Emerging Trends in Higher Education

Higher Education in Challenging Times: Emerging Trends
At a time when many colleges and universities stand at the crossroads, and higher education faces the prospect of unprecedented political, economic, social, and technological change, a new perspective can stimulate innovative thinking and out-of-the-box decision-making. More than 9,000 subscribers get a daily dose of Ken Steele’s perspective through Academica’s Top Ten, a daily round-up of news, trends, and research findings shaping the Canadian higher-education sector.  Ken has become a fixture at dozens of regional, national and international conferences, delivering keynote addresses that put the broader sector in context and weave together emerging trends and data from a wide variety of sources.  In recent years, campus leaders across Canada have benefited by adding Ken’s perspective and provocative ideas to board retreats, academic planning sessions, enrolment management committees, and other strategic and professional development events. 

In his “Emerging Trends” presentations, Ken presents a fast-paced, wide-ranging synthesis of the latest research on the higher education marketplace, trend forecasts, new strategies and emerging trends including: economic pressures, government funding shifts, budgeting strategies, labour unrest, demographic projections, gender balance, immigration patterns, student diversity, internationalization, Millennial students, helicopter parents, rising careerism, increasing competition, student guarantees, aggressive marketing tactics, media evolution, social media strategies, multinational for-profit and online competitors, emerging “open” models of education, celebrity lecturers, and much else. The “Trends” presentation is a synthesis of 4 years’ worth of news from the Top Ten.

Every meeting, retreat, and conference is unique, and Ken works with you to customize his presentation and the day’s agenda to suit your institution, your group, and your current priorities. Ken is continually revising and updating his material, which includes vibrant multimedia. Each presentation can be tailored to between 1 and 3 hours in length, and Ken frequently presents 2 or 3 talks to a variety of campus audiences in the course of a single day. Often, a presentation acts as the opening keynote to a half-day or full-day strategic planning retreat.