The financial sustainability crisis in higher education invokes three types of institutional responses: defensive, transitional, and structural. Most institutions adopt defensive measures due to governance challenges, preferring short-term stability over long-term solutions. Structural changes are rare, despite evidence suggesting their necessity, highlighting a need for improved governance strategies among leaders.
Revenue diversification efforts often fail due to persistent tuition dependence, which hampers institutional capacity. Governance structures and cultures focused solely on enrolment growth hinder diversification strategies. The key issue lies in governance reform; without it, institutions will struggle to effectively diversify their revenue beyond financial limits.
The article emphasizes the urgent need for academic leaders to address curriculum inertia in the age of AI. It presents a 12-month action plan for Deputy and Pro Vice-Chancellors that includes naming outdated curricula as a key challenge, conducting thorough audits, and implementing rapid reform pathways.
Senior leadership discussions on AI often overlook the critical issue of curriculum inertia in higher education. As the labor market demands AI fluency, many graduates feel unprepared. Institutions risk falling behind in graduate employability, student retention, and reputation unless they adapt their degree programs swiftly to meet these changes.
Many universities continue to design courses focused on lecturers rather than learners. The latest Substack discusses shifting to a collaborative and transparent model, addressing topics like academic autonomy, neuro-inclusive design, the importance of institutional memory, and the challenges posed by the AI divide. This ongoing series supports an 8-Stage Learning Design Framework.
Following up on last week’s post about higher education focusing on the wrong AI emergency, my latest Substack shifts from
During the Empower Learners for the Age of AI (ELAI) conference earlier in December 2022, it became apparent to me
Who should universities watch? The question is to what extent universities feel the need to step into the developmental space
Press coverage of recent cryptocurrency disruptions and the significant staff reductions at Twitter and Meta is giving pause for thought
University Leaders will doubtless come away from the latest round of late summer conferences with ideas about how to seize
Transcript: Welcome all. Please feel free to share this with your colleagues, if you think they’ll find this of interest.
“If you managed to cover the absences of staff successfully last semester, are you maybe just over staffed?” If you
Te Pūkenga (https://tepūkenga.ac.nz), the centralised vocational tertiary organisation in New Zealand created in the last two years, represents an exciting
With the disruption to delivery models, timetables, and staff and student expectations in the last 18 months some institutions are struggling to maintain their faculty’s motivation and commitment. Some are wrestling with changing notions of autonomy and accountability.
One characteristic of a four to five year Learning and Teaching Strategy (LTS) is that it should require a complete