- Planning Types
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A framework that helps you develop more effective planning processes.
- Challenges
Challenges
Discussions and resources around the unresolved pain points affecting planning in higher education—both emergent and ongoing.
Common Challenges
- Learning Resources
Learning Resources
Featured Formats
Popular Topics
- Conferences & Programs
Conferences & Programs
Upcoming Events
- Community
Community
The SCUP community opens a whole world of integrated planning resources, connections, and expertise.
Get Connected
Give Back
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Access a world of integrated planning resources, connections, and expertise-become a member!
- Planning Types
Planning Types
Focus Areas
-
A framework that helps you develop more effective planning processes.
- Challenges
Challenges
Discussions and resources around the unresolved pain points affecting planning in higher education—both emergent and ongoing.
Common Challenges
- Learning Resources
Learning Resources
Featured Formats
Popular Topics
- Conferences & Programs
Conferences & Programs
Upcoming Events
- Community
Community
The SCUP community opens a whole world of integrated planning resources, connections, and expertise.
Get Connected
Give Back
-
Access a world of integrated planning resources, connections, and expertise-become a member!
Higher Ed Trends
Planning for Higher Education Journal
‘Smart Change’ for Turbulent Times
Higher education faces a very real threat today. In confronting the fallout from COVID-19, colleges and universities are pushed toward making a transformative change. What will that require? A commitment to adaptation, innovation, change management, meeting the most critical student needs, and leaders who stand up to the challenges.Webinar Recordings
5 Questions About the Future of Higher Education
Join Jim Downey, vice president of planning and institutional effectiveness at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and Nick Santilli, SCUP’s senior director of learning, as they use SCUP’s Fall 2020 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.Blog
5 Ways to Use Environmental Scanning
The practice of environmental scanning is often a first step in the strategic planning process. Typically, planning teams engage in an exhaustive analysis of the internal and external forces acting on the institution to set the planning context. But should scanning the internal and external environment be limited to the early phases of strategic planning?Planning for Higher Education Journal
A Resource and Planning Toolkit for Universities in Africa
There is a significant gap in the level of development of higher education processes and structures between the institutions of the developing world and the well-established universities of places like North America and Europe.Report
Aligning the Strategic Campus Plan With the Institutional Mission in 2030
This study reviews the scholarly literature and the expert views of practitioners in campus planning (both virtual and physical) to forecast how campuses might evolve between now and 2030.Trends for Higher Education
Are You Prepared for Tomorrow’s Students? | Spring 2016
Blog
Back to The Future
October 2021 marks Planning for Higher Education’s 50th issue! To celebrate, we’re looking back at earlier articles in Planning to reflect on how things change (and, sometimes, how they don’t). Although not a totally new concept, the need for data-informed decision-making in higher education today requires contemporary knowledge and skill from institutional research (IR) colleagues. They transform data into actionable information nuanced with contextualized insights that are essential in integrated academic planning.Planning for Higher Education Journal
Book Review: Campus Crisis Management
Planning for Higher Education Journal
Book Review: Higher Education Business Models Under Stress
Webinar Recordings
Campus Sustainability
At SCUP, we recognize that climate crisis, social justice, and sustainability are some of the biggest challenges facing higher education. And we believe that the practice of integrated planning will assist campuses develop the strong partnerships required to create durable solutions. Join us for a discussion that includes how you can start today.Planning for Higher Education Journal
Change Agent Leadership
Change agent leadership must identify future trends and needs, lead change agendas, invest in what makes a difference, and remain authentic and courageous.Webinar Recordings
Coffee Chat: Maker Movement
Amid the pandemic, makers on campuses across the world have pitched in by crafting 3-D printed face shields, ventilator components, and other life-saving innovations. The value of the maker movement is apparent; but how do we adjust maker spaces to a quarantined, social-distancing world? SCUP members Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham and Heather Taylor moderated this discussion.Webinar Recordings
Coffee Chat: Moving Online
Transitioning to a Learning Management System (LMS) has been one of the most significant challenges an institution will manage, even prior to the unique challenges emerging around the COVID-19 pandemic. Doug Murphy, Dean of Operations at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, has overseen several LMS transitions in his career, and moderated this discussion.Webinar Recordings
Coffee Chat: Planning for an Uncertain Future
Campuses and businesses share a common challenge—business continuity in a new landscape. How is it working? How do we plan for an uncertain future? Where should we invest and prioritize? SCUP members Deborah Shepley and John White moderated this discussion.Webinar Recordings
Coffee Chat: Speculating Higher Education Priorities & Trends Post Pandemic
From Ayers Saint Gross, Jessica Leonard, Associate Principal, and Laura Hall, Associate, moderated this Coffee Chat on how will the COVID-19 pandemic might impact higher education.Webinar Recordings
Coffee Chat: The Physical-Virtual Nature of Learning Design
The COVID-19 disruption will accelerate the connection of the physical campus to the virtual learning experience. Planners who think of their campuses as large, interactive gameboards designed to connect students and faculty with virtually integrated architecture will have an advantage. Gaming gives us planning clues to build now for our learning demands. SCUPers Brady Mick and Lauren Della Bella moderated this discussion.Conference Recordings
Demographics, Defaults, Disillusionment, Disruption
This session will show how Innovation Theory can help institutions thrive in learning's new golden age rather than falling under the scythe of the industry's most daunting challenges, the most urgent of which is COVID-19.Planning for Higher Education Journal
Digitizing Education
As students work with virtual cohorts, classrooms evolve into totally flexible spaces using ubiquitous mobile technology to communicate anywhere, anytime.Planning for Higher Education Journal
DIY U
Example Plans
Environmental Scan Series
A series of thorough, heavily sourced environmental scanning reports developed by the institution’s institutional effectiveness department to support its strategic planning process.Trends for Higher Education
Evolution of Higher Education | Spring 2017
Trends for Higher Education
Evolution of Higher Education | Spring 2018
This edition focuses broadly on change in higher education.Report
Examining Naming Issues on Campus
This is a SCUP Fellow Research Project Final Report for the 2020–2021 program. This report summarizes the specific cases of US institutions that addressed a problematic building or facility naming issue between 2014 and 2021 and what each of them chose to do when faced with this challenging decision.Webinar Recordings
Facilities Planning for Community Colleges
The planning team for Portland Community College will discuss lessons learned while practicing equity to create an inclusive Facilities Plan for Oregon’s largest higher education institution on thresholds of global, local, and institutional shifts.Conference Recordings
Higher Education’s Financial Trajectory
Moody's will discuss the financial outlook for the higher education sector over the next two years and beyond.Webinar Recordings
How Do You Grow and Sustain Indispensable Planners?
Institutional transformation requires more than a planner or a strategist—it requires a transformation architect. How can leaders grow and support transformation architects? The authors of Transforming for Turbulent Times: An Action Agenda for Higher Education Leaders, share three sets of actions needed to enable and empower transformation architects.Conference Presentations
How Is My Institution Going to Survive the Coming Demographic Cliff?
Conference Presentations
How Open Source Learning Could Revolutionize Education Delivery
Trends for Higher Education
Implications From the External Environment | Fall 2017
Trends for Higher Education
Implications From the Internal Environment | Spring 2019
This edition focuses primarily on forces of change from inside academe that may drive further evolution in colleges and universities.Trends for Higher Education
Implications of the External Environment | Fall 2018
We look through an array of lenses outside the world of higher education to gain some perspective on issues and opportunities that appear to be on the horizon—or at our doors.Conference Recordings
Innovative Universities of the Future
In this session, a historian and an architect will share conceptual new forms for innovation, exploring structures for hybrid education and speculative designs from five 'reinvented' universities.Webinar Recordings
Insights from SCUP’s Fall 2022 Trends for Higher Education Report
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.Webinar Recordings
Insights from SCUP’s Spring 2022 Trends in Higher Education Report
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.Planning for Higher Education Journal
Institutions Can Say They Encourage Staff DEI Professional Development . . .
This study examined professional development strategies for higher education professionals in the context of the post-George Floyd-era.Conference Recordings
Keynote | Katherine Newman
As the chief academic officer of the University of Massachusetts system and as a labor market sociologist, Katherine Newman will provide valuable insight on how global changes are affecting the academic, research, and public service mission of higher education.Conference Recordings
Keynote: Amidst Converging Storms | Part One
In the first of two keynotes focusing on higher education’s “perfect storm,” a cross-disciplinary panel will speak to their current challenges in opening their campuses this fall, whether it be in-person, virtually, or in a hybrid capacity.Conference Recordings
Keynote: Amidst Converging Storms | Part Two
In the second of two keynotes focusing on higher education’s “perfect storm”—the confluence of a global pandemic, financial crisis, shifting demographics, and a changing culture—a cross-disciplinary panel will discuss their integrated planning strategies for moving from a state of triage to transformation.Trends for Higher Education
Looking at the External Environment | Fall 2015
Blog
Looking for Leaders
To gain insight into how institutions can launch and manage effective leadership searches in this highly competitive market, we turned to SCUP Board of Directors Member Margaret (Peggy) Plympton, a principal at AGB Search.Conference Recordings
Planning for the Virtual Learning Campus Landscape
This session will share stories and lessons learned from two institutions regarding their campus adaptations in an effort to improve student retention.Conference Recordings
Post-Pandemic Pivots
In this session, we’ll explore how to step back from moments of crisis and see them in perspective, as moments also brimming with opportunity to regroup, rethink our strategies and refocus our resources to lead.Conference Recordings
President’s Panel
In this session, three college and university presidents from the United States, Canada, and Europe will reflect on how we can transform and reimagine higher education for the future.Planning for Higher Education Journal
Prioritizing Campus Diversity Budgets
Researchers learned that if diversity initiatives were a strategic priority for an institution, the 2020 financial crisis did little to reduce budget allocations.Planning for Higher Education Journal
Realizing the Distinctive University
Conference Recordings
SCUP Fellow Presentation | Naming Issues on Campus
In this session, we’ll describe the trends, challenges, and opportunities related to re-naming and de-naming on campus.Planning for Higher Education Journal
Seven Lessons in Inclusive Campus Design
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.Planning for Higher Education Journal
Singapore and Mexico Are Inventing the 21st-Century Campus
At leading universities in Mexico and Singapore, bold shifts in pedagogy and planning are reimagining the very core of the college experience.Blog
Strategies for Engaging Faculty in Change
In difficult times, planning and the successful implementation of that planning requires the buy-in and support of a range of stakeholders—particularly the faculty. We interviewed Sandra Patterson-Randles, chancellor emerita and professor of English at Indiana University Southeast, to discuss how to best engage faculty in planning initiatives.Report
Succeeding at Planning Survey Report
SCUP partnered with the Baker Strategy Group in 2015 to conduct a study with more than 2,200 leaders who plan at colleges and universities. Several themes emerged around planning challenges and how to respond, which are explored in this report.Planning for Higher Education Journal
The 2016 Inside Higher Ed Survey of Community College Presidents
This is a reprint of a study by Gallup® and Inside Higher Ed published in April 2016.Planning for Higher Education Journal
The Adult Student
Conference Presentations
The Campus 2050 Initiative
Report
The Connected Campus
Campus environments play a vital role in student success. By making changes to their combination of spaces, institutions can respond to the shifts transforming higher education. Elliot Felix shares how colleges and universities can prepare for a more blended world by bringing together the digital and physical, enabling greater diversity and inclusion, and implementing flexible structures, staffing, space, and services. Sponsored Content: Knoll and brightspot strategy.Conference Recordings
The Future Campus
A panel of three institutions and a learning technologist will offer their diverse perspectives on these issues and how they're influencing the physical and virtual campus environment: an unprecedented pandemic; rapidly-accelerating climate change; a mobile technology-enabled society; and critical issues of diversity, equity, and inclusionTrends for Higher Education
The Future of Learning | Fall 2016
Conference Recordings
The Higher Education Federal Policy Landscape
As we approach the first six months of a new administration and Congress, Terry Hartle, Senior Vice President of Government and Public Affairs at the American Council on Education, will provide perspective on the impact so far of the changes to the political landscape from the 2020 elections and the potential public policy road ahead for higher education and accreditation.Webinar Recordings
The Indispensable Planner
Learn more about how planners can play a new, indispensable role—transformation architect—in helping their institutions transform to meet current challenges. The authors of the new book, Transforming for Turbulent Times: An Action Agenda for Higher Education Leaders, describe this transformative role, why planners are obvious candidates for the role, and the new mindset, behaviors, knowledge, and skills they will need to fulfill it.Planning for Higher Education Journal
The Next Great Wave in American Higher Education
Conference Recordings
The Paradigm Shift for Higher Education
Join us to discuss the postsecondary education paradigm shift and its potential impact on our educational infrastructure, ecosystem, and role.Webinar Recordings
The Planner’s Bookshelf: Entrepreneuring the Future of Higher Education
Join Lynn Priddy, president and CEO of Claremont Lincoln University, for a conversation with higher education futurist Mary Landon Darden, in which they explore—via Darden’s book—how a culture of entrepreneurism can lead higher education into a brighter and more sustainable future.Report
The SCUP Academy Report 2013
This report synthesizes the trends observed by more than 90 members of SCUP’s planning academies through the 2012 fall concurrent session proposal review process for SCUP’s 2013 annual, international conference (SCUP–48).Report
The SCUP Academy Report 2014
This report synthesizes the trends observed by more than 90 members of SCUP’s planning academies through the 2013 fall concurrent session proposal review process for SCUP’s 2014 annual, international conference (SCUP–49).Conference Presentations
Three Revolutions
In this session, we’ll unpack how higher education leaders can leverage integrated planning to get ready for and make the most of the compelling revolutions at hand.Blog
Today’s Landscape for Non-Degree Credentials
We recently spoke with Michelle Van Noy about research she has completed in the area of non-degree credentials, including development of a framework for measuring credential quality. Dr. Van Noy is the Director of the Education and Employment Research Center at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.Webinar Recordings
Transformation Best Practices in the Decade Ahead
Inexorable challenges demand that higher education transform . . . and that transformation needs to start now. Learn more about these challenges and the knowledge, skills, and capabilities an institution needs to transform in the coming decade from the authors of the new book Transforming for Turbulent Times: An Action Agenda for Higher Education Leaders.ebook
Transforming for Turbulent Times
Transforming for Turbulent Times: An Action Agenda for Higher Education Leaders can prepare your institution for the new learning ecosystem that will revolutionize work and learning by 2030. This book outlines a proven, eight-step process for planning, leading, navigating, and orchestrating the transformation necessary to thrive in the new world of knowledge, work, and learning. Whatever your role in your college, university, or learning enterprise, you’ll learn the principles, techniques, and actions that will make you indispensable to its transformation in these turbulent times.Planning for Higher Education Journal
Trends in Accreditation
Dr. Lynn Priddy answers questions posed by education writer Stephen G. Pelletier related to changes in accreditation and their effect on institutions and students.Trends for Higher Education
Trends Inside and Outside Higher Education | Fall 2019
How is the world changing outside of higher education, and how is higher education responding to change? This report focuses on trends both inside and outside higher education.Trends for Higher Education
Trends Inside Higher Education | Spring 2020
The pace of change keeps speeding up. This issue focuses on forces and changes directly impacting higher education, now and in the future.Trends for Higher Education
Trends Inside Higher Education | Spring 2021
Within the world of higher education, what are some of today’s key trends—and what are some implications for institutions of higher learning? While the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn much of our focus for a year now, we continue to keep our eyes on other trends and forces. This issue broadly explores trends inside higher education.Trends for Higher Education
Trends Inside Higher Education | Spring 2022
Within the world of higher education, what are some of today’s key trends—and what are some implications for institutions of higher learning?Trends for Higher Education
Trends Outside Higher Education | Fall 2020
How is the world outside your institution changing? While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact every aspect of our lives, other trends and forces are worth watching. This issue broadly explores trends outside higher education.Trends for Higher Education
Trends Outside Higher Education | Fall 2021
From the ongoing COVID–19 pandemic to the impacts of climate change, colleges and universities continue to face an environment that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous—VUCA. Learn the key trends and movements that might become our “new normal.” This issue broadly explores trends outside of higher education.Trends for Higher Education
Trends Outside Higher Education | Fall 2022
This edition focuses primarily on forces outside academe that may drive change in colleges and universities.Webinar Recordings
Trends that Impact Higher Education Planning
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.Trends for Higher Education
Trends: Canada 2020
This special issue of Trends focuses on the forces and events affecting Canadian higher education. Our guest editors contributed observations, trends, and insights based on their work within Canadian colleges and universities.Conference Presentations
Using Integrated Planning to Respond to Disruption in Higher Education
Conference Recordings
Using SCUPs Campus Facilities Inventory (CFI) to Inform Your Integrated Planning
In this session, we will explore some of the findings from the 2021 CFI benchmarking and hear from a panel of institutions about changes they are making and using CFI data to inform their planning efforts.Webinar Recordings
What If?
Two SCUP leaders use SCUP’s Trends for Higher Education report to explore five “What If?” questions, breaking down big trends and exploring how these trends might impact higher education.Conference Presentations
What You Want to Know About Assessment But Are Afraid to Ask
This session will help you define assessment-related terms and will provide an overview of assessment and accreditation trends that could impact your institution.Conference Presentations
When Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Meet Integrated Campus Planning