Towards a more diversified future for higher education

At a Virtual Conversation on international issues in higher education last month, we asked a number of experts to reflect on their future, focused particularly on the emerging role of alternative providers of education and alternative credentials in the higher education space.

Is this future poised at an intersection where traditional institutions and degrees are joined, increasingly, by their alternative counterparts? Are we experiencing a fundamental shift in what constitutes this space – the types of institutions, providers and credentials that make up the ‘higher education sector’ of the future? How did we get here and what are the key issues and actions important to both traditional and alternative actors in getting beyond the intersection?

‘Traditional’ refers to higher education that involves the longstanding and familiar universe of degree-granting colleges and universities of all types. ‘Alternative’ refers to more recent providers and credentials.

Providers are corporations that now include education as part of their business model (such as Microsoft and Google) and companies formed specifically to serve as these providers (including Coursera and Kiron). Credentials are badges and certificates of varying length, typically of shorter duration than traditional degrees.

Colleagues from five countries across three continents participated in the Virtual Conversation and their discussion was revealing. Their ultimate response, although tacit in some instances, was a ‘yes’ – the future of the higher education sector indeed lies at this intersection. They discussed the factors driving us to this intersection as well as those that are needed to determine which road to take from the intersection.

We explored whether the traditional sector would be more or less likely to embrace the alternative sector in the future, acknowledging that, to date, there has been a reluctance from many in the traditional world. We wanted to know more about the current and likely future role of traditional-alternative partnerships. And we discussed potential danger signals – stop signs and road closures – that might impede moving forward.

Arriving at the intersection

How did we get here? Our experts identified several key drivers.

First, we are all dealing with the double disruption of automation and the pandemic – both are creating new or intensifying existing pressures on traditional higher education. Increasingly, all of us need digital skills to survive in a digital world. This is an especially urgent issue for students and employers.

Second, the pandemic further underscored an emerging trend with regard to credentials. Increasingly, in some countries, both employers and students see certificates or badges as equal in practical value to longer-term degrees and, in some instances, preferable to those degrees.

Third, the pandemic has played a positive role in the traditional sector’s embrace of digital teaching and learning through the necessity of the sector becoming more comfortable with blended learning. The pandemic was a powerful learning moment for traditional higher education – underscoring the vital importance of change as a survival mechanism.

Fourth, alternative providers are realising that services that traditional institutions have long provided – counselling, advising and other support services – are also needed around alternative credentials and providers are aware that they benefit from reaching out to these institutions to make this available.

Issues and challenges at the intersection

While our experts’ discussion reflected an acknowledgment that the higher education landscape is becoming more diverse, some quickly pointed out several issues and challenges that come with this acknowledgment.

A key point was about partnerships. A good deal of the activity around the alternative sector has included a growing number of partnerships between traditional institutions and alternative providers, reflecting a willingness to offer an educational experience that embraces both traditional degree credit and certificates. How will these partnerships proceed?

Colleagues pointed out that we are witnessing the emergence of the ‘entrepreneurial student’, one who makes highly personalised choices among the increasingly diversified options when it comes to the type of educational experience to be obtained.

These students want to make their own decisions about the content, structure and timing of the education they choose to consume. And, as we are seeing that the goal for these students is, as recently described by Arthur Levine, to select from “unpackaged goods”, supporting and protecting students is essential.

Experts also posed a key, indeed existential, question for traditional institutions. As the presence of alternative providers and credentials is diversifying higher education, what will be the core functions of their institutions in the future?

In response, colleagues spoke about the importance of focusing on degree production as well as research and knowledge production. They pointed out that only traditional higher education features a major concentration on the core skills that students need, for example, critical thinking, analytic reasoning and cultural and social awareness. It is essential that this continues.

Moving past the intersection

How should we select what road to take after the intersection, confident of the value of the continuing diversification of higher education and its usefulness to students? Our experts offered several suggestions. As one colleague put it: “Let’s keep all options open.”

This diversification is both promising and exciting – as well as challenging. And we need more attention on how we organise this increasingly diversified environment and how we sustain strong leadership to assure its value and continuity. We need to learn from each other and, again, we all need to be willing to change.

Colleagues then turned to the issue of quality – it needs to be addressed more robustly. Acknowledging that there are ongoing questions about the quality and effectiveness of traditional institutions, we have limited research and data thus far to determine the quality and effectiveness of alternative providers and credentials. They noted that there has been modest movement to date among the traditional reviewers of quality in higher education to embrace the alternative sphere.

While there have been some efforts to examine quality among alternative providers, we face questions of, for instance, how much we know about whether shorter-term education will work in the long run and whether students can build on shorter-term experiences as they are faced with requirements for additional skills in order to address new opportunities.

Finally, colleagues again stressed the importance of traditional institutions examining what they do best and concentrating on these areas – for example, the acquisition of long-term degrees, core skills and research – as we proceed along the road after the intersection.

A mutually beneficial relationship

So – yes, we are at an intersection. We arrived here driven by the growing need for digital skills, especially for employability, the intensification of the trend toward alternative credentials rather than degrees and a greater willingness of traditional institutions to embrace blended learning.

This has been accompanied by a growing perception of the need for a mutually beneficial relationship between traditional institutions and alternative providers in areas such as counselling.

Our major challenges and issues at the intersection involve whether and how to expand on the growing number of traditional-alternative partnerships in order to serve the entrepreneurial student of the future.

They include responding to today’s students’ search for customised education in contrast to their automatic acceptance in the past of the education already structured for them. They also include traditional institutions addressing the imperative of change for their survival and the need to focus on what they do best – degree production, development of core skills and research.

The road from the intersection requires institutions to keep all options open and a focus on how to best organise and lead a diversified higher education environment. It will require ever greater attention to quality – in traditional institutions, in alternative providers and among the many emerging partnerships between the two.

Judith S Eaton is president emeritus of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) in the United States. Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic is former head of higher education at UNESCO and former advisor to the CHEA president. This article is based on the second of a series of virtual conversations among international experts on higher education and quality assurance initiated by the authors.