conferences for higher education professionals 2024

conferences for higher education professionals 2024

Emerging Trends and Best Practices in Higher Education: Insights from Conferences for Higher Education Professionals in 2024

1. Introduction to the Landscape of Higher Education Conferences

Veterans will recall the conferences of their entry into the field—whether these were the conferences of academic disciplines, student affairs, enrollment management, higher education assessment, institutional research, learning assistance, or others. Even then, we knew conferences as a place to catch up on the latest, to share our own ideas and insight, renew our commitment for another year of service, and further professionalize ourselves for the future. Indeed, for those long-time professionals in the field, our most frequently attended conferences probably better index the evolution of our career interests and specializations than any single title or award. Over time, the specialized and the broader have mixed and mutual exchange, technologies and techniques have reshaped how we think, plan, perform, and learn our core functions, and conference activity in our State and national organizations has also evolved to reflect that fact.

For decades, higher education professionals have turned to conferences to learn from one another, share ongoing projects and innovations, and dive deeply into topics of interest to our field. Conferences are a place for practitioners to share insights and best practices contextualized by institutional values and norms—efforts that external consultants, by their remote nature, or simply as outsiders, cannot replicate. They are a burst of focused professional development, a place to reconnect and build networks that will sustain us throughout the academic year and our career. Conferences also signal for many the practices, knowledge, trends, and expectations that are driving change in the field. Over time, as larger S/ID entities (State, Institution, Disciplines) have emerged, shifted, and shifted in priority, these changes have rippled throughout the conference field. Higher education discourse also reflects change, for example in student career preparation, curriculum, assessment, financial challenges, and other signposts in the field that also shape content at conferences.

2. Key Themes and Discussions at Conferences in 2024

Discussions and hot topics at the conferences roamed widely—where they will take us, only time will tell. These collected essays describe and analyze those discussions. I hope they will inform your thinking as you work with and within colleges, universities, and associations. In my view, taking the views of twenty-four to thirty professionals to be found across the U.S. as representative of what’s happening, the work before us is equally daunting and inspiring. It is daunting because of change, opportunity, and need: We work at a time of momentous change. New technologies promise new ways in which we can connect with new and old students, engage them in learning, move them through our programs, and help them navigate toward fulfilling work and lives.

In May and June 2024, the U.S. and European Associations of Education Law and Policy (AEL and ELFA) held three conferences for higher education professionals. This column features reporting on the discussions that took place, summarizing the key themes and ideas. There is a lot going on in higher education across the U.S. and the world that offers inspiration for this work. Discussions and presentations at the recent AEL and ELFA conferences confirm this belief. During the planning stages of these conferences, my thought was that we might focus on accountability, especially in light of ongoing discussions in Congress over proposed regulations pursuant to the Higher Education Act. But many proposals that I thought important were not to be. Indeed, the headlines of today often result from the headlines of yesterday.

3. Innovative Strategies and Technologies for Higher Education

In the academic realm, one key challenge of online education has been the development of appropriate pedagogies that mirror in-person instruction. This focus on teaching and learning dominated the Innovations Showcase, and we identified several approaches that have been promising for faculty development and student impact. It is no surprise that the theme of adaptive learning is still prevalent. One way to make sure that students are accessing online materials is to integrate them into their course. “Interactive Classrooms” are rooms, as highlighted during the eduweb conference, often filled with flexible, easy-to-move furniture, multiple writing surfaces, and whiteboards. These rooms are set up unlike traditional lecture halls. Instructors can create a more interactive experience in these rooms by holding group work, discussions, or active learning sessions. During sessions in such classrooms, students must use their laptops to connect to the institution’s learning management system.

Regardless of the field of study or department, one key trend that emerged was a focus on innovative strategies and technologies that have the potential to impact the full range of functions at a given institution—including student support and advising, back-office operations, teaching and learning, and administrative decision making. Chatbots and virtual assistant applications continue to be popular solutions for providing service at scale. At Hartwick College, for instance, a virtual assistant (aka spiral chatbot) provides students with help 24/7 for more than 500 help articles, including college policies and procedures, and FAQs about a variety of issues. Tarleton State University, on the other hand, uses chatbot technology to help with student engagement efforts. In just 16 weeks, they have increased overall inquiries from prospective students by 102 percent, in addition to countering 584,431 messages and accessing help articles over 13,000 times.

4. Professional Development and Networking Opportunities

Professional development opportunities included: “Informal networking opportunities during social functions and in the exhibition area.” A new professional development process – ’round table’ and ‘fishbowl’ sessions with the focus on encouraging discussion of professional issues of particular relevance to university secretaries. Concurrent sessions will offer formal opportunities to exchange and develop knowledge and skills of relevance to higher education managers and staff attending the conference. It is widely accepted now that conferences are important vehicles for professional development and networking for people working in higher education. Participants in the study reported that they look to conferences for opportunities to improve and develop a range of new skills and understandings. These conferences represent only part of the professional development opportunity that is available to most of the targeted groups and are particularly valued because of the diverse connections and understandings that can be developed. The Governance conference, in particular, has been heavily oversubscribed every year since its introduction and until I set a glitch on the bookings website this year we had no early registrations at all. There is a strong perception in the sector that there is a real hunger for information about legislative changes and, in particular, how this is playing out within institutions. Conferences, in general, provide the chance to communicate and learn about professional emerging trends in the wide areas. AAMM, for example, makes a clear effort to link executive member activities with those we offer to our broader market and encourage a developing sector approach.

Conference programs included aspects of professional development for all levels of staff in various functional areas of our institutions. These included sessions that challenged deepening understanding and knowledge across a range of emerging and re-emerging topics for managers and staff in higher education as well as facilitated skill development in areas such as leadership, marketing, administration, learning and teaching, and information technology. The opportunities for social interaction provided a supportive environment for the emergence of relationships of mutual interest and benefit within the growing community of higher education professionals. Furthermore, a keynote speaker provided insights into developing trends in higher education, and international and national best practice for achieving quality outcomes in teaching and learning and research with a particular focus on strategies used to achieve system-wide change. The professional development sessions have become the principal activities of the annual conference, providing networking and development opportunities in areas identified as important by our professional staff and focusing the contribution of the conference to the education and training of a wide range of professionals working in our universities.

5. Future Directions in Higher Education: Anticipated Trends and Challenges

While law schools can recognize trends by deforestation and tanking LSAT scores and GRE scores, but also taking into consideration the legal market, employment numbers, demographics, and income, professors may still push to hire into the status quo of traditional academic strengths experience. Mohr is not interested in an approach, and he may not have a “specific answer because the future, like the present, can only be embraced as an incomplete series of performative behaviors,” an exploration, or for me, just “thinking like a lawyer.” He asks where practical effectiveness meets educational advantages, and he would like for legal educators to give students a “richer education, and as well for our country.” Mohr thinks that colleges may better their programs by teaching students “how to write in a manner that will help them to accomplish their goals.” Colleges should, according to Mohr, ask for “samples of the students’ writing.” Colleges should also look for “workplace experience, performance, or projects.” Developing well-educated professionals will.

Under Transformations: Curriculum isn’t fixed—or level-appropriate. Tracking learning outcomes requires new partners and UDL—but also investors and religious institutions. Lahti focused on organizational insights about interdependent learning outcomes approaches in higher education. But she also indicated that small and large forces are changing our students at colleges and universities. In addition to established organizations and fewer classics majors, Mohr focused his concerns and recommendations as a dean of a law school. Therefore, I will touch lightly on his concerns about law school today and tomorrow but focus on his larger suggestions for higher education practices.