Education is an essential component of the fabric of every nation and culture, and its complex issues affect CASE’s global constituencies. As CASE develops a new paradigm for advancing education, we must do so with several key precepts in mind:
The compelling need for strategic talent management, which will strengthen our member institutions’ capacity to position education as vital to people's professional and personal well-being as well as to sustaining the economic growth of nations, states and communities
The challenge of declining resources for educational institutions, with tighter budgets driving higher expectations of philanthropic support and broader use of volunteers
The reality of continually changing markets—varied educational models globally; increasingly diversified populations of traditional and nontraditional students; sustained growth in distance learning, learning platforms, and formats, and alternative partnerships (such as universities/community colleges, postsecondary/K–12, educational institutions/businesses); and the growing demand for educational experiences that suit the needs of the individual
The constant drive for new technologies to support generational shifts in the workforce and student populations and to provide current, on-demand communication tools to connect people, curriculum, and services and to drive relationship-building
The demand for thought leadership to advance institutional strategy—knowledge, research, information, resources, and tools
The force of an integrated enterprise for fundraising, alumni relations, communications, and marketing professionals in education
These emerging trends are taking shape against a backdrop of dynamic demographic changes that will have a profound effect on educational institutions everywhere. Forecasts project that higher education enrollment around the globe will have more than doubled to 262 million between 2012 and 2025. Nearly all of this growth will be in the developing world, with more than half in China and India alone. Other high-growth nations include Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, and Turkey. According to predictions by the United Nations, India will account for 25 percent of the world’s 18- to 22-year-olds by 2020.
Across the world, at all levels, however, educational institutions and professionals are seeking to strengthen the value proposition for education, both public and private. To fulfill their missions and meet both individual and societal needs, colleges, universities, and independent schools rely on—and therefore must foster—the goodwill, active involvement, informed advocacy, and enduring support of faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors, prospective students, parents, government officials, community leaders, corporate executives, foundation officers, and other constituencies. Already, many Asian nations are shaping global models that strategically link higher education with business.
These realities offer up extraordinary opportunities for CASE and have provided the platform for a thoughtful, global strategic planning process to reimagine our important role in advancing education in changing times.
Read Making Our CASE in a Changing World by Larry Lauer, one of CASE's most active and honored volunteers.