been characterized then as the ‘new normal’ – the fact '74 percent of all undergraduate students had at least one nontraditional characteristic. (see graphic below)'3
Therefore, the general public must admit that change has been in the making for some time, even if some faculty and administrators choose to not think otherwise.
As such, colleges and universities must admit to this fact and engage new structures and practices to address the needs of these students – such as flexible schedules, sophisticated and secure networks and systems, buildings and classrooms reconfigured around design principles, teaching practices that embrace diverse modalities, communication tools that align with student use, career pathways and support that align with student interest, etc. And they must engage new marketing techniques and financial incentives to attract students into new programmatic frameworks, including the use of
artificial intelligence (AI) and other tools rather than traditional marketing techniques involving the purchase of mailing lists that fail to target the most reliable applicants. In short, colleges
and universities need to meet students,
whomever they are, where they happen to be.
In thinking what would characterize a "student centered" higher ed ecosystem, authors of a supplement to the same NCES report concluded that
Students in postsecondary education need an ecosystem that is flexible, integrated, efficient and affordable. Institutions, instructors, and administrators should consider policies and practices that anticipate and adapt to learners’ needs over the course of their lives, and may include both traditional and new structures, programs, and institutional practices.(74a - ibid)
The authors also recommended ten principles to guide administrators when developing a
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