What will this education provision look like? A critical factor will be the deployment of effective learning technology. The pandemic has accelerated the move towards online learning across all educational institutions. To date, the variation in quality is as wide as it is in the face-to-face environment. An hour of PowerPoint slides is tedious, whether in the classroom or on Zoom.

To be successful in a virtual environment, academics need to look to the work of the rising stars of the education world: content editors and the designers of online learning. They aim to turn course content, which was traditionally centred on the lecture or textbook, into a compelling, engaging learning experience. At its best, the relationships between academics and technologists can deliver outstanding results.

What of the content itself? When universities were first founded, books were precious objects locked in libraries. Lecturers read them aloud to make them accessible. Now, almost any content can be accessed at the click of a button, which is just as well. The pace of change in financial services means companies have to recruit people with skills and aptitudes different to those they sought even just a few years ago. They also require up-to-date technical knowledge. Learning materials that support their staff must be relevant and regularly refreshed.

In theory, a programme that is entirely digital and developed in a modular way should facilitate this. All students can expect a baseline of effective teaching and learning. But subject knowledge is not enough. Universities have to help students with attributes such as flexibility, adaptability and resilience.

For us, this may mean partnering with other organisations that specialise in developing soft skills. Online provision means it is not difficult for highly motivated students to find the information they need, or to demonstrate specific capabilities. Coders, for example, don’t need a degree to get hired. No one today has to sit through a lecture taking notes.

Yes, universities offer an accredited stamp of excellence, which is important to employers as well as students, but what is excellent can change. Universities will fill their societal role when they are more than a content portal, when they support students effectively along the learning journey – and in the widest sense.

Over time, artificial intelligence might be more widely used to do this but for now online tutors and mentors support students through the challenging parts of their course and cut the high attrition rates that have dogged online education so far.

Accreditation of student achievement requires a formal assessment of skills and knowledge. Since the onset of Covid, there has been a sharp increase in the use of remote invigilation. Online proctors do work, but glitches are not uncommon. They can leave students feeling frustrated and expose the educational body to reputational damage. It is striking that, when presented with the option of attending a centre or sitting exams remotely, many students still prefer the traditional exam hall. The longterm answer surely lies in developing alternative forms of exams based on continuous assessment. Educational bodies need to design these in a way that satisfies regulators and other external stakeholders.

So, the university of the future will have to create compelling digital learning; ensure that content is continually refreshed; and that students are given training on relevant soft skills. It will also have to create innovative assessment models and be open towards new forms of partnership. There are other criteria that will form the wraparound but these will create the core.

Face-to-face engagement will still play an important part in our work, particularly in higher education. But I believe it will be used to complement online rather than as an alternative. So to go back to the quote from di Lampedusa: (almost) everything really does need to change, if we want to remain an educator of choice within the industry