I am pleased the issue of universities not adequately preparing students for digital job functions in the marcomms sector has been addressed by AdNews. As a veteran of 30+ years in marketing and market research I have seen our profession grow and yet struggle with adaptability issues. "Digital marketing adaptability" is just the latest (and the most significant) of these challenges.
I have also taught marketing to students in both Undergraduate and Post Graduate Marketing courses for 24 years; and yes, I do use digital marketing tools in my teaching and this will expand further.
Here are some suggestions as to why the current teaching approach of the universities is failing:
Firstly, if you were to look at any basic "Introduction to Marketing" text book today, and compare it to one ten years ago, you would see a 90% overlap and similarity of content, wording and phrasing. Today digital marketing is included as a separate chapter "bolted on as an afterthought." So the authors of marketing text books need to stop rehashing old material with new book covers and graphics, get of their proverbial backsides, and get serious about 21st century marketing practices. Starting with digital marketing.
To fix this problem, those students who are studying a marketing degree need to be taught basic marketing and digital skills concurrently. This means two subjects taught side be side in the same semester, each with a deliberate and structured overlap so they compliment each other. Then the students can go on to their specialist marketing subjects with a digital skill set already established. Additional digital based assessment must be part of every marketing subject they complete during their course. So they continually build on the basic skills they have learnt. The advantage here is that by the time they graduate, the words digital and marketing will be one and the same for them.
In order to achieve this, a complete overhaul of what is currently taught in universities is urgently required. This will encounter some resistance as certain teachers and academics in the various marketing departments will have to change their thinking and teaching approach , or lose their personal fiefdoms. The industry needs to step in here and apply strong pressure at the Head of Business School level. Only by going to the top will the changes needed become a reality.
Secondly, how universities staff their marketing programs will need to change substantially. As from my experience with universities, the people who teach marketing there currently fall into three broad categories:
1. The "research academics". These people are there to write and publish research papers on Marketing and not be too concerned about practical skills or outcomes. To them teaching is a chore to be performed and no more. They are not the answer.
2. The "old guard pracademics". They once worked in industry and then moved into university teaching roles, but by now they have fallen way behind the times and still teach marketing as if it were the 20th century. They are trapped in their current teaching positions and they would probably struggle to get a job in industry today. So they will hold on to their current position until they are "packaged out". A a process which has already begun but will take another 5 - 7 years to complete, and time is not on our side.
I should point out that the majority those pracademic teachers did a very good job for a long time, but after they go who is going to replace them? As today's digital marketing specialists are earning far too much to want to take a pay cut and move to a full time university position. Plus they would need to complete a PHD (a huge commitment in itself) just to get in the door at the bottom of the income ladder. So for them the time versus and dollar case simply does not stack up. In today's expensive Australia a pay cut for these people in their prime income earning years is not an option.
3. The "sessional saviours". These are people (including myself) who combine running their own marketing business with some teaching at the tertiary level. So the real world skills, which we have to keep up to date, are immediately transferred to the students. Our typical role is to fill teaching staffing gaps either for numbers of teachers, or for specialist digital skills as well as other marketing skills. The only problem we have is that universities tend to regularly expand and contract their sessional workforce, creating an uncertain employment environment. With the result that many of these talented people have now given up on tertiary marketing teaching and decided to stay in the commercial field.
So a valuable teaching resource is in danger of being lost forever.
Ultimately a new generation of teaching focused marketing practitioners are required to step up. Clearly more sessionals are the answer, but universities need to get serious about hiring and retaining these people, as well as assisting them with their professional development.
This is a very fast, efficient and economical solution to a worsening crisis.
Duncan Buchanan
Principal
Adept Research