Students – The Future of Higher Education

An Optimistic View (or Not) of The Future of Higher Education

February 12, 2014 Grant Sabatier

Usually, if I have enough time & will for it, I collect necessary materials and publish them at https://occupytheory.org/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-qualitative-research/.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of listening to Daphne Koller, the co-founder of Coursera, and Ben Nelson, the CEO of the Minerva Project, speak on a panel. It was the best panel I have ever heard. Evidently it is a common occurrence for these two to be on a panel talking about the future of higher education – they are after all two of the leaders in the now infamous Ed Tech “disruption” movement. More than their knowledge…

Read More Read More

The Mismatch between Academic Training and Student Need: A College of 2020 Poll

August 23, 2013 Martin Van Der Werf

Administrators are looking for different qualities and experiences in new faculty members. But the results of a recent survey show how painfully slow change can be in higher education. For example, at a time when outsiders might expect colleges to be looking for a more flexible workforce, colleges are doing the opposite. While 37 percent of chief academic officers now say that at least 60 percent of their faculty is tenured, 46 percent say at least 60 percent of their…

Read More Read More

A Vision of The College of 2020

January 12, 2013 Grant Sabatier

At the College of 2020 we spend a lot time blogging about what the future of higher education will look like – now I want to try to help you envision one potential view of the it. This is 2020 – while only 8 years from now, I believe the higher education landscape will look drastically different – primarily because of online content and mobile devices. I believe that a majority of higher education students will take at least 80%…

Read More Read More

The Industrialization of Education: Guest Post by Bill Sams

October 30, 2012 collegeof2020

(This post is by Bill Sams, a Commissioner on the eTech Ohio Commission and an Executive in Residence at Ohio University. Bill has written and spoken on the transformation of education for several years and recently has produced two videos on the subject: EPIC 2020 and 2012, The Tipping Point.) Certainly in the United States a case can be made that the traditional education system at both the public school and higher education levels is a failure. With the United…

Read More Read More

The Perpetual Half-Price Sale on College Tuition

October 4, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

The number of issues bedevilling colleges right now is staggering. But if we were to trace the issue where higher education lost the support of the public, it would be tuition. Think about all the conversations you have about college — don’t most of them begin with price? Who can afford college? Why has it gotten so expensive? How will I ever save enough to send my kids to college? “It’s outrageous these institutions have the audacity to charge so…

Read More Read More

The Wild West of Coursera and Free Online Content

July 31, 2012 Grant Sabatier

Teaching the world 150,000 people at a time, just feels so intimate. A few weeks ago I started taking a class on Coursera from The University of Michigan, both because I am interested in the topic, as well as I had yet to take a Coursera course (more on that in a minute). In the first video presentation of the class the instructor welcomed all of the students and said while there are a lot of students signed up, he…

Read More Read More

Video Forecasts the End of Higher Education

July 10, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

“It is the best of times — it is the worst of times. In 2020, people have access to a breadth and depth of knowledge unimaginable in an earlier age. However, (colleges) as you know them have ceased to exist. Academia’s fortunes have waned. Twentieth century universities are an afterthought, a lonely remnant of a not-too-distant past.” So begins a video titled “Epic 2020” that has been getting some attention on the Web. I disagree pretty strongly with some of…

Read More Read More

The Faces of Higher Education: Adult Student

April 17, 2012 Grant Sabatier

This is the second post in an occasional series on the Faces of Higher Education. These are the stories of students, faculty, and administrators within the United States Higher Education system. Each person will be presented through interviews, profiles, or stories. So often when thinking about higher education we look at statistics, trends, and institutions, but rarely do we look at the people. The faces and stories within higher education often highlight the issues better than any chart or data…

Read More Read More

Faculty v. Administrators: Neither Side Can Win

April 12, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

After an extended Easter weekend spent intentionally away from the headlines and smartphones, it was interesting to come back to a lot of hand-wringing over the economic model of higher education. This is hardly new, but it was interesting to see administrators worrying about rising costs of faculty members and little associated hope for increased productivity. Faculty members, in turn, argue that the growth in the number of administrators and their associated pay packages, is the real cost-driver in higher…

Read More Read More

Small Colleges Need to Show They Understand Parents’ Economic Pain

March 30, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) has been keeping this running list of colleges that are reducing tuition, freezing it for one or more years, offering three-year degree programs, and starting other initiatives to keep the cost of college down. The document helpfully points out that average tuition and fees at private colleges, after adjustment for inflation, actually declined 4.1 percent from 2006-07 to 2011-12. When you factor in the ever-increasing tuition discount rate, the tuition students…

Read More Read More