Tag: leadership

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What is on Your List of Things That Keep Education Leaders Awake at Night?

May 14, 2019 – By Tom Davisson, Partner Edu Alliance Group – They say misery loves company. If that’s true, today’s higher education Presidents, and leadership teams, should have lots of friends.

I served as a senior university administrator for over 30 years and can safely say higher education is in the middle of very interesting times. I suspect there are many reasons including in no particular order:

  • Reduced state and federal support
  • Fewer High School graduates
  • More interest in industry for skills training
  • Pressure to increase student retention and graduation rates
  • Marketing my institution
  • Reduced revenues and increasing expenses including cost reduction of staff, and faculty
  • Increased scrutiny by accreditors and DOE concerning financials (Financial Composite Score)
  • Attracting & keeping talented faculty and staff
  • Possible closure or merger over the next decade.

I would like your input as a person who is working for a college or university.  I along with Dean Hoke will be speaking at the American Association of University Administrators leadership conference on June 6th in Detroit. The topic is “What Keeps College Administrators Awake at Night, and How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep“. As we prepare our presentation, we would like your personal input.  We are very curious about what is keeping you up at night. Is it one or more of the items above, possibly all or is it something else?

We will compile and share (anonymously of course) what you and your colleagues tell us.  Furthermore we would like to hear from our international colleagues as well as US higher education leaders. You can write to tom.davisson@edu-alliance.net or dean.hoke@edu-alliance.net  or you can comment publicly to this article.  We have written privately to a number of US college and university Presidents and getting tremendous input.

Maybe knowing that you are not alone in your concerns will in itself help you sleep better. We hope to hear from you. What you do is important.  We will also be writing a follow up article after the AAUA event.

davisson tom-1Tom Davisson recently retired after 20 years from The Sullivan University System where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. His responsibilities included: Head of Operations, oversight of campuses, new product/program development, and institutional accreditation.

Mr. Davisson is one of the leading experts in the area of higher education institutions bridging the gap between education and the workforce. He has written White Papers for Governor’s in two states, worked for a third Governor’s Taskforce for Workforce Development, and also testified before Congress. In addition he has served on and chaired numerous US and international institutional visits on behalf of SACSCOC. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees, and Executive Committee of The University of Rio Grande in Ohio.

 

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Things that Keep Higher Education Leaders Awake at Night Postscript

By Dean Hoke, Co-Founder of Edu Alliance.

Edu Alliance beginning last January published a series of 15 articles based on the theme Things that Keep Higher Education Leaders Awake at Night. The links to all the articles are below. 

2018 has been a very difficult year for all who work in higher education, be it the United States, UK, or the Middle East. With increased competition,  enrollment declines, changes in laws and battling for funding we felt the series would give you some possible solutions for the challenges you meet daily.  We have received feedback from many of you and it has been positive. We  hope you have found the series enlightening as well.

Our firm Edu Alliance, which is a boutique consultancy focusing on higher education believes everyone deserves the opportunity to go to post secondary schools, be it a community college, university or vocational.  The facts are a person who has a post secondary degree will highly likely economically succeed, be a productive citizen, and make their country better.  Those in the corporate world will tell you a primary consideration in expansion is the availability of educated workers.

We believe higher education institutions need to become more aggressive in showing its importance to its community, region, and country.  We believe their needs to be a mix of institutions, big, small, private, public and even for-profit.  We also believe schools need fresh thinking in how they operate and present themselves to the public and government leaders.

Edu Alliance partners Dean Hoke, Dr. Senthil Nathan, Dr. Chet Haskell and Nancy Hoke as well as our advisory council members mission is to assist educational institutions worldwide to develop capacity and enhance their effectiveness. We are here to assist you and your institution. Feel free to contact us to arrange a meeting on how we can assist you.

Edu Alliance SErvices

 

cropped-edu-alliance-logo-square1.jpgEdu Alliance is a higher education consultancy firm with offices in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The founders and its advisory members have assisted higher education institutions on a variety of projects, and many have held senior positions in higher education in the United States and internationally.

Our specific mission is to assist universities, colleges and educational institutions to develop capacity and enhance their effectiveness.