The simple answer for private colleges and universities is No! At least not for the next ten to fifteen years[1] as the slide down the demographic cliff continues, normalcy will not be evident. Besides the impending drop over the cliff, technology will take a sizeable toll of private colleges and universities. While technology promises great cost savings and new ways to teach student, the full nature of these changes is unknown.
What could a technologically-driven educational enterprises (AI) look like in the near future.
- We are now in the stage where AI technology is providing a sophisticated editing function for administrators, faculty, and students.
- Starting the stage where AI is taking over administrative functions and teaching courses.
- Next stage, AI will replace faculty.
- Future stage, AI will become the college.
Technology could lead to these destructive outcomes for non-elite private colleges and universities:
- These colleges will struggle to compete against AI entities assuming that students remain price sensitive and AI can produce a degree faster than a college with a traditional campus.
- Will be unable to compete against massive technologically-driven educational enterprises, as a result, they will fall by the wayside.
- Will not be able to afford the technology to enter the massive technologically-driven enterprises, as a result, they will fall by the wayside
- Since they are not first entries into the technologically-driven educational market, they will be too late and will fall by the wayside.
- They will have to find unique niche academic and on-campus programs to attract students, and there may not be enough students who can afford traditional colleges offering a niche campus.
Dealing with AI as a Competitor
When AI becomes your main competitor, everything will change, and it will happen quickly and be costly to the college. First, the marketing department will need a very large budget to continuously inundate prospective students with messages, which will cost multimillions Second, the college will have to narrow its academic programs to directly fit its niches. Third, it will need to redesign services and programs to reduce costs to a minimum. Fourth, it will need to evaluate the productivity of tuition discounts. Fifth, the college’s advancement program needs to produce millions in donations and minimize endowed donations because they reduce the flexibility of the college, when it needs to quickly respond to sudden and massive changes in their competitive market.
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This period will cover the greater part of a career for young faculty and administrators. ↑