Mr Bean said that face-to-face contact in universities had to be about more than simply passing on information that could be obtained digitally.
And he said that universities that embraced informal learning across a range of digital platforms would find that the approach encouraged enrolment into formal higher education.
"That's the world we are in today. I think it is the only way we are going to be able to deal with the challenges of globalisation and massification," he added.