Higher Education Outlook 2016

By Melissa Ezarik. As we ring in 2016, higher education leaders have much to look forward to as well as, of course, much work to be done.
Exciting developments such as the explosion of mobile technology and expanding diversity in student populations and perspectives create new strategic and process-related challenges and opportunities.
Outlook 2016 is UB’s second annual special issue aimed at providing insight on the major trends expected to impact campus leaders in the year to come.
We added a category focused on student success this year. After all, ensuring students do well is a bigger job than ever before, with institutions taking a more holistic view at all the areas that define success—from retention and on-time graduation to career preparation and financial literacy.
Another topic of campus conversation stems from this being a presidential election year. Among the college presidents, provosts and chancellors we surveyed, 45 percent feel higher ed will likely improve more under a Democratic administration; just 9 percent feel that higher ed would be better off with a Republican administration.
The variations on free tuition programs being proposed by some candidates are of particular concern to some higher ed leaders, as needing to implement such programs would likely have a drastic impact on how finances are structured. More...