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Your Higher Education Planning Library

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Trends for Higher Education

Published
November 14, 2025

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Trends for Higher Education | The Student Voices Edition

This special issue of Trends describes student perspectives on four trends featured in recent issues of Trends for Higher Education: AI, personal finances, enrollment and attrition, and international students. Learn more about the opinions, reactions, and perspectives students have about these critical topics, preparing your institution to engage with your students in a more informed way.
Abstract: Integrated planning leverages stakeholder insights and knowledge to make better, more informed decisions. No stakeholder is more important than our students, which is why we’re releasing a special issue of Trends focusing on their perspectives.

This Trends for Higher Education: The Student Voices Edition describes student perspectives on four trends featured in recent issues of Trends for Higher Education. Campus Sonar, a social listening firm, collected data from social platforms like Reddit and X to analyze what students are saying about artificial intelligence, their personal finances, enrollment and attrition decisions, and international students.

Learn more about the opinions, reactions, and perspectives students have about these critical issues, preparing your institution to engage with your students in a more informed way.

Use this report to:
  • Inform your student stakeholder engagement strategies
  • Develop questions for student surveys and focus groups
  • Benchmark against findings from your student stakeholder engagement efforts
  • Add context to what you’ve learned about your students and their perspectives

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Conference Presentations

Published
July 23, 2024

Visioning for Campus Planning to Enhance the Student Experience

By: Christian Bushong, Associate | Juan Familia, Student | Ryan Glick, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, Third Year Design Studio Coordinator | Melissa Maisey, Student | Jill Sirota, Design Manager, Associate| Melanie Taylor, Student

This student panel will exchange ideas on the impacts of capital planning in three phases: on campus today, at graduation, and ten years in the future. An educator and design expert will join students from Philadelphia-based institutions to share their perspectives on how short and long-term visioning for campus planning can create more engaging, inclusive, and impactful student experiences.
Abstract: This student panel will exchange ideas on the impacts of capital planning in three phases: on campus today, at graduation, and ten years in the future. An educator and design expert will join students from Philadelphia-based institutions to share their perspectives on how short and long-term visioning for campus planning can create more engaging, inclusive, and impactful student experiences. Planners are considering the experiences students seek while on campus, and how perceived impressions differ from the reality of renovations. This interactive discussion will offer live feedback on trends and issues around recruitment, retention, campus culture, and sense of belonging.

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Conference Presentations

Published
July 22, 2024

Addressing the Demographic Cliff: Community College Perspectives

By: Abigail Dohanos, Dean for the School of Liberal Arts & Sciences | Woody Giles, Senior Associate | Yogesh Saoji, Planning and Urban Design Leader | John Wiggins, FMP, Associate Vice President of Facilities and Construction

Community colleges are facing enrollment declines and demographic shifts.
Abstract: Community colleges are facing enrollment declines and demographic shifts. To overcome these challenges, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) and Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) are implementing innovative initiatives, partnerships, and projects that address declining enrollments and surplus space through integrated planning. In this session, we'll show how urban community colleges are working to attract and retain students while using spatial re-organization to deal with surplus space and leveraging vacant and aging facilities for student services and community spaces.

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Report

Published
July 3, 2024

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When City Parks Are Your Quad

Urban Campus Planning for Safety and Well-Being

By: Joel Pettigrew, MA, Higher Education Administrator and Strategist

This is a SCUP Fellow Research Project Final Report for the 2022–2023 program. This report explores how the urban campus can best support student development in a safe, yet open environment.
Abstract: How can the campus best support student development in a safe, yet open environment? On an urban campus, these concerns are intensified: There is much more localized activity for students to engage with in their city environment, and many more stakeholders influence how the institution can assert itself in that environment.

In this 2022-2023 SCUP Fellow research report, Joel Pettigrew reflects on how campus edge dynamics and student sense of security play out at several urban campuses. Pettigrew weaves together his operational understanding of campus life with a design understanding of how planners and architects approach the campus to explore how these “two languages” inform student security and well-being, and notes in conclusion that there are many research threads yet to follow.

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Conference Presentations

Published
March 19, 2024

Designing Beyond the Binary to Foster Belonging

By: Melissa Falkenstien, University of California-Irvine | Elizabeth MacPherson Hearn, Mithun | K Kaczmarek, Mithun | Jennifer Nelson Martinez, University of California-Irvine

This session will present case studies and inclusive best practices for 'designing beyond the binary' to foster belonging in campus housing, restrooms, and gathering spaces.
Abstract: Today’s students are coming to school with diverse gender identities. Designing facilities with gender equity in mind helps to support marginalized communities and future proof the campus. This session will present case studies and inclusive best practices for ‘designing beyond the binary’ to foster belonging in campus housing, restrooms, and gathering spaces. You’ll discover strategies to foster belonging and wellbeing for a spectrum of gender identities through programming and operations as well as learn about design tools and tips to create belonging in spatial environments.

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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
December 15, 2023

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Survival of the Financially Fittest

Leverage Strategic Decision-Making and Key Financial Metrics to Achieve Financial Stability

By: Aaron Meis, EdD, and Julee Gard, EdD

Leaders must look closely at financial trends that may reveal signs of trouble—in the short or immediate term—and have the courage to act to address them.

From Volume 52 Number 1 | October–December 2023

Abstract: This article explores a methodology for assessing and managing the financial viability of private, tuition-dependent institutions as well as institutional tactics and strategies used to improve their financial strength. The resulting model will help institutions understand the trends and predictive value of key financial metrics directly impacting their liquidity and operations and how senior leadership can drive change. Institutional examples illustrate how to engage senior leadership in strategic decision-making that includes assessment of revenue growth and/or expense management.

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Webinar Recordings

Published
May 24, 2023

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Destination 2030

The Need for Transformation Architects

By: Edward Inch, PhD, Minnesota State University – Mankato | Lynn Akey, PhD, Minnesota State University – Mankato | Linda Baer, PhD, Strategic Initiatives and Minnesota State University – Mankato

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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
February 14, 2023

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Book Review: The Agile College

How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes

By: Bryan C. Harvey, EdD

From Volume 51 Number 2 | January–March 2023

Abstract: The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes
by Nathan D. Grawe
Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore: 2021
298 pages
ISBN: 978-1421440231

Does hope motivate action or complacency? Does crisis induce change or despair? Nathan D. Grawe readily acknowledges this tension in The Agile College, his follow-up book to his 2018 Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. The latter propelled the inescapable discussion throughout higher education of the looming “demographic cliff.” The Agile College suggests how agile institutions might prevent demography from becoming destiny.

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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
December 12, 2022

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Social Mobility and the Graduation Rate Paradox

Can You Advance One and Avoid the Other?

By: Roy Mathew, PhD, Elsa Bonilla-Martin, PhD, Luis A Aguirre, MS, and Naoko Tsuboi, MA

By using a metric-based planning framework, researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso identified areas for institutional intervention to enhance social mobility outcomes.

From Volume 51 Number 1 | October–December 2022

Abstract: Social mobility is an emerging area of focus for higher education institutions. In recent years, we have seen a proliferation of measures related to social mobility produced by publishers, scholars, think tanks, and foundations. However, it is still unclear which social mobility measures to advance, or when to intervene to improve social mobility outcomes. We rely on a century of literature from economics, sociology, and policy analysis to identify an appropriate framework to understand higher education’s contribution to social mobility. Using the metric-based planning framework, we identify areas for institutional intervention to enhance social mobility outcomes.

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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
June 8, 2022

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Seven Lessons in Inclusive Campus Design

Learn How the University of Kentucky Developed Its First DEI Facilities and Spaces Plan

By: Mary Anne Ocampo, MArch, MAUD | Mary S. Vosevich, MBA | Katrice Albert, PhD

Institutions are starting to grapple with histories of developing indigenous lands and the legacy of an able-bodied vernacular within campus design that continues to reinforce in-groups and out-groups.

From Volume 50 Number 3 | April–June 2022

Abstract: A global health crisis intersecting with a racial reckoning has led to a renewed commitment to reflect on complex histories and plan for more inclusive futures on many American campuses. Institutions, which benefitted from traditional hierarchies of power, are starting to grapple with histories of developing indigenous lands and the legacy of a western and able-bodied vernacular within campus design that continues to reinforce in-groups and out-groups. The authors are presently leading first-of-their-kind DEI planning initiatives; in this article they unpack how a public institution is meeting their past head-on to plan better futures.

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