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COVID-19 planning scenarios for higher education

The world remade: Strategies for resilient leaders

What might the higher education sector look like after the crisis passes, and what will it take for colleges and universities to thrive in a world remade? Explore four possible scenarios for how the higher education sector might evolve over the next three to five years.

Higher education remade by COVID-19: Scenarios for resilient leaders

Higher education remade by COVID-19 offers a view of how the higher education landscape may develop over the next three to five years and is intended to help leaders explore some of the potential medium-term implications resulting from the COVID-19 crisis.

Building on several trends already in motion, these scenarios—stories about the future designed to spark insight and spot opportunity—are built on important higher education sector uncertainties, both already evident and others potentially plausible based on the severity of the pandemic, on government actions, and on the individual and collective actions of higher education institutions.

The scenarios should challenge you to imagine how things you were sure would happen could now be on a different course. This perspective and its depiction of possible futures should ultimately spark several questions around implications and next steps for your institution.

We are in uncharted waters, yet higher education leaders must take decisive action to help ensure their organizations are resilient. We’ve outlined four COVID-19 scenarios that illustrate different ways the higher education sector may evolve—and what’s required to thrive.

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