UPCEA Releases Guide to Help Higher Education Leaders Navigate Market Shifts and Evolving Business Models
UPCEA has published a comprehensive guide addressing three critical realities reshaping higher education, providing institutional leaders with essential questions and frameworks to adapt to changing student demands and business model pressures.
The online and professional education association UPCEA has released "The Future Is Now: Essential Conversations for Building Tomorrow's University Today," an advocacy piece designed to guide higher education leaders through challenging times. The resource focuses on raising awareness of critical questions campus leaders must address regarding the rapidly evolving role of online and professional education in serving today's learners.
The guide identifies three pressing realities that are reshaping higher education institutions. First, it emphasizes that higher education has become a buyer's market, where students increasingly choose institutions based on return on investment, flexibility, and relevance rather than traditional institutional loyalty. This shift means institutions can no longer rely on steady enrollment streams from conventional sources.
Second, the resource highlights how traditional business models are evolving under pressure, requiring new approaches to enrollment management, institutional partnerships, and differentiation strategies. Third, it stresses that entrepreneurial leadership has become essential, with institutions needing to become more adaptive and consider leadership models that embrace flexibility and innovation.
For each of these realities, the guide provides key questions to facilitate thoughtful discussion and creative problem-solving among institutional leaders. It also demonstrates opportunities for collaboration between traditional academic departments and online and professional continuing education units. Robert Hansen, CEO of UPCEA, stated that the association has a unique responsibility to help guide campus leaders on the potential of online and professional education to shape the future of higher learning.
Dave Cillay, chancellor of the Global Campus at Washington State University, commented that the resource positions institutions well for anticipating evolving student needs and encourages strategic dialogue that leadership teams must engage in to stay relevant and responsive. Paul LeBlanc, president emeritus of Southern New Hampshire University, added that professional, continuing, and online divisions, often overlooked internally, represent institutions' best source of innovation and new business models during times of enormous change.
The UPCEA resource experienced a limited release last week during Convergence: Credential Innovation in Higher Education, an event held in partnership between UPCEA and AACRAO from September 29 through October 1 in Arlington, Virginia. For more information or to access the full guide, please visit https://upcea.edu/conversations.