At this time of the year, it’s natural to reflect on the previous 12 months and think about what the next 12 have in store for us. Adding a few thoughts to the round-up of previous year’s trends and next year’s predictions as I shared in my recent newsletter.
1. Economic factors are going to influence enrollment.
Right around the time I found myself buying cartons of milk for over $6, it was extraordinarily clear that inflation will affect everything. Especially admissions. Prospective students and their families are going to be looking for ways to cut costs and will be asking a lot of questions about the ROI of a degree as they make enrollment decisions.
The challenge is going to fall on admissions offices / marketing and communications. The effort here is going to have to increase (and so will the resources needed). Prospective students expect immediate, personalized communications. They live online across many social networks — including some that your institution might not be using regularly, like TikTok or Snapchat. The fracturing of social media is only growing with the upheaval of Twitter. Depending on who you are trying to reach, you might ask yourself if it makes sense to launch an account on Mastodon.
My advice is to (1) prioritize what’s in your control, particularly your owned media properties (your websites, your email list, your CRM data). This is a great time to do a website content audit and ask when the last time you did a refresh was. And (2) to find ways to meet the next generation where they are…and right now they are on TikTok.
2. Expect the battles of the culture wars to continue on campus.
I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted just thinking about this. While colleges and universities are no strangers to being the flash points for social movements in this country, it does seem like a lot is piling up at once, especially as we are all trying to do our work with fewer resources and keep our own sanity in an age of turmoil.
Institutions will be questioned about how they handle topics such as “free speech” (and facilitate certain speakers on campus), their policies around affirmative action, DEIB programming and any curriculum that might appear to be critical race theory. This is nothing new but what has been concerning as of late is legislative action to govern schools related to these topics, such as what’s happening in Florida. And Texas. And Florida (again).
There’s a real need to fix an incorrect perception of what a large slice of the public thinks is happening in an institution and what is actually happening. When at its best, higher education promotes healthy debate on complex topics and fosters equity through opportunity. DEIB programming is vital for every institution and academic programs around public policy, social work and law need to acknowledge and address the injustices in our systems rooted in racism.
To me, this feels like a communications challenge. We need to tell better stories about what we do and advocate for our cause. Higher education creates opportunities and new discoveries. Graduates have far better outcomes than non-graduates. Period. The industry needs to own these facts and get them in front of the critics.
3. Hang in there as more leadership crises unfold. It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.
This was a wild year for leadership in higher education. Consider all of the institutions with leadership turnover or crises:
- The turmoil at Michigan State University.
- Ben Sasse’s unusual contract and selection process at the University of Florida.
- And the proposed bill to make the search process secretive in Florida.
- Stanford University investigating its president over research misconduct allegations
- Ohio State University’s president stepped down less than three years into her term.
- The University of Wisconsin’s selection of an attorney with no experience in higher education to be their next president.
- The University of Michigan fires its president following an investigation.
- Sonoma State’s president resigns after a leadership crisis
- FIU’s former president returning to campus to teach after resigning due to a sexual harassment scandal.
Within these headlines, the trend is a growing disconnect between administrative leadership/boards and faculty and staff. From presidential searches to governance, stakeholders who aren’t in the leadership circle are becoming less and less included as the power dynamics on campus push more control to the top. And this is causing real frustration among those not included — consider that over half of higher ed employees are thinking about making a move. It certainly doesn’t help morale seeing this kind of turnover, especially when the pay gap is so large between leadership and everyone else. Unfortunately, the sector as a whole hasn’t started to reconsider approaches to governance (and executive searches), at least not in a way to increase accountability and build trust at an institution. I expect we’ll see more of these headlines in 2023.
4. Cybersecurity has to be a priority.
Ransomware attacks are spiking in higher education while institutions are struggling to keep up. A school is a pretty appetizing target for hackers because they manage loads of sensitive data, their networks and user access permissions are decentralized and fragmented, and are always under-resourced while sitting on large cash reserves. It’s a good time to remind everyone at your institution that cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility. For leadership, it’s critical to invest in cybersecurity, including outside audits, malware insurance, hiring experts, and upgrading systems. It is not a question of if but when your institution gets targeted. The long-term cost of a breach will always be much more than a ransom fee — though the FBI does not recommend paying.
5. The dawn of consumer AI has arrived. Act accordingly.
The hottest topic on Twitter this year (besides Twitter itself) has been the availability of consumer AI text and image generators such as ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Midjourney. If you haven’t explored them, it’s worth your time to do so. There is some concern that ChatGPT for example can do coursework on behalf of students. I don’t think these are quite there yet. In my casual use of ChatGPT and Jasper for various projects, the output is like getting work from a freelance writer that isn’t very good. Nothing that comes out of these tools should be public facing without some serious editing involved.
But that may change, and we should be mindful of what’s on the horizon as we know that higher education is not the most nimble of industries when faced with change. On the flip side, no other industry is better equipped to examine these tools, their applications and the ethics as higher ed. I hope this revolution doesn’t skip over us.
Thanks for reading.