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Archive for the ‘Higher Education’ Category

Lesson 284 Gov’t Policy and Higher Ed’s Potential

Posted in Higher Education, Internal Politics, International, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on August 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This week deputy news editor of the British publication Times Higher Education, John Morgan, wrote that if the UK exits from the EU there is a potential loss of its annual 1.2 billon pounds in research money, and along with it the future of important multinational research projects. Such a move also raises questions about the flow of students and faculty between European countries.

I have previously written about the potential of the globalization of higher education to enable the development of significant new multinational, problem-solving focused research projects… as well as the development of international leaders. Unenlightened government policies, however, will make these goals very difficult to reach.

Simply put, government policies matter a lot. Government roles are changing everywhere. They can either enable or block progress. Some governments are mostly interested in enhancing their country’s prestige. These tend to focus support on science and technology. And some of these are mostly interested in upgrading only a handful of their largest universities. Others are primarily focused on creating and quickly filling jobs.

Washington seems to be headed in this jobs direction, ignoring the need to prepare students to deal with future career changes or the consequences of the rapid globalization of everything.

US higher education policy is being debated right now. But much of the partisan political rhetoric shows no appreciation for the role universities can play in restoring US global prestige, or in international leadership development, or in working with others to solve international problems.

University leaders and communicators, however, have the tools to make the case for higher education’s potential to make the world a better place. And when many speak as one the impact can be quite powerful.

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Lesson 283 The EU Identity Crisis and Higher Ed

Posted in Higher Education, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on August 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Each week in the summer The Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York offers top quality programming on a different major topic. This week the focus is on the turmoil in Europe. Lectures, breakout sessions, arts performances, and more, provide a perfect setting for discussion and reflection.

James Walters, chaplain at the London School of Economics, kicked off the week by asserting that Europe is suffering from a fundamental identity crisis. While the common currency seems to be holding disparate countries together, he also sees major religious and secular differences as troubling complications. He described modern Europe as a collection of constantly growing multi-faith and immigrant communities. Therefore, there are both interfaith and cross-cultural problems.

Longtime New York Times foreign affairs columnist Roger Cohen continued by pointing out that after the cold war, East and West Germany united, the Soviet Union collapsed, NATO was formed, and soon 12 European counties became 28! Europe ended up with a common currency, but with little else in common.

William and Mary professor Stephen Hanson described two fundamental and opposing narratives between Russia and the West. The West contends that the recent democratic revolution in Ukraine makes a solid case for an alliance with Europe. Putin, however,  contends that the ousted Ukrainian president was also democratically elected and many Ukrainians still want to remain aligned with Russia. This reality, plus complicated disputes with other border countries, make the situation almost impossible to resolve.

David Marsh, Managing Director of the Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum in the UK, added that he thinks Europe is farther away from a political European union than in the last 100 years. He contends we are all suffering from a vacuum in world leadership.

Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic Studies in the School of International Service at American University, discussed the issues facing third generation immigrants in Europe. Their families came for a better life but now their children and grandchildren are facing unemployment and discrimination. For many, ISIS represents adventure and hope.

When questioned about the widespread impact of extremism Ahmed added that when he took his students to cities in the Islamic world people would always ask them why Americans didn’t like Muslims. They had no experience with Americans so they believed what they were told by extreme groups. But a groundwork for better understanding was begun just by talking with his students. Ahmed’s conclusion was that only knowledge can bring people together to solve problems.

My experience has also been that by bringing people together we build foundations for eventual problem-solving. And when we add international leadership development to the equation we take significant steps toward finding workable solutions. Indeed, this is how international higher education becomes pure public diplomacy.

 

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Lesson 282 What Happened to Agreeing to Disagree?

Posted in Higher Education, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned on August 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »

A big challenge for higher education’s future will be to reestablish on campus, in our communities, and with our global relationships, a more collegial willingness to agree to disagree.

When I began university teaching in 1966 I had the feeling that when I debated issues and ideas with colleagues we had a common understanding that different opinions would be respected. We agreed to disagree and I came to see this as a necessary foundation for finding workable solutions to both internal and external problems.

When I was a student in Washington in the early 1960’s I actually observed legislative compromises. Partisan ideas were viciously debated in elections. But once elected, at least a good number of legislators came to Washington ready to govern… enough to at least get some things done.

Today, however, it seems that compromise and statesmanship have been totally lost. To be sure, the many election debates and campaigns ahead will be filled with partisan attacks. That is to be expected. But is there any hope we will at least spot few candidates who might have some potential to become statesmen in Washington?

It is my hope that we in the academy will at least set an example by aggressively communicating the value of respecting differing ideas, reestablishing the agree to disagree approach to community, and demonstrating that give and take and step-by-step are the ways to make progress solving complex problems.

With this as our shared foundation, as we globalize our future we just might also be able to educate leaders capable of moving us toward a much more collegial and statesmen-like world.

 

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Lesson 281 Digital Media and Global Education

Posted in Higher Education, International, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy on July 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The comment on my previous post about the overlap between the digital media revolution and the transformation of higher education was quite perceptive.

The writer points out that how people consume and share information is vastly different now than even a decade ago, and that the changes have just begun. He goes on to observe that how universities adapt to how we share and receive information will be key to their survival.

For several years I taught an honors college colloquium titled “How Media Revolutions Change Everything.” We explored how family life, individual behavior, politics, government, foreign policy, religion, and education always experience fundamental changes as a consequence of media revolutions. The classroom is a great case in point.

For example, in the past I gave lectures, answered student questions, and discussed the issues. In this new media world I have students search basic information and answers to questions before class, and then “Skype in” experts from around the world to dialogue with us. I quickly discovered that long lectures were no longer needed.

And what’s more the students and I were able to experience personally and in real-time how the Internet, laptops and other devices connect the world and accelerate the globalization of everything. We were also able to see the importance of “media literacy” in understanding global change and its significance in influencing the future of higher education.

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Lesson 280 Transforming the Future of Higher Education

Posted in Higher Education, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned on July 21, 2015| 1 Comment »

This week I fine-tuned my blog site to focus more on the global future of higher education. I have come to believe that international education is our best hope for achieving world peace, expanding media revolution literacy, solving debilitating global problems, achieving cross-cultural understanding, and producing informed and effective global-thinking leaders.

As a result, I spent several years studying globalization in general and have concluded there are two primary forces already at work reshaping the academy:

Disruption: The digital technology revolution has disrupted the academy with new social media platforms, interactive websites, and other Internet innovations. Technology changed how we teach and replaced traditional lectures with Internet searches and ever-expanding interactive media tools and resources. New on-line markets are also appearing. How institutions are marketed and communicated has changed as well. And the changes brought about by the Internet revolution have even enabled governments to change their national priorities and refocus their education roles.

Convergence: These forces are extremely powerful, but may be less apparent. They are accelerating globalization while at the same time stimulating the transformation of higher education. Beyond technology disruption, forces such as worldwide economy shifts, changing faculty and student migration patterns, intensified foreign competition for money and students, increased world travel in general, the impact of polarized political ideologies, new aggressive foreign policy initiatives, a growing nationalism in some part of the world, and aggressive nation-branding campaigns, all are converging to change and globalize virtually everything.  And all of these forces also have strong implications for how international higher education will inevitably evolve.

In the coming weeks and months we will be exploring the implications of these forces for university advancement professionals, academic leaders at all levels, faculty, students, alumni, donors, business leaders, foundation heads, prospective students, politicians, and everyone  affected by the consequences and opportunities of the globalization of higher education.

Coming in August: My new book The Transition Academy: Seizing Opportunity in the Age of Disruption addresses many of these issues. (CASE Books at http://www.case.org/books)         

 

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Lesson 278 A Different Future for Higher Ed

Posted in Branding, Higher Education, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on July 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

A number of forces are converging to change the future of higher education: (1) Governments everywhere are changing how they support education, often cutting back. (2) Digital technology is changing both how we teach and how we tell our institutions’ stories. (3) Globalization is gradually and steadily changing the competitive dynamics of our marketplace.

In the United States all of this is happening in an atmosphere of state government cutbacks. Many institutions therefore are focused more on saving their core business and local markets than on exploring international opportunities.

But the facts suggest that global forces are already changing higher education… ready or not. Migration patterns of both students and faculty are already changing. Institutions everywhere are recruiting and raising money in markets previously foreign to them. Institutional partnerships are being formed. New campuses are being built. And technology is creating new international on-line markets, while at the same time changing the communication of everything from subject matter to institutions.

In such an environment it is only prudent for institutions to consider these international realities at the same time they are addressing their local core business disruptions. And what’s exciting is that all of these challenges are ones that all advancement professionals are capable of addressing. Who better than they can identify the parts of the world where their institution has  fundraising potential? Who better than they can call upon alumni in other countries to help recruit students and lift visibility? Who better than they can access and clarify the international appeal of their special program strengths? And who better than they can understand and explain how media revolutions change everything?

The only bad news in all of this is that advancement work will require more sophistication than ever before. But the exciting good news is that there is no one in all of higher education better suited than advancement professionals to help lead the way.

My new book with much more on this topic is coming soon from CASE Books: The Transition Academy: Seizing Opportunity in the Age of Disruption  (http://www.case.org/books).

 

 

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Lesson 274 Teacher. Trainer. Coach.

Posted in Higher Education, Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on June 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This past week I was impressed by several interviews with the trainer of the Triple Crown winning horse. I have been thinking about what he said ever since. He repeatedly said it was all about having the right horse. He dodged every opportunity to take credit for the win, pointing out that the only way this can happen is having a horse with both the talent and the will to do it.

It occurred to me that athletic coaches wanting to win championships have said basically the same thing. It’s all about the players. It’s absolutely necessary to have the right athletes with the right talent and a single-minded commitment to winning. In other words, even a really good coach must have talented athletes with commitment in order to be able to use his or her knowledge and experience to enable their best performance.

I have learned this same lesson about teaching. For many years I was just fine teaching anyone in my classes about what I thought I knew about communication and media. But in time I realized that when it came to helping students achieve truly major things it was all about them. If they had the talent and a relentless desire to make a difference I could call on my hard learned lessons to help them turn their potential into impressive accomplishments.

And I also found that this applies to strategic communication and marketing administrators and leaders. My last blog post described both Bob Schieffer and former TCU Chancellor Michael Ferrari as opportunity enablers. Looking back on my administrative years I now know that my greatest satisfactions came when I hired people with extraordinary talent and helped them develop it.

In the end, helping professionals fine-tune their special talent enables satisfying working relationships that continue well beyond your time at work. In fact, you are making an ongoing difference in people’s lives that you may eventually come to see as your “crowning” achievement… your Triple Crown.

 

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Lesson 265 Leadership, Communication and Media

Posted in Higher Education, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on April 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Last week I had the pleasure of helping to welcome the new president of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) to Washington. CASE is the largest and most international of all education associations and it serves those who handle marketing, communication, fund-raising, alumni relations, and government affairs. She comes to her new responsibility from Melbourne, Australia. But she also has years of experience in the UK, Europe, and most of the rest of the world.

Reflecting on the future of education and what it will take to adapt to the challenges of a revolution in technology, major changes in government support, and the unavoidable forces of globalization, I became acutely aware that communication and media savvy leadership will be essential for every organization, not just CASE.

I also realized that for some time now I actually have already been writing about all this from the perspective of leaders, or more precisely what leaders need to know about why communication always breaks down and how media revolutions really do change everything.  Whether I was writing about governments and foreign policy, or about universities and globalization, I was always focusing on implications for leaders.

So I was able to welcome the new CASE president by telling her she is the right person at the right time. But I also suggested that all CASE members will need to assume new leadership roles because competition will become global, student markets will change, new money will have to be found, and everyone will have to be kept informed.

Realizing all this, I decided to adjust the theme and content of my blog site and posts to reflect the perspective that was already evolving… what leaders in all types of institutions need to know about communication and media.

Not only do leaders need to know why communication always breaks down and how to respond, but they need to know why brand identity is so important and how to use it. They need to know how internal communication becomes external, and how to deal with challenging political realities inside and out. They need to know how to run really productive  meetings, and build forward-looking innovative teams. And they need to know how to deal with the increasingly aggressive 24/7 news environment, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of various social media platforms.

Leadership is a much written about topic, to say the least. But not enough is written about its many complex and challenging communication and media dimensions. This blog will set out to fix that.

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Lesson 263 The Power of Public Diplomacy

Posted in Higher Education, International, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on March 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Last week I discussed why government communication is destined to fail. People hear what they want to hear, adversaries are poised to attack. and the daily pressure of 24/7 journalism is relentless.

I  suggested that a simple message or theme repeated over and over again about individual freedom and opportunity might have a better chance of getting through. And in the long run, such a message might be the most important one.

This week I am suggesting that “public diplomacy” might be the best approach to this kind of “brand identity”communication. And nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s) are the best at doing it, especially if they are nonpolitical.

Public diplomacy is basically organized “people-to-people communication. People are brought together from different cultures to experience normal things. They come to appreciate their differences, their foods, and traditions. Even many kinds of international travel can accomplish this empathetic understanding.

Governments also conduct public diplomacy. But they cannot do it with the same credibility as NGO’s. Even so, they can add some legitimacy to their other foreign policy communication by sending academics, musicians, artists, writers, students, etc. abroad. In other words, Americans can convey “the idea of America, just by being “good Americans” in other countries.

My experience in international education has led me to also see international higher education as public diplomacy. In fact, it might be the purest form. Some prefer to call this soft power. But I believe the globalization of this industry has the potential to increase cultural understanding though student and faculty contacts and exchanges, while at the same time focusing research capabilities and expertise on solving the world’s most complex  problems.

Diplomacy is important. It is how governments deal with each other. But when it comes to genuine peace-making and real world problem-solving, I believe that effective soft power public diplomacy will be essential to saving our planet, and ourselves.

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Lesson 251 Sound Mind in a Sound Body?

Posted in Higher Education, Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on January 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

With the proliferation of college bowl games and talk of a national championship I found myself reflecting once again on the pros and cons of the current state of intercollegiate athletics. The games have certainly been exciting and the visibility benefit for many of the institutions is obvious.

As the marketing and communication vice-chancellor for a major private institution I was involved in explaining the many benefits of intercollegiate athletics… even overseeing athletic marketing for some years. At its best, athletic participation teaches leadership, the importance of discipline in achieving goals, the power of effective teamwork, the importance of maintaining strong values, and how to never give up striving for one’s best possible performance. And strong programs provide socialization opportunities that bring vitality and a good measure of positive fun to an academic community. When it all works right, the “sound mind in a sound body” philosophy is certainly compatible with most academic missions.

However, when the game becomes controlled by big money, institutions become stretched beyond their economy of scale, winning at any cost becomes the goal, exorbitant coaching and staff salaries soar beyond reason, players are pushed to play through dangerous injuries, conferences change membership annually based on politics and money, academic budgets are inadvertently and sometimes directly affected, television scheduling forces awkward game times, athletes are over-tutored, and bowl costs exceed revenues, one must ask: Is all this spinning toward  some kind of self-destructive end?

Like everything else today, Athletics issues have become hopelessly polarized. It’s either full speed ahead, or the whole thing is bad news and will destroy the academy. My experience suggests that intercollegiate athletics are too embedded in the fabric of most institutions to give up, and yet my analysis suggests that the issues are too important to ignore.

The ultimate answer awaits rational people to get engaged in meaningful dialogue aimed toward seeking rational solutions. Make no mistake, history teaches that self-destruction is certainly possible!

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