Transforming Higher Education: Who Will Create the Future?

Don’t adapt to the future of higher education. TRANSFORM IT.

The rise of online courses, growing costs, declining completion rates, increasingly diverse student populations, disruptions from outside innovators―as the leader of a higher education institution, you’re facing unprecedented upheaval.

Rather than simply managing this change, you can harness it to dramatically improve the future―for your students, for your institution, for society at large. It’s about bringing together the complex array of stakeholders in higher education―including administrators, faculty, boards, regents, and directors―to engage in honest and creative conversations about where the system is and where it ought to be.

Transforming Higher Education provides what you need to face the future head on. Through its proven “Three Horizons” framework, you will:

• View today’s disruption not with fear, but with curiosity and courage
• Initiate and manage difficult strategic discussions among all stakeholders
• Build the future into your planning, while respecting current governance
• Create and implement a new strategy that makes the future part of the present

Transforming Higher Education provides three plausible scenarios for the future of higher education. By exploring what the future might bring, you can better prepare for your role in creating it.

Right now, you’re looking at unparalleled opportunity. We all are. Whoever seizes it with courage, wisdom, and an effective, inclusive strategy will be at the forefront of education innovation―and will shape the lives of generations to come.

About the Authors

Graham Leicester is a founder and Director of International Futures Forum (IFF). He previously ran Scotland's leading think tank, the Scottish Council Foundation, founded in 1997.

Bill Sharpe is an independent researcher in science, technology and society, and a member of the International Futures Forum.