Amidst extraordinary uncertainty, BCG is helping higher education leaders build resilience, seize opportunities for growth, and discover new ways to differentiate their institutions.
Colleges and universities are facing declining enrollment, financial instability, and prolonged educational disruptions. A recent BCG survey found that 72% of college presidents are concerned about the perceived decrease in value of higher education. In short, colleges and universities are facing an existential crisis.
The changing nature of the higher education industry demands a strategy that is inclusive, collaborative, and resilient. BCG helps today’s leaders stay competitive by navigating key trends in higher education, such as:
A growing need for higher ed-employer collaboration. An estimated 1.3 billion people have competencies misaligned with the work they perform, fueling a rapidly growing skills mismatch across the globe.
A shift in student expectations. Gen Z students are demanding to be treated as customers and to realize value commensurate with the investment they’re making.
New business and delivery models. Competency-based models, massive open online courses (MOOCs), “boot camps,” and microcredentials are all emerging. But shifting from in-person to online instruction—while maintaining quality—is not a simple task.
An expanding ecosystem. The corporate sector is increasingly involved in academic programming, research programs, and apprenticeships.
BCG's higher ed consulting teams have decades of experience helping public and private institutions around the world to become more sustainable and resilient. We work shoulder to shoulder with clients during all stages of planning, enablement, and growth:
Improving Access to Higher Education. BCG worked with a university to increase enrollment with a specific focus on access for low-income and minority students.
Preparing for Effortless Expansion. BCG worked with a large innovative public university to build and implement a successful growth strategy.
Reinventing the University Experience. BCG worked with a leading business school to transform its university experience for students and faculty alike.
Lessons from Fulbright on Developing the University of the Future. A new liberal arts institution in Vietnam found that including students and faculty in the school’s development was a major driver of success.
We leverage a wide array of proprietary tools and analytical frameworks to create transformative change in the higher education industry, including:
Helps colleges and universities gauge the skills mismatch in their country’s labor supply, understand its root causes, and identify the policies that can erase the mismatch by promoting reskilling and lifelong learning.
Analyzes dynamic trends in higher education—including financial, technology, and competitive pressures—to help schools measure their performance across key dimensions, such as academic excellence, student outcomes, financial insights, brand or reputation, access, and economic impact.
Relationships with colleges can help businesses land great talent, but they can be tricky to establish and navigate. Taking seven actions can make them work.
Education is a powerful means of spurring behavioral change and collective action, cultivating green skills, ensuring a just transition to a sustainable economy, and building communities’ adaptive capacity.
By investing in the cloud, data, and analytics, institutions can improve student success, operational efficiency, and innovation in research and learning.
BCG’s higher education consultants provide expertise across regions and industries. They are led by a global team of premier thought leaders in higher ed.
