Five Trends That Are Reshaping the Course of American Higher Education

Abstract

The landscape of higher education has gone through substantial changes due to technological advancements, automation, and shifting learner demographics, further complicated by the pandemic situation. In this paper, I will discuss five trends in higher education: (a) the emergence of parallel tracks of education and training from both higher education institutions and corporates, (b) broader expansion of hybrid education and further separation of time and space in instruction, (c) polarized enrollment and retention between selective and non-selective institutions, (d) reckoning in admissions around equity and diversity, and (e) new paradigms of international education. The five trends will significantly impact how higher education might be evaluated, operated, and reformed.