Early this year, we at Optimal Campus began thinking about posting a series of blogs focused on what many perceived as a crisis in higher education. Shifting demographics of potential students, rising costs, challenges to the value of higher education, and academic inertia placed higher education at a crossroads. Many were arguing, and we agreed, that, without fundamental changes, the current system of higher education in the United States would be unable to survive. And then COVID-19 happened!
Too Many Buildings, Not Enough Bandwidth
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in numerous immediate changes in higher education—online education only, closed campuses, remote work for faculty and staff. While many may hope these changes are temporary and things will go back to the way they were, that is quite likely not what will happen. Pressures have been building for several years to move more courses and programs online. Although many institutions already offer some online learning, it has not been without resistance from various stakeholders, especially faculty.
Coping With Our Current Crisis—More Change on the Horizon
The current global public health crisis is creating huge challenges for higher education. Colleges and universities across the globe are closing on-campus activities. Classes–and day-to-day business–are moving online. Higher education institutions are scrambling to deal with the day-to-day operational issues of the crisis, and these are, no doubt, huge.
12 Innovative Cost-Cutting & Revenue Enhancing Strategies for Colleges & Universities
In the last two Meetup blog posts, we explored ways that IT departments can be a part of overall strategies for advancing the educational and administrative missions of the university by sharing the perspectives of CIO’s and CFO’s from our most recent MeetUp event. This topic has been of interest to our group for the […]