Trusteeship - November/December 2021 - 32

FORUM
COVID-19 crisis (essentially half of the total
$77 billion provided to higher education).
A key tenet of strategies for organizations
is to see differentiation in the eyes of consumers.
The goal is to set your institution
apart from others in terms of dimensions
that are important to customers (such as
students, parents, and employers). Unfortunately,
higher education suffers from widespread
isomorphism, as so many universities
try to resemble each other rather than differentiating.
Much of this is driven by the ranking
systems, such as that published by U.S.
News & World Report, which compare all
universities by the same metrics-whether
or not they are related to a unique mission.
In the future, universities will need
to specialize and differentiate what they
offer the market, given decreasing student
enrollments and the resulting increased
competition. Separating from the status
quo will require courageous leadership, as
exemplified by Michael Crow at Arizona
State University (ASU). A minor tweak to
their mission statement, to be evaluated
by whom they " include " vs. whom they
" exclude, " has had significant impact on
operating strategies as well. As they moved
away from the mind-set of a lower acceptance
rate was the goal, they adjusted their
offerings accordingly, in particular by providing
more online education to a different
type of student and evaluated their success
by the positive student outcomes.
Accessibility and online education are
both destined for growth if we are truly
committed to democratizing higher education
and thinking of it more as a " right "
than a " privilege. " Again, ASU, as well as
Southern New Hampshire University, were
leading in this space through lower tuition
strategies and significant investment in
online education capabilities well before
the pandemic moved so many students into
the virtual world. The outcomes? The number
of students at ASU is approximately
140,000 with a goal of 300,000 over the next
three years, including major partnerships
with corporations such as Starbucks, who
32 TRUSTEESHIP NOV.DEC.2021
offer a free college degree to employees
through online program offerings.
Two more macro trend dimensions have
accelerated during COVID-19 times-virtual
campus services and intercompany
partnerships. The leading virtual campus
services benefiting from a " forced experiment "
as employees were working from
home, include IT support, mental health
counseling, class advising, and financial aid
transactions. Intercompany partnerships
will continue to expand-both interuniversity
and between universities and private
companies. There is a national trend afoot
whereby universities are " affiliating " for
joint degree programs as well as shared
administrative services. Private-public
partnerships are also on the rise, in areas
such as utilities, parking, and other auxiliary
services that can be better managed by
a professional service provider, with cash
going to the university up front in exchange
for long-term predictable contracts. There
is also a need for universities to be more relevant
to industry partners-both in terms
of majors as well as research.
The changes described above may even
shift the organizational structure of universities,
with increased consolidation and the
emergence of large national (even international)
universities that scale their unique
competitive assets (such as online education)
in partnership with or market-share
capture from other universities. In other
words, we may finally see a more competitive
market structure in higher education,
resembling most other industries including
health care. Faculty, which traditionally
align almost exclusively with one university
at a time, will become more " free agents "
and move fluidly between multiple universities
for teaching and research opportunities.
Finally, as described above, online education
will grow-both for hybrid residential
programs as well as fully virtual. The target
audience for these programs will be nontraditional-age
students, essentially developing
around a lifelong education strategy. The
programs offered will also shift from traditional
degrees to more certificates as badges
along the way that are much more customized
and tailored to employer demands for
skills and knowledge.
The Strategy Refresh
Now that we have reviewed the key dimensions
of what may happen in higher education
over the next decade, we must now
integrate those insights into the strategic
plan for your institution. There are four
key priority areas that require significant
conversation for your board meetings and
retreats: purpose, products, partnerships,
and profitability.
Purpose
Does your university have a unique value
proposition that speaks to external and
internal constituents in a clear concise way?
My research suggests that there is a great
amount of isomorphism in higher education.
For example, I am working with a university
that set a vision to become a top 100 university
in 10 years. As part of our analysis, we
created a database of the top 100 universities
and looked at all of their key operating metrics
and strategy statements. We found that
there appeared to be very strong similarities
in the words used in their mission statements
such as " academic, " " commitment, " " impact, "
" serve, " " students, " and " society. "
Of course, we would expect similarity
in the mission of higher education institutions,
but I recommend that universities
strive to find some unique aspect of their
identify for what I call mission, values, and
visions slogans. For example, the new slogans
were created as part of a recent strategy
refresh project from this summer, not
to replace past strategic planning and " full "
strategy statements but to compliment the
ideas and make them easier to remember.
Mission: Creating leaders to impact society
Values: Respect for one another in all that
we do
Vision: Become the most modern global
university
Trusteeship - November/December 2021

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