Exactly 12 months ago I quit my role after exactly 10 years as VP degree programmes and CMO at Frankfurt School and 20 years into my career in high education and the recent QS summit in Barcelona was a great opportunity for reflection.

So much energy and attention focused on adapting to Millennials. It’s easy to forget there’s a new generation just round the corner the most interesting session at the QS summit from Clara Hawking who talk about the new Gen Alpha. The generation currently in primary and heading into secondary school a generation brought up by digital natives surrounded by technology and for whom AI will be an established reality. Their relationship with AI will match their parents addictive relationship with smart phones. Never lessons being learnt in schools that higher education need to listen to and prepare for. A new generation is coming with a greater need for investment in mental health with high expectations with greater inequality of access to technology and with shorter attention spans and a need for constant engagement.

Data, data, data…

If you had attended a conference three or four years ago, the discussion would all have been about data analytics. How to collect it, how to process it and how to deal with data overload. On display in Barcelona with some amazing solutions, QS360 among them, showcasing just how far some companies and institutions have moved in using data for everything within the student life cycle and how far some institutions are falling behind.

Sustainability remains

And of course, the main topic of the conference, sustainability. A topic which has been at the forefront of University Mission and vision statements for the last decade. Filling up pages of accreditation reports and presentations on every continents however even now, when the scene abilities more important than ever and targets are being missed on a global level, sustainability still seems to sit place after they need to recruit more international students and to invest in technology to meet student demands for new and innovative campuses and teaching experiences.

After 20 years of managing marketing and recruiting to universities the last 12 months have been eye-opening. Taking time to assess the state of education systems around the world, talking to many different universities about their priorities ( mostly recruitment or technology), changes necessary some institutions will fail but the demand for education is as strong as ever. The real question is who or what will be delivering it?