As More of Higher Education Goes Out of Business: Can Professors Reinvent Themselves?

 

To use the cliche, it's a perfect storm for higher education in America, documents The Hill.

Although there had been a 2.5% uptick in undergraduate enrollment this spring, after peaking in 2010, that has been declining from the 18.1 million high. In 2021 it was at 15.4 million. 

Among what will be driving more and more institutions of higher learning out of business include:

High cost of tuition. 

The burden of student debt.

In myriad major fields of study the disappointing ROI in terms of employment. Increasingly employers are dropping educational requirements. On one job site 52% of listings had none of them. Professional anonymous network Career Guidance captures the inability of recent graduates to land a job in what they studied. 

Reduced life span of knowledge. Over and over again professionals lament that what they learned in their formal education has become out-of-date and often not relevant. 

The threat of generative AI to knowledge work. Already layoffs continue and are expected to increase in professional services ranging from management consulting to public relations. The gallows humor is regret about not becoming a welder.

Low birth rate. That means a smaller pool of potential students.

Obviously, those who opted for full-time careers in academia could face the need to reset for very different kinds of ways to make a living. That can be especially difficult. There are two reasons for that.

One is that they have to take a creative inventory of their skills and experience and then figure out how to leverage all that for other lines of work. Since there has been a shift from the marketability of knowledge work per se currently to tested skills that could be a hard sell. Employers want you to 1) Tell them what results you can get for them right now and 2) Provide a track record of what you have accomplished in that niche for others.

And, two, former academics probably will have to overhaul their professional persona. The personal branding of what can get you ahead in academia (as well as management consulting such as at McKinsey and BCG and in elite law firms like Skadden and Paul, Weiss) can be a turnoff to non-acdemic employers. In addition, it can be a turnoff to those who can help you. I distanced myself from a jobless former Big Law lawyer whose way of interacting I experienced as downright obnoxious. 

My Generation of the Lost Scholars from the mid-1970s knows all about The Counterproductive Personal Brand. As we were finishing our doctoral degrees the market for humanities professors collapsed. No one clued us in that to transition to non-academic positions we would have to rebrand - totally. 

It took me about 18 months before I realized that and ditched the academic persona. It took another 24 months to repackage my background to be hired for work that wasn't dead-end and that paid well. During that time, though, I learned tough lessons about capitalism that I have leveraged well. 

In coaching I guide career-changers though the comprehensive process of walking away from what made them feel "special" to what will provide a good living. Takeaway: If "they" tell you you are "special," don't ever believe it. In our doctoral program "they" positioned our pursuit of academic excellence as saving civilization from the barbarians. 

Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach/Tarot Reader Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com)