Dive Brief:
- Colleges and universities have found difficulty in integrating Millennials into higher education administration, according to Inside Higher Ed, but without a projected enrollment boost in the next 10 years, schools are trying to get some Millennials to return to school.
- Millennials often have a lower opinion of working in academia because they believe the administrative practices on collaboration and innovation to be inflexible, and they often want to contribute in ways that previous generations may have found unexpected or even reminiscent of hubris or rudeness.
- Colleges and universities should be encouraged to adjust their administrative practices to encourage change and innovation, accepting that Millennials may have a valuable view on how to make such changes a reality — but Millennials can also help the situation by being respectful of institutional history and hierarchy even as they work to understand it.
Dive Insight:
One additional concern among Millennials who may be reticent to enter higher education is the gradual nature of career advancement that can be considered commonplace in higher ed. Millennials reportedly change jobs at a quicker pace in contrast to previous generations, though Pew Research Center suggests that this is not the case for the broader Millennial generation. Still, for those concerned with job security and far more eager to try different jobs for the correct fit, the gradual pace of rising through the administrative ranks of a higher ed institution could be off-putting.
Administrators seeking to dispel the notion could point to the increased willingness of schools to look outside of academia for premier administrative positions, including college presidents. People in that position tend to have shorter tenures than their predecessors and have a wide array of backgrounds, though the shorter tenures are not always by design and can arise because of a lack of support.
Still, college administrators can use the changing nature of higher ed career tracks to indicate that there are opportunities for advancement that may not have been commonplace in previous generations. The increase in succession planning among colleges and universities in regard to prominent administrative posts could also encourage Millennial hires to undergo leadership training and development, which may alleviate the concerns that there are no means for advancement beyond a slow, steady climb.