The Future of Higher Education: Unbundling and rebundling
This week I gave the keynote for the leadership strategy session of a U.S. tertiary institution with over 120,000 students, on re-envisaging the future of higher education.
As part of my session I shared this framework on unbundling and rebundling higher education. I explain and expand below the image.
Higher education can now be unbundled into an array of needs and offers:
Discipline Learning. Structured programs, access to experts, and tailored learning resources provide students with deep knowledge in specific academic fields, forming the foundation of traditional higher education.
Metacapabilities. Critical thinking, information capabilities, and learning skills are essential for students to navigate complex problems and adapt to new challenges in an ever-evolving world.
Networks & Connection. Building strong relationships with students, alumni, faculty, and employers is crucial for fostering social capital and professional growth, creating a supportive and connected educational community.
Personal Growth. Higher education should cultivate diverse thinking, self-discovery, and independence, encouraging students to explore their values and develop a strong sense of identity and purpose.
Credentials. Degrees, micro-credentials, and evidence of capability are evolving to become more flexible and relevant, allowing students to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in ways that align with modern career paths.
Career Pathways. Job placement, employer connections, and job search guidance ensure that education is directly linked to employability, helping students transition smoothly from academic life to meaningful careers.
Infrastructure. Libraries, labs, technology, and study spaces, both physical and digital, are essential components that support learning, providing students with the resources they need to succeed in their educational pursuits.
Support. Financial assistance, counseling, and extracurricular programs offer crucial support for students, helping them navigate academic and personal challenges while enriching their overall educational experience.
In today’s dynamic, technology-enabled world many of these facets can be provided or supported independently, breaking apart the traditional bundle that has been higher education.
However it still makes sense for most or all of these services to be provided by a single institution in an integrated way. This will best address the holistic needs of the individual, not just of learning but of growing as a person and discovering their path through work, life, and society.
Leaders need to imagine a blank slate of what they could do in addressing the needs of students, considered as whole people, not just learners. Which elements make sense for the institution to provide? How will they fit together and feed off each other in creating a whole that is far more than the sum of the parts? What might make sense to be provided by partners?
Designing a distinctive, unique offer has to be central to this process. There will be intense challenges for most HE institutions beyond the top 300 or so universities in the world (and for those too).
Education is perhaps the single most important driver of a better future for humanity. Higher education must reinvent itself.
Image: Midjourney
