Leading In A Time Of Change: Higher Education In Transition

This is part two of a six-part series.

“We are in a time of change unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.” Robert Johnson, president of Western New England University.

The foundations of higher education are being challenged and universities need to adapt.

Higher education is facing one of its biggest periods of unknowns in recent memory. There’s not a single aspect of education that hasn’t been challenged by the pandemic. But that’s not the only source of uncertainty. Technology changes so fast, the hard skills we master in school become outdated in a matter of years. Some of the most exciting career opportunities might be in fields that don’t even exist yet tackling challenges we can’t even imagine.

This is part two of a six-part series on navigating uncertainty in business, healthcare and higher education. The articles in this series feature a blend of written content and short videos of individuals from across industries. Part one introduced the secret to navigating uncertainty: seeing change as opportunity, not as a threat. In this article, I’ll explore how uncertainty is forcing higher education to evolve.

Higher education has to navigate its own uncertainty, while also training students how to handle the unknown so they become the kind of employees and leaders that our institutions need.

The Intersection of Higher Education and Workforce Development

How do you train future leaders within an environment that constantly changes?

That was the subject of Session 1 of the fourth annual Leadership in the Age of Personalization Summit, which took place in October at Clemson University’s Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business.

Experts across higher education suggest that education should look less structured and make room for more variety: calling for new paths, multiple streams, a wider array of credentials — so people can reskill as needed and put those skills to work immediately.

Western New England University president Robert Johnson kicked off a session devoted to how higher education must change to the meet this uncertainty in our age of personalization. Watch this short video to hear how he views the challenges when universities have to teach young people to utilize technology that is yet to be created to solve problems that haven’t even been imagined yet.

Then a panel discussion included expert insights from three leaders in higher education:

• Daniel Durbin, president and CEO of Second Founding of America. He believes that universities are behind in teaching students the skills they need for their future careers.
• Nancy Hubbard, dean of the College of Business at University of Lynchburg. She said colleges need to do more to make themselves inclusive and welcoming to all students, especially those from historically underrepresented groups.
• Raghu Krishnaiah, chief operating officer of University of Phoenix. He created an institute to help connect learning and work, and found that most people are optimistic about their career prospects despite negative circumstances in the world.

How to Prepare for Jobs That Don’t Yet Exist

The panelists agreed that universities must focus on teaching students how to think conceptually so they can work well with others. Skills, both hard and soft, are important for success in today’s ever-changing world. But given how fast our world changes and how swiftly technology evolves, many hard skills might only remain relevant for a few years. That means one of the most valuable skills people can learn is the skill of continuous learning.

In this short video, the panelists talk about soft skills that are essential – skills like creativity, openness, collaboration, and more. They discuss what a new model of higher education needs to look like in order to meet the needs of students and their future employers.

They also emphasize the importance of allowing students and employees the freedom to question things and to be included in decision-making.

That last point underscores the importance of another skill, one I write about consistently: the skill of unleashing ourselves and unleashing others. The permission to question and the confidence to contribute in decisions both require someone to know and trust their own insights – and also to know and trust that it’s safe to share their insights at school or at work. That’s an environment of trust that has to be deliberately created and nurtured, by leaders who know how to do that.

Having that confidence ourselves, and giving that confidence to others, is a skill that our workplaces desperately need. I’ll explore that topic more in part three of this series, where we’ll look at how uncertainty affects the workplace.