I was recently pondering how higher education will adjust to the impending demographic cliff that begins in spring 2026 due to the massive drop in birth rate that started with the 2008 financial recession. It suddenly hit me that higher education has faced many paradigm shifts in its target audience aver the past 150 years and that every time universities (at least most of them), have figured out to how adjust and survive.
I remember reading in higher education history that the two longest lasting institutions in the United States are the church and the university. In spite of all the focus on the immense wealth of various companies, very few of them last anywhere near as long the resilience of higher education.
We can debate why this might be, (I would suggest that the emotional connection made between churches/colleges and their “people” is what matters most), but the point is that universities figure out ways to survive, if not thrive. I believe we are about to discover another twist in the flexibility of higher education to demonstrate its ability to creatively discover new markets for learning – and in this case it will be life-long learning.
The main point of this brief thoughtpiece is at the bottom of the image below. I want us to think about emerging focus of higher education on adults in their 50s+ for ongoing learning. Were you aware that the National Resource Center for Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes maintains a list of 124 universities offering programs for adults who are 50+? Did you know that in 2005, three Harvard professors wrote a white paper, Moving Higher Education to Its Next Stage, that focused on educating people 50+ and resulted in the creation of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative? Did you know that in 2014, the Stanford Center of Longevity created the Distinguished Careers Institute which is focused on people who are 50+. The growth of learning programs for older adults is at the beginning of what I predict is a massive expansion and 2026 is the perfect year for colleges to begin redirecting some resources to the creation of these elder academies.
Deep Thoughts on Higher Ed and Life 