Public and employer demand for workforce relevant credentials is driving selective four-year institutions to rethink how they can scale their academic programs for a broader audience while maintaining quality and financial soundness.
That was the dominating discussion among three higher education leaders at the cutting edge of academic and research innovation when speaking about the future of the sector in an inaugural webinar hosted by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies.
“As we’re becoming concerned with our systemics structure, funding structures, and who we are and what we’re going to be, the train has already left the station on how people learn,” said Art Recesso, co-founder of the Skill Bridge Foundation, an open-source talent development system.
This fundamental challenge is a driving force behind recent colleges propped up in the past two years by other widely respected R1 universities, whose leaders also joined the call. Ozlem Kilic is the founding dean of UT Knoxville’s College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies, which aims to align industry input with interdisciplinary research to provide students cutting-edge curriculum. Steve Harmon is the associate dean of research at Georgia Tech’s College of Lifetime Learning, the first new college in 36 years.
Colleges and universities that fail to innovate and appeal to a wider audience risk losing public trust in their institutions even further.
“We need to gain that back and not be in the ivory towers off by ourselves,” said Harmon, who also heads the Center for 21st Century Universities, Tech’s learning innovation lab. “We have to show that we are very much part of our fabric of society and the workforce and try to contribute to it in an open and accessible way.”
What needs an overhaul in academic programs?
Emerging technologies, like AI and other software, are significantly changing the competencies needed in today’s workforce, which in turn affect the role higher education must now play in society. “This probably isn’t the first time we’ve been here, but getting up to speed with what is happening is a lot faster than what we may have experienced before,” Kilic said.
As a result, academic programs must adapt in these four foundational ways:
- Who it’s delivered to: Current members of the workforce, many of whom already with degrees, require workforce training opportunities just as much as traditionally aged, 18-21-year-old high school graduates.
- How it’s delivered: College and university curriculum geared at older audiences must work around student obligations as employees and caregivers. Additionally, personalized algorithms and streamlined e-commerce solutions has recalibrated digital native users to expect bite-sized, iterative and highly relevant content.
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- What’s being taught: The advent of AI compels the K12 and higher education system to rethink what they’re teaching students, Recesso said. Their broader curriculum “teaches students what AI [is already] good at. That’s a losing proposition in the long run.”
- Responsiveness to workforce trends: By the time college of engineering students graduate from Georgia Tech, half of what they’ve learned has become obsolete, Harmon said, and the speed at which what students learn becomes obsolete is speeding up.
Getting ahead of the curve
Georgia Tech’s online master’s degrees are what Harmon describe as “modified MOOCs,” which aim to offer high-quality and accredited credentials to the greatest number of students at the lowest possible price point—about $7,000. Its degree in computer science has graduated over 12,000 students in the past decade.
Harmon has learned that a strong admissions team recruiting only the most capable students ensures that the university can maintain the delicate nexus. “We have to be much more discriminating in how we draw that line in figuring out who can succeed. If you can succeed in these programs, we want you to.”
Founded in the past two years, Tech’s Lifetime Learning College and UT Knoxville’s College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies have more than bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mind. Both colleges are prioritizing stackable credentials and certificates that can zero-in on new skill acquisition and “fine-tune curriculum to employer needs,” Kilic said.
However, the notion that degrees are becoming irrelevant may be far-fetched. Despite the rapid pace of change, Harmon asserts degrees help cultivate students with durable skills (problem solving, communication, and critical thinking) which evolve alongside new technology.
Four-year institutions can also face outward and seek partnerships with community colleges, which may have eclipsed universities in creating workforce-aligned academic programs, Kilic says. “There’s a lot to learn from community colleges at this point. They have been mastering access to broad swaths of students interested in accessing a changing workforce.”
But perhaps there is no more powerful solution to increasing education accessibility than AI’s ability to scale individualized education plans, instruction and tutoring. “We may have an opportunity to scale one-to-one tutoring types with AI tools,” Harmon says. “We’re truly standing at the threshold of a new era.”
