Overview

EDUCAUSE annually conducts a Higher Education Trend Watch to identify issues, trends, and technologies to provide useful information to the learn-and-work community, especially focused on information technology (IT). The 2024 Higher Education Trend Watch is derived from authoritative sources that annually identify emerging and maturing technologies and trends in higher education. Respondents to the related 2024 Top 10 IT Issues survey were provided with a list of 20 IT Issues plus a list of 20 wider trends emerging around the higher education landscape. For each emerging trend, respondents were asked to rate the level of impact on their institution's technology strategy, policies, and/or practice.

Many of the resulting 2024 trend topics and issues are consistent with the 2023 Higher Education Trend Watch. Colleges and universities continue to face challenges with enrollments, rising costs and uncertainty in funding, resignations and migration of leaders and staff (attrition), and increasing security and privacy threats. Many institutions have moved from an early reactive phase to a stronger focus on improvement and sustainability. Examples include:

• More efforts toward digital transformation and institutional resilience, making data-informed decisions, and strengthening their technology infrastructure to protect against growing threats to personal privacy.
• Continuing to implement and improve hybrid and remote work and learning arrangements in response to the demand for flexible learning and work options.
• More attention and resources to individuals' mental health, wellness, and belonging while increasing efforts to create equitable and inclusive environments and experiences.

2024 Trends

• Blurring the lines between course delivery formats in higher education: Hybrid-Flexible (HyFlex), blended, hybrid, flipped, synchronous online, asynchronous online, and virtual learning are varying terms to label online learning, and this array of terms can result in confusion and ineffective communication among a range of stakeholders. A commitment to shared definitions is needed to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations and provide faculty with the foundation to pursue best teaching practices across course modalities.
• Continued alignment of higher education with workforce needs and skills-based learning: The student population will include a larger proportion of adults at later life stages, as the need for lifelong learning and retooling grows. Technology can enable higher education institutions to reach and serve more adult learners more flexibly.
• Continued resignation and migration of leaders and staff from higher education institutions: Large numbers of employees are leaving higher education for a variety of reasons (e.g., remote work opportunities, more work-life balance, increased income). The impacts of these vacancies include worker overload and burnout, and in the future could include a reduction in the number of courses available, fewer enrollment opportunities, and smaller institutional budgets.
• Demand for affordability as public perceptions of higher education’s value is declining: The return on investment of the traditional college degree is under increased scrutiny, and the perceived value of a degree is declining. There is growing demand for affordable education and transparency from institutions in informing potential students about the value of degrees up front.
• Demand for continued hybrid and remote work arrangements: Higher education institutions experimented with widespread remote working models for health and safety reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic but recently many have gone back to an person operations, resulting in push-back from their workforce. Moving forward, some institutions may need to continue to offer hybrid remote work options and expand policies to include a range of scenarios, from flexible weekly schedules to 100% distributed working environments.
• Growing efforts towards digital transformation and institutional resilience: The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated digital transformation and tested higher ed institutions’ ability to respond, adapt, and meet rapidly changing needs. Some institutions are doubling down on these efforts, focusing on building sustainable digital infrastructures, adopting new technology, rebuilding operational strategies, and changing campus culture to ensure these transformations and adaptability are long-term, comprehensive, and mission-driven.
• Growing efforts towards environmental issues and sustainable development goals: As climate issues become increasingly visible, institutions must demonstrate commitment and efforts in sustainability. Institutional policies, operations, and campus development need to align with state and federal mandates for sustainability, higher ed leaders need to affirm the environmental values of their institutions, and environmental issues need to be integrated into academic programs.
• Growth in demand for flexible and non-accredited training, credentialing, and certification programs: Student demand for flexible and nontraditional education pathways is growing, companies increasingly value non-accredited forms of training and education, and more organizations and institutions will seek to hire nontraditional candidates for leadership and staff positions. Microcredentials and stackable credentials may help higher ed institutions attract students in an increasingly competitive market.
• Increased adoption of AI-powered technologies: Higher ed continues to see increased adoption of AI-powered technologies. Although these technologies are meant to improve efficiency and provide predictive capabilities, they have also caused significant disruptions in higher ed (e.g., impact of generative AI on teaching and learning practices). As these tools become more widespread, users need to learn how to minimize disruptions and seek opportunities to harness tools for efficiency, creative endeavors, and improved institutional processes, teaching, and learning experiences.
• Increased adoption of low- and no-code technologies: Higher ed institutions are increasingly adopting low- and no-code technologies as a means of simplifying tasks and developing new applications and content. These technologies are attractive because they allow individuals with little or no coding experience to develop content and apps that would otherwise require expertise in programming.
• Increased efforts towards creating equitable and inclusive environments and experiences: Higher ed institutions will continue to develop and advance their missions and goals for serving and supporting diverse workforces and student populations.
• Increased focus on improving hybrid and online learning: Now out of “emergency remote teaching” mode, many higher ed institutions are focusing on developing sustainable and evidence-based models of hybrid online teaching and learning to support students’ online preferences.
• Increasing need for data security and protection against threats to personal privacy: Some governments will continue to move in the direction of sweeping privacy regulations, while others will remain fragmented in approaches to controlling and safeguarding data. The lack of consistent privacy laws and regulations across state and national borders will result in challenges to compliance and threats to privacy.
• Intensifying debate around the role of higher ed  in addressing social issues: Scrutiny towards social issues is intensifying, and in the U.S., there are heated debates about higher educations’ role in addressing these issues in addition to whether topics such as race, discrimination, gender, and sexual orientation should be incorporated into teaching and learning experiences.
• More attention to well-being and mental health: Well-being and mental health initiatives at colleges and universities will need to support the increasing numbers of students and staff who report anxiety, depression, and related conditions. With shortages of mental health professionals, emerging technology and application solutions will be key in providing mental health support.
• More calls for data-informed decision-making and reporting: Institutions increasingly rely on data and analytics as one solution for building their resilience against broader social, political, and economic shifts. This reliance will require extensive investments in data infrastructures and governance, and intentional and coordinated transformation of institutional culture and operations.
• Need for improved data literacy and skills to keep up with growth in big data and analytics: Degree programs and curricula must meet the shifting demands of industries and an evolving workforce (e.g., automation, gig economy). The higher ed workforce must expand and reskill to accommodate the data and analytics needs of institutions.
• Need for information literacy as misinformation and propaganda remain widespread: Higher ed institutions are increasingly recognizing the need for information literacy. The use of deep-fake videos, believable disinformation, and weaponized social media is becoming more commonplace on the global social and political stages, as well as on the college campus.
• Rising costs and uncertainty about public funding for higher education: Changes in current and potential federal government funding are introducing opportunities, challenges, and uncertainties for institutional bottom lines, often complicating financial planning and outlook.
• Widening and intensifying nationalism and political divides: A rise in nationalism and tensions between socio-political worldviews have led to increasingly heated debates and conflicts on campuses. In the U.S., states are vying for more control and legislation that could benefit higher education will be difficult to pass through a polarized Congress and entrenched political positions.

Resources

2024 Higher Education Trend Watch

Top Issues, Trends, and Technologies | EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE Homepage | EDUCAUSE