Reimagining the Student Experience
Higher education is facing a staffing crisis. Recruitment, hiring, and retention have been persistent issues for the past few years, and the Covid-19 pandemic upended norms surrounding how academic institutions work – and what it means to work for an institution of higher education — putting the relationship between colleges and the staff members who work there under greater stress than ever before.
This in-depth report will examine the urgent challenges in how higher education can better manage this crucial part of its work force, and reflects insights from dozens of senior administrators, human-resources leaders, and hiring managers across higher education with original survey data from The Chronicle and Huron.
Building Tomorrow’s Workforce
Colleges striving for “student success” can no longer count just graduation rates; they must demonstrate that graduates are finding jobs in their chosen fields. If they don’t, enrollments will fall, public skepticism about higher education will grow, and lawmakers will take note.
To make that college- to career-connection, institutions must understand what employers want. What do they mean when they say, “we’re not getting the skills we need?” Do college majors matter? Is the purported movement away from degrees and toward skill-sets really happening?
This report provides insights into employers’ views on those questions and more. Rich with data and examples of colleges successfully placing their graduates, it also examines several growing job sectors and the emerging skills needed to work in them. And it explains the gap between what colleges think they’re offering and what employers say they’re seeing among job candidates.
The Future of Advising
Student success is critical to keeping students enrolled, and good advising is widely seen as central to student success. Advisers are some of the first professionals students meet on campus. But it doesn’t always go well. Academic advising is one of the most misunderstood and undersupported divisions on campus, plagued by low pay, large caseloads, and high turnover.
Good advising systems can increase professionalism and pride in this underappreciated field, help close equity gaps, and ensure students effectively navigate their path to a degree. How can university leaders set advising up for success?
College as a Public Good
Public confidence in higher education has fallen in recent years, with barely half of Americans seeing it in a positive light. Yet polling shows that people are far more likely to view their local college favorably, a perception that may be burnished by their many interactions with their hometown institution. This new report delves into the many roles colleges play in their local towns, states, and regions -- as educators and employers, real-estate developers, arts-and-culture magnets, civic conveners, and public-health champions.
At a crucial moment for higher education, this report examines how colleges can reimagine their traditional outreach to find innovative ways to partner with their communities and rebuild public trust.