Student Needs 2035 and Beyond

A research team from the University of Houston worked with the Lumina foundation to advance conversation about the future of higher education. It found opportunities to catalyze innovative responses to emerging student needs.

This report explores six inter-related aspects of student life and the common context underlying the six domains. It begins with a framework of four student types and covers the common context using the popular futurist STEEP framework of social, technological, economic, environmental, and political trends. The report also discusses current assessments and scanning, baseline futures, alternative futures, synthesis, and implications for emerging student needs.

Framework Foresight is the primary methodology used in this project. Additionally, four 'student types' that had emerged from a previous Lumina scenario workshop were used as an organizing framework.

The research method used in the report includes identifying trend breaks, events, issues, ideas, and key uncertainties that could disrupt the baseline future and lead to alternative futures. It involves analyzing cross-cutting themes across the six domains and monitoring potential obstacles to the progress of the alternatives.

Even “baseline futures” surrounding the future of higher education will present significant challenges for established institutions. Much of the literature surrounding the future of higher education takes the viewpoint of institutions. When literature does consider the student point of view, it only considers them in the context of school. Instead, this report focuses on student life as a whole.

The report identifies key trends, plans, projections, and scanning hits for each domain, leading to baseline and alternative future forecasts. It highlights a shift in balance of power towards students, a blurring between domains, the role of IT/AI technologies as both a problem and a solution, and social issues that must be addressed. The report also presents nine emerging student needs, including re-skilling, mentoring, continuous and real-time feedback, frameworks for navigating uncertainties, credentials, experiences, personalized instruction, spaces, tools, and templates, and differentiation.

Categories: 2014 publication year | 2020s time horizon | 2025 time horizon | English publication language | United States geographic scope | alternative futures | baseline futures | emerging needs. | higher education | projections | scanning | synthesis | student life | trends