Significant demographic, economic, and cultural forces converged during the Great Recession of 2008 and began to reshape the future of education and our leadership. For more than a decade since, unrelenting pressure has affected education at all levels, particularly in the areas of accessibility, affordability, accountability, and sustainability. 

Both separately and together, those conditions continue to shape both our challenge and our opportunity. The pandemic has changed nothing – other than to accelerate the timeframe we have to adapt.

This is not a time for “gasp and grasp” actions that too often define crisis response. We cannot simply get lost or overwhelmed as we address the issues immediately before us. We instead need to play a long game, shaping our leadership choices and practice in the context of how and where we expect to be as we emerge from the pandemic. Our students and families will expect as much, as will our faculty and staff.

Though it may seem otherwise in the face of extraordinary challenges which threaten both our operations and our missions, this is not a story portending the demise of higher education. Instead, leadership across campus must both understand the challenges and assertively address them, leading with value and strategy.

Through this program Jon will help you understand, define, and convey difference and value. He will help you prepare for and actually deliver value to the increasing number of students for whom college (particularly four-year college) has not been an option for.

McGee wrote the book, Breakpoint – The Changing Marketplace for Higher Education published by The John Hopkins University Press, which examines key forces of disruption in higher education and offers a framework to colleges and universities for addressing those issues. Breakpoint is now available at The John Hopkins University Press!

The challenges facing colleges and universities today are profound and complex. In his book, Breakpoint, and his program, Educationomics, Jon argues that higher education is in the midst of an extraordinary moment of demographic, economic, and cultural transition that has significant implications for how colleges understand their mission, their market, and their management.

Drawing from an extensive assessment of demographic and economic trends, Jon presents a broad and integrative picture of these changes while stressing the importance of decisive campus leadership. He describes the key forces that influence higher education and provides a framework from which trustees, presidents, administrators, faculty, and policy makers can address pressing issues in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

Jon is also available to teleconference!