Future of Higher Education

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Higher education's purpose is to equip students for success in life -- in the workplace, in communities, and their personal lives. While this purpose may have remained constant for centuries, the world around colleges and universities is undergoing significant change. Higher education is under pressure to meet greater expectations, whether for student numbers, educational preparation, workforce needs, or economic development. Meanwhile, the resources available are likely to decline. New models, an intense focus on the student experience, and a drive for innovation and entrepreneurism will ensure that higher education continues to meet society's needs. Information technology supports virtually every aspect of higher education, including finances, learning, research, security, and sustainability, and IT professionals need to understand the range of problems their institutions face so they apply IT where it brings greatest value. Creating this future will require collaboration across organizational and national boundaries, bringing together the collective intelligence of people from backgrounds including education, corporations, and government.

Articles and Reports

The Current and Future State of Higher Education, EDUCAUSE Live!, November 2012.
Through a Glass, Brightly: IT’s Impact on Higher Education by 2020, ECAR Bulletin, August 2012.
Information Technology and Tomorrow’s University: A President’s Confessions and Advice. Jolene Koester. EDUCAUSE Review, January/February 2011.
Open Governance in Higher Education: Extending the Past to the Future. Patrick Masson. EDUCAUSE Review, January/February 2011.
Much of the EDUCAUSE Review Magazine, Volume 45, Number 2, March/April 2010 issue is devoted to the future of higher education.
The entire issue of the EDUCAUSE Quarterly Magazine,Volume 33, Number 1, 2010 is largely devoted to anticipating the future of higher education.
The entire issue of the EDUCAUSE Review Magazine, Volume 45, Number 1, January/February 2010 is largely devoted to innovation and the future of higher education.
The Future of Higher Education: Beyond the Campus, EDUCAUSE White Paper, January 2010

Podcasts and Videos

The Future of Mobile Computing. EDUCAUSE Live! April 2011
Future of Higher Education, Diana Oblinger, Midwest Regional Conference, March 2010.
The Future of Higher Education: What Is the IT Professionals Role? Linda A. Jorn, James J. Koenig, David W. Dodd, Robert H. McDonald and Melissa Woo, Midwest Regional Conference, March 2010.

Projects

2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning, KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

April 2013

EDUCAUSE Staff Picks

IT-Based Transformation in Higher Education: Possibilities and Prospects, Greg Jackson, EDUCAUSE, March 2012. A Discussion of how achieving both greater efficiency and better outcomes in higher education through information technology requires a commitment to fundamental, unfettered thinking about the future both within and outside current institutions—the kind of process many institutions are beginning to undertake.
Rethinking Higher Education Business Models, Robert Sheets, Stephen Crawford,and Louis Soares. Center for American Progress. March 2012.
Innovating the 21st-Century University: It’s Time!, EDUCAUSE Review, Volume 45, Number 1, 2010. If colleges and universities open up and embrace collaborative learning and collaborative knowledge production, they have a chance of surviving and even thriving in the networked, global economy of the future.
The Changing Landscape of Higher Education, EDUCAUSE Review, Volume 46, Number 1, 2011. Focusing strictly on technology trends can obscure other environmental factors that are drivers for innovation in higher education. The authors identify ten fissures in the landscape that are creating areas of potentially tectonic change.

Latest News

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Library Items on this Topic

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EDUCAUSE Library Items for Future of Higher Education

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2012 CDS Executive Summary Report: January 24, 2013

This report summarizes results from the EDUCAUSE Core Data Service (CDS) survey. Using a matched set of 616 CDS 2011 and CDS 2012 participating institutions, this year’s report is a detaile…
Building Organizational Capacity for Analytics: February 25, 2013

Optimizing student success is the “killer app” for analytics in higher education . Intelligent investments in optimizing student success garner wide support and have a strong, justifia…
EDUCAUSE 2011 Annual Conference: Executive Summaries of Selected Sessions: October 30, 2012

Highlights from selected general and featured sessions at the 2011 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference. Highlights from selected general and featured sessions a…
What Campus Leaders Need to Know About MOOCs: December 20, 2012

MOOCs (massive open online courses) are courses delivered over the web to potentially thousands of students at a time. In a MOOC, lectures are typically “canned,” quizzes and testing ar…
Analytics 3-Day Sprint - Summary: August 20, 2012

This brief summarizes the main themes from the EDUCAUSE Analytics Sprint, held July 24–26, 2012. Presenters and participants exchanged ideas and information via webinars, online conversations, …
Understanding and Managing the Risks of Analytics in Higher Education: A Guide: June 29, 2012

This guide provides an introduction to the major risk categories faced by a higher education institution considering investments in time, energy, and money in analytics work . Under the ri…
Findings of the Expert Panel on Analytics: May 2, 2012

Analytics is of increasing relevance to higher education because of the role it can play in accountability, efficiency, and continuous improvement as well as its potential impact on ever…
Case Study 21: Shaping the Path to Digital: The Indiana University eTexts Initiative: May 2, 2012

A case study from Game Changers Brad Wheeler and Nik Osborne This chapter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License Introduction The risi…
Case Study 20: Transforming Education with Research that Makes a Difference: May 2, 2012

A case study from Game Changers J. D. Walker, Charles D. Dziuban, and Patsy D. Moskal Positive change in education happens when faculty gain insight into the relationship between st…
Case Study 19: CS50 at Harvard: "The Most Rewarding Class I Have Taken...Ever!": May 2, 2012

A case study from Game Changers Katie Vale A trail of colorful balloons leads from Oxford Street to the Northwest Labs building. As I head downstairs, I exchange greetings with our …