Dive Brief:
- A new book by Jon McGee, vice president for planning and public affairs at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Minnesota, says higher education leaders need to step back from the demands of the present to plan for the future.
- University Business reports "Breakpoint: The Changing Marketplace for Higher Education" lays out three areas of change — demographic, economic and cultural — that will fundamentally shift the way colleges and universities have to operate to remain competitive.
- The demographic changes can be obvious years in advance by tracking the younger generation, and while the timing of a recession is hard to predict, the economy is cyclical, giving higher ed leaders clues that can help institutions prepare.
Dive Insight:
One key takeaway from McGee’s book is that colleges and universities no longer have the luxury of being able to make mistakes. Years ago, when there was less competition in the higher education sphere and a quickly rising number of students going to college, there was room for error. Now, with so much competition and tight budgets, wrong moves can send an institution to the brink of closure.
Many schools have responded to the increased competition by offering more options to attract a wider range of students. Online, flexible-time, and competency-based programs open up higher education to working adults. Nontraditional students are now the majority of all undergraduates and figuring out ways to serve them can create new markets for colleges.