Last week, on October 13 and 14, Stevens Institute of Technology hosted an invitation-only US Universities Summit in the wake of disruptions and concerns about the industry of higher education. This event brought together many key decision-makers in the field within the US to stimulate in-depth and solution-oriented closed-door discussions to encourage leaders to share their thoughts on opportunities and challenges regarding the new landscape and their roles within it.
The Summit, bolstering over 150 attendees and over 75 organizations and universities such as Stockton University, Portland State University, Case Western Reserve University, Montclair State University, and Widener University, congregated to address a variety of pressing, fresh topics including the impact of AI on teaching and operation, shifting planning and enrolling demographics, changing public policy affecting research funding, and international students. Among the Universities mentioned, presidents Joe Bertolino, Ann Cudd, Eric Kaler, Jonathan Koppell, and Stacey Robertson all served as featured speakers during the event alongside other presidents, chancellors, and provosts of US universities and colleges.
Topics particularly stressed during the gathering included funding for the future by exploring critical challenges with funding within higher-education and its implications on the quality and accessibility of education, redefining leadership by looking into the challenges and opportunities of governance within the industry through a focus on shared leadership, the impact of policy, and strategies for supporting strong institutional cultures, and redefining purpose and accessibility to academic freedom by analyzing how universities and colleges can redefine their purpose, adapt to changes in demographics, and maintaining commitment to academic freedom while balancing tradition and transformation.
President Nariman Farvardin made several comments on his perspectives on the necessity of the summit in the everchanging modern sphere of higher-education, citing how the environment for the industry has become far more dynamic and uncertain than before to echo the sentiments of the need for change and innovation to ensure institutional stability within great economic and political shifts that leaders are becoming increasingly responsible for managing and responding to. Farvardin put forth the questions of how to take advantage of the current disruption and take advantage of it in order to pave way for a brighter future, which he believes can be achieved through this congregation of leaders that can help achieve a better understanding of how uncertainties and challenges will impact the field as well as propose promising solutions for the future.
As he looks forward to the future, Farvadin explained, “I have a tremendous amount of hope about the future of higher education and my reasons are very simple: we live in a world where knowledge is becoming more important than ever before. The primary responsibility of higher education is developing new knowledge and imparting the knowledge to future generations,” concluding with the statement that “higher education in the United States has been the envy of the world, and we have a collective responsibility to keep it the best higher education system in the world.”
