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Trends for Higher Education

Trends Inside Higher Education | Spring 2026

Journal Cover
Published March 16, 2026
By Apryl Motley, CAE

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 agentic AI to restructuring initiatives, learn the forces and changes directly impacting higher education, now and in the future.

This issue curates and summarizes 40–50 trends happening inside 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.


Each trend includes a brief trend summary, a footnoted source, and discussion questions to help you analyze and act on the trend.



Want to go further?


  • Learn more about SCUP’s Trends for Higher Education report.
  • Read the related blog post: This issue of Trends references a recent survey of chief online learning officers. It indicates that only 28 percent of respondents reported that faculty members are fully prepared for online course design, and only somewhat more for online teaching (45 percent). These findings don’t surprise Leah Peterson, program coordinator and endowed professor of higher education at Nicholls. Given Peterson’s leadership in transitioning the university’s Master’s in Higher Education program online, we turned to her to gain additional insight into how institutions can help ensure that faculty are better equipped to teach in that format.
  • Stream the related webinar recording: Nicholas Santilli and Ashley Strong-Green lead a dynamic conversation exploring the external forces shaping higher education in 2026. Drawing from SCUP’s Spring 2026 Trends for Higher Education report, they offer their perspectives on what these trends really mean for your institution—and how to act on them.

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