Learning Resources

Abstract: Integrated planning prepares your institution for change by ensuring its decisions are informed by realities in the external environment.

What are key movements and trends within higher education? From addressing pandemic learning loss to grappling with generative AI in the classroom, learn the forces and changes directly impacting higher education, now and in the future.

This issue curates and summarizes 40-50 trends happening outside the world of higher education that could impact colleges and universities. Each trend includes a brief summary, a footnoted source, and discussion questions to help you analyze and act on the trend.

Abstract: Join Nick Santilli and Randy Simon for a conversation that will highlight the SCUP Spring Trends Report. This document provides an overview of the important external forces that impact institutional operations—it’s an essential tool for strategic planning, scenario planning, and contingency planning.

Abstract: We’ve organized Trends using STEEP: Social, Technology, Economic, Environmental, and Political. Each trend includes a brief trend summary, a footnoted source, and discussion questions to help you analyze and act on the trend.

Abstract: Have you been keeping up with the trends outside higher education?

No problem! We’ve pulled together the latest trends along with questions you can use for planning and decision-making in SCUP’s fall 2022 Trends for Higher Education report (released September 2022).

What next? Let’s dig a little deeper. Join your community as Nick Santilli and Salvador Aceves share in a conversation that will highlight some of the trends and how you can use the report to help your strategic planning, scenario planning, and contingency planning activities.

Abstract: We’ve organized Trends using STEEP: Social, Technology, Economic, Environmental, and Political. Each trend includes a brief trend summary, a footnoted source, and discussion questions to help you analyze and act on the trend.

Abstract: There are a multitude of internal and external forces that impact higher education, but how can you be intentional about examining and understanding these trends? From finding your way post-pandemic, to demographic shifts and political changes, to social movements and the evolving economy and technology, regular environmental scanning will inform decisions around your strategic plan development or plan implementation.

Join Jim Downey, senior strategy consultant, and Nick Santilli, SCUP’s senior director of learning strategy, as they use SCUP’s Spring 2022 Trends for Higher Education report to explore “What If?” questions in a practical format that will allow your team to pinpoint areas for institutional advancement.

This webinar is a must for anyone serving in a planning capacity in higher education, be it academic, institutional research, institutional effectiveness, campus planning, student affairs, etc.

Abstract: There are a multitude of internal and external forces that impact higher education, but how can you be intentional about examining and understanding these trends? From demographic shifts to political charges to social movements, the evolving economy and technology, regular environmental scanning will inform decisions around your strategic plan development or plan implementation.

Join Jim Downey, former vice president for planning and institutional effectiveness at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and senior strategy consultant, and Nick Santilli, former provost at John Carroll University and SCUP’s senior director of learning strategy, as they use SCUP’s Fall 2021 Trends for Higher Education report to explore “What If?” questions in a practical format that will allow your team to pinpoint areas for institutional advancement.

This webinar is a must for anyone serving in a planning capacity in higher education, be it academic, institutional research, institutional effectiveness, campus planning, student affairs, etc.

Abstract: “What will it take to change the course of more than 2,000 struggling colleges and universities in America?”

This is the opening question posed by higher education futurist Mary Landon Darden in her book Entrepreneuring the Future of Higher Education: Radical Transformation in Times of Profound Change. For colleges and universities that are grappling with an increasingly volatile landscape, Darden offers practical tools, achievable strategies, and a guide for navigating a realistic path towards progress and innovation. Join Lynn Priddy, president and CEO of Claremont Lincoln University, for a conversation with the author in which they explore how a culture of entrepreneurism can lead higher education into a brighter and more sustainable future.

Abstract: We’ve organized Trends using STEEP: Social, Technology, Economic, Environmental, and Political. Each trend includes a brief trend summary, a footnoted source, and discussion questions to help you analyze and act on the trend.

Abstract: Dr. Michael J. Sorrell is the longest-serving president in the 148-year history of Paul Quinn College. During his near 14 years of leadership, Paul Quinn has become a nationally regarded institution for its efforts to remake higher education in order to serve the needs of under-resourced students and their communities.