Applying tactics to develop strategy: envisioning the Future of Higher Education

Meghan E. Norris¹ and Steven M. Smith²

¹Queen’s University
²Saint Mary’s University

Introduction

Have you ever watched children learning to play soccer or hockey? They tend to all chase the ball or puck, with everyone chasing that thing which is most salient for them: the thing that everyone wants. The thing that will score a goal. Experienced players know that chasing the ball or puck is not the best strategy to scoring a goal, however. You don’t go where the puck is….you go where the puck is going. Taking this perspective allows us to understand that there is always a broader lens that needs to be used to properly envision and achieve the goal.

Just as in sports, successful approaches to higher education require the development and implementation of a more comprehensive strategy. Chasing a “thing,” such as enrolment targets, a new program, CRM software implementation, although salient and satisfying in the immediate, are alone unlikely to win the long game. Institutions, and individuals, need to take a comprehensive approach to higher education: supporting the academic mission by recruiting students, faculty, and staff, and then actively developing and promoting their skills and talent, nurturing their next steps whatever they may be.

What then is the academic mission? Academic missions vary by institution type and location. For example, some institutions are research-forward, providing substantial support to basic and applied science and discovery. Some institutions are teaching-forward with less focus on discovery and more on developing students in their respective areas of study. Other institutions may have explicit expectations of supporting their surrounding communities through various types of programming, such as extension programs found in land-grant institutions in the United States. Of course, many institutions carry a mix of these mandates and more. Thus, the path to supporting academic missions can, and should, vary depending on the needs of a given institution.

An important question arises: why should we care about higher education? Higher education is expensive. In Canada, undergraduate students spend an average of $6,693 CAD each year in tuition alone (Statistics Canada, 2021a), approximately half of graduating undergraduate students have debt, with the average debt being approximately $20,000 CAD (Statistics Canada, 2020), and pursuing higher education requires a significant investment of time. That said, there are many benefits to higher education, also supported by data from Statistics Canada (e.g., Statistics Canada, 2021b). To highlight a few:

• Higher education continues to be associated with higher income (see Statistics Canada, 2024)
• The majority of students who pursue higher education report being happy with their jobs (Statistics Canada, 2019)
• Higher levels of education and income are associated with longer lives, with more time spent in good health (Bushnik et al., 2020)

These trends are not just Canadian. For example, pulling on data from the United States, in 2022, the employment rate is higher for those with post-secondary (87% of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher were employed, versus 61% of those who had not completed high school) (National Centre for Education Statistics, 2023).

It is important that we recognize that the benefits of post-secondary extend beyond the individual students who attend, and benefits are greater than employment alone. There are many societal benefits associated with post-secondary including significantly increased civic engagement as demonstrated by increased likelihood to vote (Uppal & LaRochelle-Côté, 2016), increased rates of volunteering and charitable giving (e.g., DeClou, 2014) and increased rates of blood donation (Baum & Paea, 2005). Post-secondary institutions also play a critical role in the Canadian research landscape (e.g., Industry Canada, 2001), develop future highly skilled professionals such as health care workers, provide community access to libraries and scholarly talks, support community engagement activities, offer recreation events and space, and more. Colleges and universities are also important economic contributors to their communities, employing 410,000 people in Canada and generating $40 billion in direct expenditures in 2021 (and much more in indirect expenditures) (Universities Canada, 2024). Similarly, over 3.6 million people worked in post-secondary education in the US in 2023 (Lederman, 2024).

Given the many benefits associated with post-secondary, the wide variety of academic missions, and the many outcomes associated with post-secondary, the question of “strategy” becomes quickly nuanced.  We created this book to share thoughts from experts at the front lines of post-secondary education who are looking to what the future holds for our institutions, students, and communities. Strategies should not be built in vacuums. In this volume we aim to outline some considerations to be considered when building strategy in post-secondary. Our belief is that education is intended to provide a toolbox of knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences. This toolbox must be both broad enough, and deep enough, to be foundational for future learning and applicable in a wide range of contexts. Employment and careers are obvious outcome goals that many think of with respect to post-secondary, and it should be clear that although important, they are not the only outcomes we should be concerned with. The chapters included in this volume will help to highlight considerations across a variety of contexts with the aim of continually developing an inclusive, enriched, deep, and sustainable post-secondary sector for the many positive outcomes associated with post-secondary.

The need for post-secondary to provide a strong and flexible foundation for the future has never been clearer. We are in a time of rapid local, global, and technological change, and the impacts on individuals and society are significant. By March of 2020, Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO, and post-secondary institutions, and many other sectors, worked rapidly to pivot online or close completely (see Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023 for a timeline). Political unrest has been salient both locally and globally. For example, there have been concerns with risks of election fraud stemming from the 2016 Presidential election in the USA (Mueller, 2019), there was significant disruption in Ottawa due to the “Freedom Convoy/Convoi de la liberté” in 2022 (Public Safety Canada, 2022), and there are current, significant conflicts happening between Russia and Ukraine, and within Gaza. These are just some of the recent examples of social and political unrest. The skills and knowledge needed at a given moment can quickly change. A broad and deep toolbox allows individuals to effectively identify and use appropriate tools for the context.

In addition to social and political unrest, there have been rapid increases in technological capabilities. For those in post-secondary sectors, Generative AI is likely one of the most salient innovations to hit the sector since the widespread introduction of the internet. On November 30, 2022, ChatGPT was released by OpenAI (n.d.). ChatGPT is an example of Generative AI based in Large Language Models (LLMs), and at the time of this writing, is capable of providing rapid, relatively thorough responses to fairly detailed prompts, that are virtually undetectable as AI generated. On May 13, 2024, ChatGPT-4o was released by OpenAI, including increased abilities related to auditory and visual stimuli, in addition to text-based abilities. Of course, whether this information is accurate and ethical is an ongoing discussion. It is however, highlighting the need for critical consumers (and generators) of content. For example, OpenAI released an auditory chatbot that sounded remarkably like actress Scarlett Johansson after she declined willingness to have her voice used in this way (Murphy & McMahon, 2024). During the 2024 MetGala, Artificial Intelligence created a false image of Katy Perry attending the event in a gorgeous dress. It was so realistic that even Katy Perry’s mother believed it to be true (Kircher, 2024). On May 24, 2024, Google was widely criticized for a significant error in its artificial intelligence software called AI Overview which integrates with its search engine. AI Overview reported that former US President Obama is Muslim (he is not) (Field, 2024).

It is easy to villainize technology–many uses can be manipulative and promote falsehoods. But, technology can also be used for good. Highlighting the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence, in the below short videos created with the software HeyGen (https://www.heygen.com/), author Meghan demonstrates how “easy” it is to create videos in one language and have them presented as if speaking in another. Note that Meghan does not speak German, and even her German colleague was impressed with her apparent tone and delivery. To be totally clear: the video in German is not Meghan speaking. The software took her English video, manipulated her voice, language, and facial movements, to make it appear as her words were being spoken in German.

It is easy to see how much benefit can be gained for education through tools such as those that translate videos in authentic ways–suddenly language and intonation are no longer barriers. However, there is a need to be able to verify authenticity. For example, a manipulated video of a professor cancelling an exam could be quite problematic.

Issues related to authenticity open important and necessary conversations about instances of academic integrity in ways we have not yet had to consider. Academic integrity is often thought of as “not plagiarizing,” but actually encompasses a much broader array of professional behaviours in academia. Broadly, academic integrity rests on 6 values that should be practiced and upheld within academic contexts: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage (International Centre for Academic Integrity, 2021). Misrepresenting thoughts, ideas, and individuals clearly undermines values such as honesty, trust, and responsibility. Importantly, not acting when we know this is happening is a failure to show responsibility and courage. An ongoing frontier is how to act when such actions occur. There is a dearth of regulation, especially surrounding technology, and there are grey zones: banning technology is clearly not the answer as it can provide great benefits. Any fulsome strategy in post-secondary must include considerations of integrity.

It must be said that campuses are composed of people. Students, and their learning, are paramount when considering strategy. Their development, wellness, success, and learning are overlapping, but distinct, concepts, each requiring care-filled strategy. Yet students are also not the only people on campus. Campuses are rich communities with full- and part-time staff, volunteers, full- and part-time professors on a variety of career tracks, administrators, and additional invested parties. Their development, wellness, and learning are also vital when considering strategy. At the big picture level, campuses are embedded within broader communities, neighbourhoods, cities, and beyond. The opportunities for positive, ongoing, enriching relationships between campuses and communities are vast, benefiting all involved. Post-secondary education and institutions need not, and should not, be an ivory tower. Comprehensive post-secondary strategy should include considerations of the environments in which campus community members live and work, their wellness, and considerations related to the broader communities in which campuses exist.

Leaning into an often-challenging part of strategy, and the implementation of strategy, is the consideration of finances. Healthy, supportive, innovative environments require funds. Published in 2023, the most recent Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System (“The Bouchard Report”), highlights significant concerns with financial support for our research infrastructure. It shares that although Canada is excellent in the research space, funding is not sufficient to sustain this excellence. The report calls for strategic vision, and a strategic advisory body.

Concerns with funding are not limited to research. In 2023, the Government of Ontario launched a blue-ribbon panel to explore how to ensure sustainability for post-secondary institutions within Ontario while maintaining student experience (Harrison, 2023). It called for increased financial support from the province, in collaboration with higher tuition. It also called for increased financial literacy of campus communities (specifically for board members, though presumably we all could use some brushing up in this area), and highlighted financial risks associated with dependence on international students. Importantly, the panel also highlighted that financial sustainability is not one-size-fits-all: different contexts require different solutions. Many other provinces are conducting similar reviews.

To the relief of many, the Federal budget released by the Canadian government in 2024 showed important support for post-secondary education and institutions (Government of Canada, 2024). For example, GST requirements were relaxed to incentivize building of new residences, amendments were included to the Canadian Education Savings Act to support saving for post-secondary, student grants were increased, and importantly, increases for research support were included. That said, although funds for post-secondary, including graduate student support, have been promised by the government (e.g., Government of Canada, 2024), consultants in the field are raising flags that while the dollar amounts sound big, we are not where we should be in terms of funding, and some of the promised funding may not be guaranteed (e.g., Higher Education Strategy Associates, 2024).

So, where does this book fit in? We opened with a focus on needing strategy. Our intention is not to propose a strategy. Indeed, we think that would be unwise. As we noted, strategies must meet the needs of specific cases, and thus will vary. In this book, we hope to share some insights about tactics that should be considered for strategy. We intentionally start this book with chapters focused on inclusion, including chapters on Equity, Diversity, and Accessibility in Post-Secondary Education, Ways of Knowing and Higher Education, Indigenization and the Future of Post-Secondary Education, and Accessibility in Higher Education. We then transition into chapters focusing on supporting the people in our campus communities, with chapters including The Developmental Perspective on Youth in Post-Secondary Education, Promoting Post-Secondary Student Well-Being, Campus Mental Health: A Whole Community Responsibility, and Transforming Higher Education: A Case for Transformational Leadership. We then move to physical and financial considerations with chapters in The Role of the Physical Campus for Productivity and Health, and Financing Canadian Colleges and Universities in the 21st Century. Next we turn to academic issues with chapters including The Essentiality of Academic Integrity in an Increasingly Disrupted and Polarized World, Re-Imagining Education for an Uncertain Future: Can Technology Help Us Become More Human?, What are Large Language Models Made of?, and Beyond the Paywall: Advocacy, Infrastructure, and the Future of Open Access in Canada. We conclude this volume by highlighting the importance of community in our campuses with chapters on Envisioning Public Policy and Practices for Experiential Learning in Post-Secondary Education, and Building Better Health Sciences Education.

Importantly, this book is not the end, but a start. We look forward to future editions that include additional necessary topics when building strategy related to post-secondary. For example, chapters on specifics related to the science and practice of learning and teaching, the importance of interdisciplinary work, the “why” of grading and assessment methods, governance structures, life and career development, upskilling, transfer credit mobility, research funding, and more.

As we close, we want to highlight some features of this book. Chapters each have their own URLs. This means that you can easily share individual chapters by way of URL as you wish, in addition to sharing the main link for the book. This book is open access, with most chapters being protected either under CC-BY 4.0 or CC-BY-NC 4.0 licenses. This means you are encouraged to share broadly (please see specific licensing associated with each chapter), and there are no costs to using this book. Content has been generously shared by authors, who retain copyright of their chapters, with the intention of removing barriers to accessing content. We ask that you cite chapters in future work so authors can receive academic credit for their work. To help with this, recommended citations are included at the bottom of each chapter. To learn more about creative commons licensing permissions, we recommend visiting https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/ (Creative Commons, n.d.).

We want to share a heartfelt thanks at this point. This book was created incredibly quickly thanks to funding received from the Queen’s University Library team in their support of open educational resources. No authors were paid for their chapters in this book. That this book came together so quickly, with such incredible topics covered, is truly a testament to the academic network in Canada. Many authors in this book received “cold emails” asking whether they would be willing to share their knowledge, and we were humbled that they, and closer colleagues, agreed to participate. Writing a chapter is harder and more time consuming than it sounds–to our dear authors, thank you. We hope you are proud of this resource, and the conversations we hope it will facilitate.

This project could not have come to fruition without our student project coordinators. Sophia Coppolino and Floor (Flo) Nusselder were essential team members and were truly the glue that helped keep pieces (and email chains) together. The skill and professionalism that these two soon-to-be-graduates demonstrated in a large-and-fast project is testament to the incredible folks we have coming through our post-secondary systems. As you both graduate, please know that you have a community cheering you on. Teamwork really does make the dream work–thank you for being a part of it!

References

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About the authors

name: Meghan E. Norris

Meghan Norris, PhD, currently serves as the Undergraduate Chair in Psychology at Queen’s University. Her current areas of interest focus on systems within higher education, and the science and practice of teaching and learning.

name: Steven Smith