Market intelligence for international student recruitment from ICEF
28th Nov 2018

Not a campus but a storefront: A new concept for higher education delivery

Earlier this year, a special pan-institutional committee at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) released a report on the future of higher education. The group was tasked with exploring innovative approaches to higher education and with making “recommendations on alternative educational models that reduce costs, improve the effectiveness of current methodologies, and increase opportunities and accessibility to serve the needs of the next generation and beyond.” Given Georgia Tech’s prestigious position and its history of innovation in programme delivery – including offering full graduate degrees online and its participation in the University Learning Store consortium – the report’s findings (and the US institution’s next steps) are likely to draw some attention from educators around the world. The Georgia Tech report, Deliberate Innovation, Lifetime Education, is underpinned by a number of important changes in how students are approaching higher education. In fact, the findings reflected there have much to do with some of the important trends we have been tracking in recent years, including the rapid growth of online and hybrid learning models as well as the growing importance of non-degree qualifications (often referred to as “alternative credentials”). The report’s authors propose nothing less than a reimagining of the higher education model. They envision “a future for college not conceived only as a physical place one enters at a particular age and exits when a degree is completed, but rather as a platform for the increasingly diverse – in age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status – population of learners,”…and one where that platform blends “in-person and digital learning experiences.” The model relies as well on, “Advising and professional coaching that starts much earlier in high school [that] will provide students multiple pathways through the undergraduate and graduate experience and will be sustained for a lifetime by renewable learning with multiple on- and off-ramps beyond degrees and certificates.”

A distributed worldwide presence

Among its five major initiatives, the Georgia Tech proposes a “distributed worldwide presence” for the institution. Changes in student demand and technology play a part here but so too do economics and the idea of shifting the institution away from a solely degree-based experience and toward the lifelong learning orientation described above. In essence, the report challenges the idea that a university needs a campus to do its work, or at least that all students will need or want a traditional campus. “The physical campus is, however, a fragile model,” it argues. “This is especially evident in public education, where regional colleges and universities that are essentially copies of much larger land-grant and flagship institutions are established in localities that would otherwise not have access to college-level programmes…the high fixed cost of operating a central facility cannot be sustained when there are not enough students interested in the high, fixed-price degrees and programmes offered in that facility. Institutions that have tried to open foreign campuses have also seen this effect.” As an alternative to such high-cost facilities, the report recommends a pilot for a new model that the institution has already taken the precaution to trademark: the Georgia Tech atrium™. The atrium is a “scalable distributed presence” for the university that would have the effect of creating local storefronts for Georgia Tech in a variety of locations throughout the US and around the world. The atrium model is a “portal to real and virtual services” at Georgia Tech, but also a marketplace based on two existing services: the Library Store and the University Learning Store. The Library Store is a new model for library services that in part allows students to have remote access to a high-quality research library. The University Learning Store is an on-demand, online training platform offered by Georgia Tech and several other noted US institutions. Georgia Tech imagines that atriums could be established in a wide range of locations, including co-working spaces, commercial offices, or in retail centres. The idea in each case being to provide students with a way to connect to the university, and its programmes and services. While institutions may rely more on digital delivery, it remains clear that online learning students value opportunities to engage with faculty, peers, staff, and services from their institution. It is clear as well that the more modest local centres anticipated in the atrium model would allow a university to expand its physical footprint with much less expense and risk than is the case for more conventional branch campuses today. There are many implications of this simplified storefront approach, including that such centres could be an important lever in expanding the international links of prominent institutions and, in an international context, further boosting participation in online learning or other transnational education initiatives. This at least makes the Georgia Tech atrium™ experiment an interesting one to watch, and an opportunity for real innovation in higher education delivery. For additional background, please see:

Most Recent

  • US Office of Management and Budget grants budget reprieve to key exchange programmes Read More
  • Canada: How is study permit processing taking shape this year? Read More
  • UK study visa grants strengthening in first half of 2025 Read More

Most Popular

  • Which countries will contribute the most to global student mobility in 2030? Read More
  • Research shows link between study abroad and poverty alleviation  Read More
  • Beyond the Big Four: How demand for study abroad is shifting to destinations in Asia and Europe Read More

Because you found this article interesting

US Office of Management and Budget grants budget reprieve to key exchange programmes In a highly unusual intervention in an area of Congressional authority, the US Office of Management and Budget...
Read more
Asian destinations show their strength in latest ranking of student cities The QS Best Student Cities 2026 rankings were released last month, and, for the first time ever, Seoul...
Read more
Students are switching to AI for search. Are you ready? The early research is in and recent studies are pointing to a broad trend in that AI tools...
Read more
How does this current generation of students view the impact of AI? The following is a guest post contributed by Nannette Ripmeester, the Regional Director for Europe and North America...
Read more
Many foreign students want to stay in Germany but need more help with the transition to life after study Early findings from an extensive survey of international students in Germany finds that two-thirds would like to stay...
Read more
How post-study work rights can make or break the return on investment for study abroad The following is a guest post contributed by Tim O’Brien and Claire Clifford from INTO University Partnerships, where...
Read more
UK’s stiffening compliance regime already having an impact on international student recruitment It would be fair to say that compliance is top of mind for international educators in the United...
Read more
Measuring the impacts of the first full year of Canada’s foreign student enrolment cap In January 2024, Canada’s immigration ministry (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC) announced a two-year cap on...
Read more
What are you looking for?
Quick Links