college of 2020 – The Future of Higher Education

Can’t We Replace Professors Faster?

September 10, 2013 Martin Van Der Werf

Chief academic officers see a clear need for more interdisciplinary instruction at colleges and teaching that seamlessly incorporates technology, onsite and online learning. But, as we asked in an earlier blog post, is the faculty ready and able to do this? No — most provosts who responded to a recent poll said flatly. “Graduate preparation lags woefully behind the needs of the industry,” wrote a chief academic officer of a private university of more than 4,000 students, responding to a…

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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…

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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…

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The Future Graduate School

March 15, 2012 collegeof2020

Below is the presentation we gave recently at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools on “The Graduate School of the Future”. There is some good data, as well as insights applicable to graduate schools as well as higher education generally. College of 2020: The Future Graduate School Tweet

The Higher Education Marketing Crisis

February 18, 2012 Grant Sabatier

At colleges and universities across the country, marketing departments are failing to differentiate their institutions in an increasingly complex and competitive higher education market. There has never been a more critical time in higher education to stand out – the economic pressures are more stark and the race to get the best students, faculty, and resources has become more and more competitive. Branding continues to be a very hot topic in higher education, as many institutions struggle to find the…

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A Good Fit: Rethinking College Admissions

February 9, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

I have a friend who used to be the brand manager for Kingsford charcoal. One day, he was asking his team: “Who is our competition?” His team piped up: Royal Oak? Store brands? No, my friend replied. Our competition isn’t another charcoal. It’s the gas grill. Cooking out is a lifestyle choice, with all of kinds of positive feelings associated with it — time with friends, fun, fresh air. And our potential customers are switching to gas, and getting all…

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Economic Scarcity and Higher Education

February 7, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

It used to be that if you wanted to buy a record, you had to go to a record store. If you wanted the news, you had to buy a newspaper or watch TV. If you wanted to mail a package, you had to go to the post office. Those businesses were dominant because they were the only source of a good that you wanted. The products were valuable because they were essential and scarce. They came basically in one…

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Why the Future is So Hard to Predict

January 18, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

…but this is also what makes it so much fun.Five years ago, most of us hadn’t heard of what are now some of the dominant communication platforms of our time: “In 2006, YouTube and Twitter had just been born, and Facebook was a toddler,” said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the Annenberg School of the University of Southern California. This is from a new report, “The Digital Future Project 2011,” released by Cole’s center. Five years…

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Notes from an Uncomfortable Chair

December 21, 2011 Martin Van Der Werf

Higher education needs to come up with some new ways to talk about change and success. OK, call me grouchy, but I’ve been ruminating about two recent higher-education conferences I attended. Both had good speakers and good information, but both also showed why higher education is stuck in a deepening rut. Let me start with the most recent one, a conference on The Future of Higher Education, held at The New School earlier this month. The event featured an impressive list of speakers, including…

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It Won’t be Easy, But We Can Make Accreditation Useful

November 28, 2011 Martin Van Der Werf

If higher education is really to change, barnacle-encrusted traditions like accreditation need to change, too. But this won’t be so easy. The process of becoming accredited should be a rigorous process that should add a stamp of approval to the educational product, and prevent fraud by fly by night operators and taxpayers. But the process also needs to be more transparent and consumer-friendly. If colleges are going to spend so much time and money on the process, can’t they use…

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