"Responding to Challenges Through Innovation”

Challenges confront higher education in virtually every part of the enterprise:  funding, governance, teaching, technology, equity, outcomes, and purpose.  It’s obvious that many of these challenges will not go away any time soon; indeed, if anything, the number of challenges seems to be increasing.  In the academic part of the system, critical challenges include helping under-prepared students, designing intrusive and effective advising, creating pathways that students understand, tracking and responding to student progress, creating engaging learning environments, assessing and increasing learning outcomes, designing a coherent general education curriculum, developing more contemporary majors, designing effective, early career planning, and a host of other issues. The campuses that survive and thrive will be those that innovate.  

Each year for the past 18 years, we have taken AASCU senior leaders (presidents, provosts, international officers, deans, department heads, and faculty) to China to participate in a series of activities designed to create and sustain educational partnerships in China. This year, the program includes participation in a major international conference and additional add-on benefits.