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Innovation in Higher Education: How Leaders Build the Capacity to Adapt

Changing Higher Ed

Release Date: 11/18/2025

Why Is Enrollment Falling Short When Applications Are Up? show art Why Is Enrollment Falling Short When Applications Are Up?

Changing Higher Ed

Applications keep climbing while the class comes up short. The gap sits in the phase most institutions treat as the finish line: what happens after the acceptance letter goes out. In this episode of the , speaks with , Vice President of Spark451, which he co-founded. is a Jenzabar company. The conversation covers why enrollment falls short when admissions and marketing are both performing. Drawing on twenty-five years in university marketing, branding, and enrollment marketing, McGetrick explains what Spark451's focus groups revealed about when families actually begin their due diligence,...

info_outline The Purpose of Liberal Arts Education in the Age of AI show art The Purpose of Liberal Arts Education in the Age of AI

Changing Higher Ed

The same students who say college costs too much are overwhelmingly saying it was worth it, and that contradiction is the key to the entire public confidence debate. In Gallup-Lumina polling cited in this episode, 93 percent of bachelor's students called their degree a worthwhile investment. The doubt is about price, not the education, and generative AI has raised the stakes for confusing the two. In this episode of the , speaks with , philosopher and Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia, where she is leading the integration of AI into the...

info_outline Building Fairleigh Dickinson’s Lifelong Learning Ecosystem Across Five Generations show art Building Fairleigh Dickinson’s Lifelong Learning Ecosystem Across Five Generations

Changing Higher Ed

Program discontinuation is usually the fight presidents avoid. Fairleigh Dickinson University put a significant slate of program discontinuations and consolidations to a faculty referendum, and roughly 88 percent of the faculty endorsed it. The vote reflects a larger redefinition underway at FDU: a shift from the four-year degree to a university built around lifelong learning. In this episode of the , Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with and the first FDU graduate to hold the office, about the four-P framework guiding that redefinition: programs, people, partnerships, and place. Avaltroni...

info_outline Pairing Liberal Arts with Tech Readiness: Five Institutional Decisions from Manhattan University show art Pairing Liberal Arts with Tech Readiness: Five Institutional Decisions from Manhattan University

Changing Higher Ed

At Manhattan University, the case for the liberal arts is being made with outcomes, not nostalgia. Its graduates rank in the top 2% nationally for mid-career salaries, and The Wall Street Journal ranked the university 73rd in the country for graduate salaries, social mobility, and cost-effectiveness. The more useful story for institutional leaders sits underneath those numbers: a set of deliberate decisions about , technology preparation, faculty adoption, hiring, and alumni engagement. In this episode of the , speaks with , President of , about how the institution pairs a liberal arts...

info_outline Student Retention: Using AI to Spot Disengagement Before Dropout show art Student Retention: Using AI to Spot Disengagement Before Dropout

Changing Higher Ed

Most retention systems flag struggling students through grades and attendance. By the time those indicators fire, many students are already halfway out the door. Elvee's survey of 1,050 U.S. college students shows why: 86% start college highly motivated, 42% come close to dropping out at some point, and only 17% of those who struggle ever request help. In this episode of the , speaks with , CEO of , whose work with U.S. colleges centers on reading behavioral data for early signals of student disengagement. Drawing on his background in commercial technology, Dar explains how patterns in...

info_outline Higher Ed's Trust Problem Isn't a PR Problem: AAC&U's Trust Agenda show art Higher Ed's Trust Problem Isn't a PR Problem: AAC&U's Trust Agenda

Changing Higher Ed

Half of college presidents worried about public trust are answering with a public relations campaign. According to the AAC&U report at the center of this episode, that is a reasonable instinct but the wrong one. Public confidence in colleges and universities has slid for more than a decade, and messaging alone will not turn it around. In this episode of the , speaks with , lead author of and co-director of AAC&U’s Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education initiative, about why trust has eroded and what campus leaders can actually do about it. Their conversation moves past naming...

info_outline Why Research Funding Cuts Are a Strategic Risk, Not a Budget Problem show art Why Research Funding Cuts Are a Strategic Risk, Not a Budget Problem

Changing Higher Ed

When the federal government freezes research funding, leaders tend to treat it as a budget problem: a number that was cut and might later be restored. The harder truth in this conversation is that much of the damage cannot be undone. Halted studies, shuttered labs, and departed early-career researchers do not simply resume when the money comes back. Research funding cuts are a strategic risk, not a line item. In this episode of the , speaks with , President and CEO of the and former chancellor of UC Berkeley. Dirks , reflecting on the protests that had put Berkeley at the center of national...

info_outline When AI Finds the Administrative Friction Higher Ed Leaders Miss show art When AI Finds the Administrative Friction Higher Ed Leaders Miss

Changing Higher Ed

Most AI conversations in higher education focus on the academic side. The administrative side gets less attention and is producing the bigger near-term financial wins for institutions willing to govern the rollout. In this episode of the , speaks with , about how AI is being applied across enrollment and advancement at institutions including Empire State University, Florida Southwestern State College, and Boise State University. Drawing on his career across Blackboard, Instructure, Kaltura, and now Gravyty, Beck walks through the specific case studies behind administrative AI adoption: a...

info_outline Inside CSU’s ChatGPT Edu Rollout Across 22 Universities show art Inside CSU’s ChatGPT Edu Rollout Across 22 Universities

Changing Higher Ed

AI implementation in higher education is often framed as a technology question. California State University treated it as with technology as the catalyst, rolling out ChatGPT Edu to 22 universities in 18 months while running the largest AI survey ever conducted at a single university system. In this episode of the , speaks with , about how the system designed and executed its generative AI implementation and what the of 94,060 respondents reveals about AI adoption, faculty engagement, and student behavior. Drawing on her work co-leading the academic side of CSU's GenAI initiative,...

info_outline AI in Higher Education: Bias, Procurement, and Human Oversight show art AI in Higher Education: Bias, Procurement, and Human Oversight

Changing Higher Ed

At sixteen, with straight A's in math and science, Dr. Karen Panetta's school career assessment told her to sell makeup or be a cook. A male friend with lower scores got engineer or politician. No AI was involved. Just a rules-based system applying gender and biographical filters to two teenagers. That same logic now sits inside AI tools landing in admissions offices and HR systems across higher ed, with one critical difference: AI does not eliminate human bias, it removes the human accountability that used to make bias correctable. In this episode of the , speaks with , Dean of Graduate...

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Higher education leaders are being asked to innovate faster than their institutions are built to move. This episode of Changing Higher Ed explores how presidents and boards can change that. Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Erika Liodice, Executive Director of the Alliance for Innovation and Transformation (AFIT), about how institutions can strengthen their innovation capacity through futures thinking, cross-sector insight, and structured team-based planning.

Topics Covered:

  • How futures thinking helps leaders anticipate demographic, workforce, and technology shifts
  • Why innovation efforts fail without planning discipline and shared vision
  • How AFIT institutions use cross-sector learning to improve student experience and operations
  • What VR, AI, and immersive environments reveal about modernizing curriculum and applied learning
  • How team-based learning accelerates decision-making and supports strategy execution
  • Why a long-horizon strategy must be paired with near-term planning cycles
  • How leaders can strengthen coordination across academic, student services, and operational units

Three Key Takeaways for Higher Education Leadership:

  1. Presidents and boards must anchor innovation in a future-oriented view of trends—environmental scanning, demographic forecasting, and technology signals should shape planning decisions.

  2. Innovation succeeds when the right teams plan together. Cross-functional alignment and shared ownership accelerate execution and prevent fragmented efforts.

  3. Institutions should treat innovation as an operational discipline tied to strategy, not a series of isolated pilots. Clear priorities, resource pathways, and coordinated leadership are essential.

Recommended For:

Presidents, trustees, senior leadership teams, and academic and operational administrators responsible for strengthening institutional resilience, planning capacity, and innovation strategy.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/innovation-in-higher-education-adapt-foresight-planning-afit/

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