Much of higher education was originally designed to meet the needs of full time 18-22 year-old students who enter directly from high school. However, the New Majority of our students are older, likely to swirl among institutions, and have significant adult responsibilities outside of the classroom. The New Majority Student: Working from Within to Transform Higher Education is a call to transform colleges and universities to meet the academic and student experience needs of New Majority students and for adult educators to become advocates, allies, and resources for needed reforms. Book contributors, including faculty, staff and administrators at public, private and community colleges, provide insights for this transformation. The bookutilizes a business perspective to academic transformation, providing a guide to how universities can redefine and restructure their education product to meet student needs. Taking a Human Centered Design approach, the contributors provide frameworks and examples of how institutions can reallocate technology, effort (internal, external, student, faculty) and finances to reimagine programs and ensure long term institutional health.
Industry Reviews
Serving the New Majority Student: Working from Within to Transform the Institution (Rowman & Littlefield), second of a two-book series, is a must-read for academic leaders who are committed to transformational change, particularly in responding to the needs of New Majority students: first-generation, part-time, adult learners.
On the heels of the first book, Academic Transformation: A Design Approach for the New Majority (November 2017), the second book focuses on solution-based approaches for educational effectiveness that can, and should, be applied to administrative processes. One strategy for doing so is to reimagine planning, communication, and evaluation processes using the authors’ tool, the Balanced Values Scorecard. Another valuable feature of the second book is an appendix that recommends critical conversations and team building exercises for cross-functional teams to use in engaging in courageous conversations to promote the success of New Majority students.
