Here, the authors of Sticky Cases share some challenges facing higher education leadership in 2025 and strategies and tips for addressing them.

What are some of the specific challenges facing higher education leaders today?

A major challenge is declining enrollment, which could potentially impact a university’s budget. Higher education leaders need to consider being more flexible with learning models, offering more micro-credentials, and working on making programs more relevant to what people need in the workforce today. We must be creative and adaptable and of course, technology is changing everything! Becoming familiar with and integrating emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), into various aspects of education and administrative processes is a way to strategically improve student outcomes. Succession planning is also a challenge facing higher education leaders. Many faculty members aren’t prepared to move into leadership roles, yet we need strong, innovative leaders to guide us. At Touro, we're starting to put more formal systems in place to find current employees with potential and help them to grow. It's all about committing to investing in our people, which is something we're passionate about.

The Leadership Academy at Touro University (LATU) plays a critical role in this. LATU was established to help faculty members become more well-rounded leaders who are ready to take on new challenges and responsibilities. This 10-month program focuses on personal and professional development and teaches practical skills including conflict management, collaboration, team building, strategic planning, and budgeting

What strategies or tips do you have to foster effective collaboration across disciplines?

Interprofessional collaboration is an important way to drive effective communication across various disciplines. It's about getting everyone from different fields working together effectively. One thing that can advance this is ensuring faculty members understand how the university works – who's in charge of what, and what everyone's roles are. When you bring teams together to work on a project to improve a program or a department or a shared gap in the institution, you drive collaboration and improve communication.

A growing number of programs participate in interprofessional education at Touro, where students from different but related fields work together to tackle real-world problems. Currently, several programs are looking into developing interdisciplinary courses, taught by a team of faculty members from various fields. This will help not only to encourage collaboration and cross-disciplinary learning among students, but in replicating authentic workplace experiences. One of the schools recently hosted a mini-conference highlighting faculty teaching methods, and students presented the work they did in the class. Events like this are crucial as they can facilitate ongoing dialogue and idea sharing, creating vital platforms for increased networking and collaboration. 

How has utilizing technology changed the landscape of higher education leadership for the better, especially post-pandemic? 

Emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and adaptive learning platforms are great because they give students personalized, hands-on learning experiences. Research indicates, and we have seen, that these kinds of technologies have the potential to better engage students and cater to individual learning. Many institutions are using new technologies to recruit and share information with global teams as well.

Touro was a leader in online education pre-pandemic. Since the pandemic, our students, faculty, and staff have become even more skilled at learning and working remotely. In fact, all our faculty are now required to participate in training to use our course management system effectively, which benefits students greatly. Also, faculty can simultaneously earn badges for various levels of proficiency when leveraging the system.

How do you see the role of higher education leaders evolving in the next decade? 

Higher education leaders are becoming more forward-thinking in their approach to data analytics across an institution as they’re seeing the value of using data to make informed decisions about everything from developing new programs to advising. The ability to effectively manage virtual teams must also be addressed as leaders will need to adjust their leadership styles to meet the unique needs of their geographically separated teams.  AI will be a major game changer in the next few decades as it has the potential to transform education at every level. It will require institutions to adapt their policies, infrastructure, and curriculum while ensuring that ethical challenges are addressed.

Touro has taken a proactive role in exploring all areas of AI integration. In fact, the university is the first higher educational institution in the U.S. to appoint an associate provost for artificial intelligence.