends with people from different background, and economic classes. I was exposed to new types of food, music and lifestyles, and the internet won’t help here. It keeps us in our bubble. If I was online, I would only meet people in my course and not on a daily basis.

I feel like more and more, young people want to get off their phones and computers for their mental health, and face to face lectures are a way to put them in a room with a group of people from different backgrounds but with a shared interest.

The University states it aims to provide a consistent and engaging learning experience through self-paced, self-directed activities. While face-to-face lectures will be phased out, other in-person teaching formats such as tutorials, practicals, and workshops will continue to be offered.

My response- life is not ‘self-paced’ nor ‘self-directed’. Already we hear employers complain about younger generations feeling entitled to flexibly work hours and their own agendas. There is some discipline to be learned from having to complete tasks within a given time that makes a student employable.

Would you hire a nurse, teacher or lawyer who has completed a self-paced, self-directed and mostly remote university degree?

Lets see how they go. But even if you come into a workshop with a set group of students, you are not networking with a broad group. You are in an assigned bubble.

As the first of Australia’s research-intensive Group of Eight universities to make this move, it remains to be seen whether other institutions will follow suit.

So, will an international student go to Adelaide to do a program that they could mostly do online? Is Adelaide University just going to be handing out students visa to international students who want to work in Australia?

Would you travel to Australia and pay Australian universities for a course that is mostly online? I’m interest to know your opinion.

By Justine Kelly