New directions for higher education: Challenges, opportunities, and outcomes

Within the last few decades, pervasive technology and significant social and economic development have forever changed our society. Social and economic change has made it increasingly difficult for higher education to operate in insular ways; attention to changing demographics, global economies, and new social mores is required (Keller 2008). The potential reach of technology seems limitless and has already changed higher education institutions in the way we organize ourselves, our policies, our culture, what faculty do, the way we work, and those we serve (Ikenberry 1999, p. 63). Change in higher education to accommodate broader societal changes requires new ways of thinking about economic issues, accountability, technology, and the teaching-learning process. This chapter makes the challenges currently facing higher education explicit. It outlines the leadership traits and behaviors that are moving higher education into a hybrid version of traditional and distance institutions. Six principles of sound strategic planning for creating a new higher education enterprise are reviewed.