At this past week's American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) conference held in Washington, D.C. we learned about the changing world and the changing needs of higher education graduates. Presenters emphasized the need for high-skilled professionals in the coming years with a growing gap of as many as 25 million by 2025, especially in high tech, bio-tech, health care and other fields.
High Targets for 2025:
Speakers urged college and universities to emphasize both access and completion of college. Clearly, this will not be easy. It will mean that K-12 will have to dramatically increase the number of high school graduates who complete high school ready for college, precisely at the time that schools are becoming more minority, particularly Hispanic, and facing sharper class divides (with a growing number of very poor and under-resourced schools and districts). Addressing these inequities and ensuring that more Americans graduate from high school college-ready are essential for the future of this great country and for its democracy.
President Obama has set a high goal. By 2020, the president wants the U.S. to regain its leadership internationally in the percentage of the adult population with some college. That goal would require the U.S. to increase the number of adults with some college from its current rate (39%) and by-pass Canada (currently with 55% of its adult population with some college). The Lumina Foundation for Education, the Gates Foundation, the National Governors Association, State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO), and others hope to raise the percentage to 60% by 2025. The federal government and foundations are investing billions of dollars to help the nation meet these goals.
Still, it will be a real stretch. Paul Lingengelter, President of SHEEO, said that to hit the 60% target by 2025 would require an increase of 16 million new certificate and degree holders over and above current rates. Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina, told us that to reach this goal means that colleges must work together with K-12, community colleges, and private industry to ensure multiple pathways for students to enter college and upgrade their skills to match a dramatically changing economy. But, speakers also emphasized that the quality of student learning must improve, with greater depth and breath.
Martha Kanter, Higher Education Under-Secretary for the U.S. Dept. of Education noted that "we must move adults through the system faster and with high quality" so that adult learners without a high school degree can earn their GED, those with a GED can earn a certificate or an associate of arts degree, and those with AA or AAS can earn a BA.
Kantor stressed that industry is rapidly changing. She noted that by 2016 the 30 fastest growing fields will require at least a bachelor's degree. Kantor challenged colleges and universities "to do a better job of helping students who enter college to actually earn a degree." She also urged colleges and high schools to work together to expand dual credit and Early College experiences so that high school students can earn a college certificate or even an AA, while still in high school.
Preparing Students for a Global Economy:
We received two very important new reports: The Quality Imperative and at the President's meeting, "Raising the Bar: Employer's Views On College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn." AAC&U's Quality Imperative report urges presidents and universities to undertake "a far-reaching and unprecedented effort to ensure that all the nation's college students--whatever their age and whatever their backgrounds--receive the finest possible preparation for the demands and challenges of this global economy." The report views narrow or overly-specific curricula as a "barrier to opportunity," as all college students "need to develop broad knowledge--of science, society and global developments."
"Raising the Bar" presented a survey of employers conducted on behalf of AAC&U. According to the report, "only one-in-four employers thinks that two-year and four-year colleges are doing a good job in preparing students for the challenges of the global economy." One-fifth of employers surveyed feel "significant change" is required in higher education. When it comes to future hiring, employers indicate that they see a growing need for those with some college, but "their greatest increase in emphasis will be in hiring graduates from a four-year college."
So what do employers feel colleges should stress as learning outcomes? According to the report, 89% of respondents want increased emphasis on 'written and oral communication,' 81% expect greater emphasis on 'critical thinking and analytic reasoning,' 79% want greater 'applied knowledge in real world-settings,' 75% want greater 'complex problem solving' abilities, 75% desire increased 'ethical decision making' skills, and 71% want greater 'teamwork skills in diverse groups.'
Scott Brown of CISCO spoke from an industry perspective, emphasizing that students learn more about globalization, team-work and real-world internships. He noted, "The world and industry is changing so rapidly that we can't even predict what the world will look like in 20 years." Even so, it is likely that by 2030 China, India, Korea, and Brazil will account for half of the world's GDP. Brown urges colleges to prepare students for the global world with language, history, culture, and geography skills for that changing world.
He pleads, "teach your students how to think critically, work in interdisciplinary teams, solve problems together in real world settings, and with tight time-lines." Brown says, students need to be able to argue for their positions and to communicate--not just verbally and in writing, but in multimedia presentations. Brown also stressed that all students should receive "meaningful internships," where they are expected to "apply what they have learned to solve real world problems."
It's a big task. It will require significant change in K-12 and higher education. The task is made harder by state cuts in higher education funding. Still, if the U.S. doesn't dramatically increase the quantity and quality of college graduates we produce, American will lose its competitive edge. So, we must get better at what we do, even in these challenging and turbulent times. I'll keep you informed on our progress.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
What Will the New Decade Mean for Higher Education?
As the clock struck midnight and the ball dropped in Times Square, I realized that we had passed an important decade and were entering an even more important one. The ten years from 2000-2009 brought immense change to the world: the 9/11 attack on the world trade center, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the global meltdown, and an era of massive borrowing and foreclosures.
Bush gave way to Obama. China and India rose as major players on the world scene. The household phone gave way to cellular. In technology, we had social networks bloom with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and many more. The iPhone, Google Maps, MP3 players, the Wii player, Bluetooth, BlueRay, GPS units on phones and in cars, the Kindle, and eBooks. And, of course, we had Avatar demonstrating the 3-D and simulation technology that will be commonplace in future films.
But how has education changed in the past decade? For the most part, very little. Most teaching still takes place in a classroom with a chalkboard or whiteboard. Teachers and faculty augment lectures with multimedia in their classroom, with PowerPoint presentations and some video. Software for instruction and labs has grown in many fields. Increasingly, faculty are using hybrid and online formats as a regular part of teaching. Expect this to grow even more in the coming decade.
In the next decade, more books (including textbooks) will be read online than on your lap. HD televisions will give way to 3-D TVs. Holographic displays will be used in science and simulation. Most cell phones will have HD projectors and two-way video conferencing. Cars and phones will read your email to you. And, by 2020, new developments in technology, expansion of high speed networks, and dropping prices will make video conferencing available in most K-12 and higher education classrooms.
What will be the Major Trends by 2020 in Higher Education:
1. A Massive Growth in Online Education: The Sloan Foundation projects that online learning will pass face-to-face classroom instruction by 2015. The Chronicle for Higher Education projects that by 2020 as much as 60% of all college credit hours earned will be online. The learner will be able to pick from a variety of courses online to select the most convenient time or format and as needed.
**By 2015, expect to see most classes and most degrees available 24/7 online to laptops, phones, and TVs.
**Several universities already offer free lectures and conferences online. Expect this to grow, with more people watching and learning.
2. Integration of Life and Learning: Education will take place less and less in the classroom. Businesses will encourage employees to take courses to upgrade skills on an as-needed basis, with many courses being received on-site. Education will become more learner-centered and learner-initiated. Life-long learning will increasingly become a reality. Students will be encouraged to use the tools of the internet, social networking, and new technologies to explore learning and to find new sources of data. But, they will also be encouraged to log-off and get engaged in the communities they live in or to visit other countries.
**Just-in-time learning will become common place with learners seeking out knowledge, courses, certificates, and degrees as needed.
**Expect internships, co-ops, and service learning to grow and increasingly to be required for graduation.
3. Transferability and Transportability: Students and their parents are frustrated that they can't transfer courses from one institution to another. There will be increased pressures from states and the federal government to ensure institutions work together on transfer agreements. Europe has already begun this process in more than a dozen majors. The U.S. has been slow to move on this, but will do so over the next decade.
**Expect accreditation bodies and federal regulators to pressure institutions to accept more transfer credits.
**Expect students to shop online for the most affordable, quality courses and take as many as possible, aggregating their courses until they pick one institution that will accept those credits and help them graduate.
4. Growing Crisis of Affordability: Higher Education is pricing itself out of business. Students and parents are tired of paying outrageous tuition to private universities, where tuition, fees and ancillary costs have already topped $40,000. Scholarships are not keeping up with costs. Many flagship public universities are increasing merit-based scholarships at the expense of needs-based aid.
**Enrollments at community colleges and comprehensive universities will grow as students are unable to afford high-priced tuition and are unwilling to assume huge debt to go to more expensive institutions.
**Expect public and private universities to offer some courses for free, or at highly-discounted prices particularly for teachers and high school students.
**Expect most colleges to "give" each student a laptop when they arrive (the price of which is wrapped in tuition and fees) or at least have laptops for check-out.
**In addition, expect more states to adopt legislation to limit tuition increases by public universities.
5. Stack-able Credits: Several community colleges and continuing education programs have already started this on limited basis, but expect this trend to grow. Instead of a 3 hour (3-unit) course taught over 15 weeks, courses in some fields will be divided into modules of 1 hour (1 unit) each or even less (.5 unit). When all modules are completed the learner earns 3-units credit (usually requiring completion of a project, paper, or final).
**Expect institutions to design stack-able courses, certificates and degrees.
6. Compressed Semesters: Universities already offer courses in compressed mode during summer or winter sessions. These courses are usually taught 3 hours per day for 3 weeks. Sometimes, they are taught two nights a week plus two full weekends.
**As more students work full-time, expect more students to demand and more institutions to offer compressed courses and schedules.
7. More Adjunct Faculty: It is a sad fact that the number of tenure-track positions are disappearing rapidly. Nationally, tenure-track faculty represent less than 50% of all faculty positions. Unfortunately, this will continue, as universities are pressed to serve more students with less public funding.
**But, expect universities to increase benefits and pay for adjuncts and to offer more regular contracts.
8. Compressed Degrees and New Incentives: Europe has already moved to three year bachelors degrees and the U.K. is exploring 2 year degrees. Expect pressure to reduce time to degree completion. In the U.S., a little more than a quarter of students in "four-year" universities graduate in four years and a little more than half graduate in six years.
**Expect states to adopt incentives to fund universities based on the number of degrees awarded rather than simply funding universities based on the student credit hours produced.
**Expect expansion of dual-credit courses with more high school students taking college courses and earning certificates and even associate arts degrees before graduating high school.
9. More American Students Studying Abroad American students learn about other countries in their classrooms. Now, they will talk with students from other countries in the class through video conferencing, social networks and Skype.
**Expect more U.S. students to visit other countries, study there, do research and get involved in service projects.
10. The Continuing Crisis for Funding: While the global economic crisis is slowly ending, the crisis in public funding of higher education will intensify. To continue its economic growth and leadership, America will have to confront funding for public higher education. Failure to find proper funding for the growing higher education needs of its population is not an option, unless Americans accept a decline in this country's prestige, power, economic growth, and standard of living.
**Expect institutions to make major cuts in areas ancillary to their main mission. Some will reduce building expansion, particularly as online enrollments grow, but also as some academic programs are merged or eliminated.
**Universities will likely adjust schedules to make more use of existing space (such as offering more classes at night and on weekends).
**Expect to see some institutions with Division I sports (particularly those which are deeply in the red) to move to Division II. Others will jettison certain high-cost sports, such as football. Also, expect national policy discussions to heat up on the BCS and the sky-rocketing cost of collegiate sports--with likely congressional hearings.
**Expect policy discussions over the next decade on a 21st Century Master Plan for American Higher Education--to keep this country strong, to provide real pathways for life-long learning, to invigorate learning with rapid innovations in technologies and software, and to develop the science, technology, and innovation that is heart of this nation's economic engine.
**Finally, expect America to find ways to make it possible for more students to earn their college degrees at an affordable price. We must work together to find mechanisms to keep higher education accessible and affordable. We can't afford not to!
Bush gave way to Obama. China and India rose as major players on the world scene. The household phone gave way to cellular. In technology, we had social networks bloom with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and many more. The iPhone, Google Maps, MP3 players, the Wii player, Bluetooth, BlueRay, GPS units on phones and in cars, the Kindle, and eBooks. And, of course, we had Avatar demonstrating the 3-D and simulation technology that will be commonplace in future films.
But how has education changed in the past decade? For the most part, very little. Most teaching still takes place in a classroom with a chalkboard or whiteboard. Teachers and faculty augment lectures with multimedia in their classroom, with PowerPoint presentations and some video. Software for instruction and labs has grown in many fields. Increasingly, faculty are using hybrid and online formats as a regular part of teaching. Expect this to grow even more in the coming decade.
In the next decade, more books (including textbooks) will be read online than on your lap. HD televisions will give way to 3-D TVs. Holographic displays will be used in science and simulation. Most cell phones will have HD projectors and two-way video conferencing. Cars and phones will read your email to you. And, by 2020, new developments in technology, expansion of high speed networks, and dropping prices will make video conferencing available in most K-12 and higher education classrooms.
What will be the Major Trends by 2020 in Higher Education:
1. A Massive Growth in Online Education: The Sloan Foundation projects that online learning will pass face-to-face classroom instruction by 2015. The Chronicle for Higher Education projects that by 2020 as much as 60% of all college credit hours earned will be online. The learner will be able to pick from a variety of courses online to select the most convenient time or format and as needed.
**By 2015, expect to see most classes and most degrees available 24/7 online to laptops, phones, and TVs.
**Several universities already offer free lectures and conferences online. Expect this to grow, with more people watching and learning.
2. Integration of Life and Learning: Education will take place less and less in the classroom. Businesses will encourage employees to take courses to upgrade skills on an as-needed basis, with many courses being received on-site. Education will become more learner-centered and learner-initiated. Life-long learning will increasingly become a reality. Students will be encouraged to use the tools of the internet, social networking, and new technologies to explore learning and to find new sources of data. But, they will also be encouraged to log-off and get engaged in the communities they live in or to visit other countries.
**Just-in-time learning will become common place with learners seeking out knowledge, courses, certificates, and degrees as needed.
**Expect internships, co-ops, and service learning to grow and increasingly to be required for graduation.
3. Transferability and Transportability: Students and their parents are frustrated that they can't transfer courses from one institution to another. There will be increased pressures from states and the federal government to ensure institutions work together on transfer agreements. Europe has already begun this process in more than a dozen majors. The U.S. has been slow to move on this, but will do so over the next decade.
**Expect accreditation bodies and federal regulators to pressure institutions to accept more transfer credits.
**Expect students to shop online for the most affordable, quality courses and take as many as possible, aggregating their courses until they pick one institution that will accept those credits and help them graduate.
4. Growing Crisis of Affordability: Higher Education is pricing itself out of business. Students and parents are tired of paying outrageous tuition to private universities, where tuition, fees and ancillary costs have already topped $40,000. Scholarships are not keeping up with costs. Many flagship public universities are increasing merit-based scholarships at the expense of needs-based aid.
**Enrollments at community colleges and comprehensive universities will grow as students are unable to afford high-priced tuition and are unwilling to assume huge debt to go to more expensive institutions.
**Expect public and private universities to offer some courses for free, or at highly-discounted prices particularly for teachers and high school students.
**Expect most colleges to "give" each student a laptop when they arrive (the price of which is wrapped in tuition and fees) or at least have laptops for check-out.
**In addition, expect more states to adopt legislation to limit tuition increases by public universities.
5. Stack-able Credits: Several community colleges and continuing education programs have already started this on limited basis, but expect this trend to grow. Instead of a 3 hour (3-unit) course taught over 15 weeks, courses in some fields will be divided into modules of 1 hour (1 unit) each or even less (.5 unit). When all modules are completed the learner earns 3-units credit (usually requiring completion of a project, paper, or final).
**Expect institutions to design stack-able courses, certificates and degrees.
6. Compressed Semesters: Universities already offer courses in compressed mode during summer or winter sessions. These courses are usually taught 3 hours per day for 3 weeks. Sometimes, they are taught two nights a week plus two full weekends.
**As more students work full-time, expect more students to demand and more institutions to offer compressed courses and schedules.
7. More Adjunct Faculty: It is a sad fact that the number of tenure-track positions are disappearing rapidly. Nationally, tenure-track faculty represent less than 50% of all faculty positions. Unfortunately, this will continue, as universities are pressed to serve more students with less public funding.
**But, expect universities to increase benefits and pay for adjuncts and to offer more regular contracts.
8. Compressed Degrees and New Incentives: Europe has already moved to three year bachelors degrees and the U.K. is exploring 2 year degrees. Expect pressure to reduce time to degree completion. In the U.S., a little more than a quarter of students in "four-year" universities graduate in four years and a little more than half graduate in six years.
**Expect states to adopt incentives to fund universities based on the number of degrees awarded rather than simply funding universities based on the student credit hours produced.
**Expect expansion of dual-credit courses with more high school students taking college courses and earning certificates and even associate arts degrees before graduating high school.
9. More American Students Studying Abroad American students learn about other countries in their classrooms. Now, they will talk with students from other countries in the class through video conferencing, social networks and Skype.
**Expect more U.S. students to visit other countries, study there, do research and get involved in service projects.
10. The Continuing Crisis for Funding: While the global economic crisis is slowly ending, the crisis in public funding of higher education will intensify. To continue its economic growth and leadership, America will have to confront funding for public higher education. Failure to find proper funding for the growing higher education needs of its population is not an option, unless Americans accept a decline in this country's prestige, power, economic growth, and standard of living.
**Expect institutions to make major cuts in areas ancillary to their main mission. Some will reduce building expansion, particularly as online enrollments grow, but also as some academic programs are merged or eliminated.
**Universities will likely adjust schedules to make more use of existing space (such as offering more classes at night and on weekends).
**Expect to see some institutions with Division I sports (particularly those which are deeply in the red) to move to Division II. Others will jettison certain high-cost sports, such as football. Also, expect national policy discussions to heat up on the BCS and the sky-rocketing cost of collegiate sports--with likely congressional hearings.
**Expect policy discussions over the next decade on a 21st Century Master Plan for American Higher Education--to keep this country strong, to provide real pathways for life-long learning, to invigorate learning with rapid innovations in technologies and software, and to develop the science, technology, and innovation that is heart of this nation's economic engine.
**Finally, expect America to find ways to make it possible for more students to earn their college degrees at an affordable price. We must work together to find mechanisms to keep higher education accessible and affordable. We can't afford not to!
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