It’s no secret that the U.S. higher education system is constantly changing and evolving. Especially as we celebrate IWU’s 100th anniversary, the difference between Marion College in 1920 and IWU today is significant. Marion College opened with the founding goal of educating and equipping ministry leaders. Now, we offer education opportunities for all kinds of vocations.
Since the Great Recession in 2008-09, public skepticism of higher education and its long-term practicality have increased, with government leaders challenging university leaders to embrace innovation. For smaller, private institutions, their main concern is financial worries.1 Not only has COVID-19 raised new financial concerns, but institutions have invested billions of dollars in programming to improve student success. Despite these investments, little has changed. Less than two-thirds of full-time students who enter college for the first time graduate with a baccalaureate degree within six years,2 a statistic which has remained consistent since the 1980s.
Higher education is at a critical point, where the willingness to adopt innovation may determine institutional health and success. What does this look like? Ultimately, the challenge is "to motivate innovation in the mature enterprise that higher education has become."3 Doing so has the potential to address systemic challenges by identifying new forms of teaching, educational deliveries, and business models that meet the needs of 21st century learners and support financial health.4 Another opportunity is to address the needs of historically oppressed populations by building a learning environment that supports all students' success.
The quest to innovate in higher education also comes with a few warnings. Pursuing innovation for the sake of simply changing can hurt students and institutions. Leaders should ask probing questions. Will this innovative _________ help students succeed? Will this change provide financial margin, or will it further encumber the institution? Unfortunately, the copy-cat culture in higher education has led to the adoption of new approaches that created hardships for students and organizations due to a lack of careful examination. Of course, we should not advocate for no-risk strategies, but we should challenge ourselves to make practical decisions that benefit our students and organizations.
In the ongoing evolution of higher education, institutional leaders should make careful decisions that address their organizations' student success and financial concerns. We have an obligation to the current and future generations of learners to create academic communities that allow students to thrive. In doing so, we should structure our institutions to educate learners for another 100 years. As a "Christ-centered academic community committed to changing the world," my prayer is that Indiana Wesleyan University will model how Christian higher education institutions can adopt innovation and serve as a beacon of hope and change in our world.
1. Denneen, J., and Dretler, T. (2012). The financially sustainable university. Retrieved from http://www.bain.com/Images/Bain_Brief_The_financially_sustainable_university.pdf and Eide, S. (2018). Private collges in peril: Financial pressures and declining enrollment may lead to more closures. EducationNext, 18(4), 34-41. Retrieved from https://www.educationnext.org/private-colleges-peril-financial-pressures-declining-enrollment-closures/ and Lederman, D., and Jaschik, S. (Eds.). (2018). The 2018 survey of college and university business officers: A study by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup. Washington, DC: Gallup.
2. U.S. Department of Education: National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). The Condition of Education 2015. (NCES 2015-144). Washington, D.C.: Author.
3. White, S. C., and Glockman, T. S. (2007). Innovation in higher education: Implications for the future. New Directions for Higher Education, 137, 97-105. doi:10.1002/he.248
4. Christensen, C., and Eyring, H. (2011). The innovative university: Changing the DNA of higher education from the inside out. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass and Christensen, C., Horn, M. B., Caldera, L., and Soares, L. (2011). Disrupting college: How disruptive innovation can deliver quality and affordability to postsecondary education. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/report/2011/02/08/9034/disrupting-college/