Leadership & StratEDgy

As we reported earlier this month, we have started rolling out the results of our fall surveys with those newer-to-higher ed (“newbies”) and those that have been in higher ed for a longer period of time (“veterans”). Today we’ll let you know what respondents told us the most significant change (positive or negative) that they have seen since they started working in higher ed.

We recently revealed the results of one of our survey questions, “What Surprised You When You First Started Working in Higher Education” After the most common answer, “the politics,” next on the list was the slow pace of accomplishing change in higher education.

Our post on “What Surprised You When You First Started Working in Higher Education” (the results of our brief survey) generated a fair number of emails and tweets about the politics in higher education, so we thought we would look into this area a bit more for today’s post.

As we reported earlier this month, we have started rolling out the results of our fall surveys with those newer-to-higher ed (“newbies”) and those that have been in higher ed for a longer period of time (“veterans”). Today we’ll let you know what these 459 people told us about what surprised them when they first started working in higher ed.

As we reported last week, we have started rolling out the results of our fall surveys with those newer-to-higher ed (“newbies”) and those that have been in higher ed for a longer period of time (“veterans”). Today we’ll let you know what these 464 people told us about why they decided to work in higher ed.

The “end of history illusion” was coined by Daniel Gilbert and his colleagues. Their research, cited in last week’s NPR article You Can’t See it, But You’ll be a Different Person in 10 Years, showed that people tend to underestimate how much they will change in the future.

Thank you to the 464 of you that took the time to share your thoughts with us about your reasons for working in higher education, what has surprised you and, for those of you that have been in higher education for a while, what has changed. Here is the first of several posts that will share results from the survey.

Mayan predictions for the end of the world aside, the years ahead are likely to be quite different for higher education than the past 100 years. As our holiday gift to you, we have put together this anthem for the end of higher education as we know it.