The 5 Strategic Shifts Reshaping Higher Education in the Decades to Come
Strategic Shifts represent deep underlying changes that can alter an industry in the long term. For Higher Education the five strategic shfits: New Credentials; the Education-Work Nexus; Borderless Competition; Omni-Channel Learning; and, Consumer Grade Tech Experiences were developed from the analysis and synthesis of many thousands of education market developments including analysis of education policy globally, initiatives by education institutions (both traditional and new), tracking the flow of private and public capital, mapping the many thousands of EdTech companies and moves by technology giants, following the progress and integration of advanced technologies, and direct input and feedback from education leaders, practitioners and policy-makers worldwide.
New credential types are likely to integrate into higher education, with a diverse landscape of providers servicing a growing life-long learning segment. Institutions deliver programs in multiple modes with integrated work components. Digital experiences become more sophisticated.
As the demand for ‘real world learning’ grows, traditional university learning models are challenged. Work integrated learning will likely shift from the periphery to a core component of program design. Companies are increasingly seeing education as a talent attraction and retention mechanism and are becoming a more powerful stakeholder in education, rather than merely a recipient of its output. Governments globally are looking to their tertiary education systems to deliver fast solutions for areas of critical and persistent skills shortages and are seeking greater cooperation and integration with tertiary education providers. As such, expect to see further integration between higher education and vocational systems with more widespread attention to models such as co-op or higher degree apprenticeships.
New forms of competition (and collaboration) will see traditional higher education providers partner with an array of outsiders for products and services that strengthen their own objectives, and in the process build institutional capabilities for partnering. A multi-stakeholder post-secondary education ecosystem and the acceptance and integration of multiple credential types supports greater collaborations between employers & industry, government, education providers and learners. Under pressure to deliver in multiple formats all at once, hybrid and online programs dominate the delivery landscape for higher education with expectations of high quality, device-agnostic, engaging digital experiences across both administration, communication, and learning.
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