What Keeps Deans Up at Night?

• Educators must clearly communicate the tangible, long-term benefits of a business degree to counter rising skepticism and shifting public perception.
• Bridging the gap between innovative ideas and actual classroom implementation is essential to ensuring meaningful student impact.
• Global disruptions, shifting enrollment trends, and evolving education models require collective strategies and peer support within the academic community to sustain student engagement and institutional relevance.

Transcript

Shanan Gibson: [00:15] One thing that keeps me up at night is the general conversation about the value, or the lack of value, of a college education.

[00:23] In higher ed, we know that a college education lays the foundation for future success and opens doors for us to have meaningful, sustainable, and impactful careers.

[00:36] When people question that, it means we need to go back and reconsider our values in higher education and make certain that we're making visible what these tangible outcomes are, so that people don't question the value and instead think about what they're investing in instead of what it's costing them.

Isabelle Chaquiriand: [00:54] The main thing that keeps me up at night is once I arrive from this conference, which is really and extremely inspirational—how can we, at the end of the day, make those amazing ideas happen in the classroom?

A college education lays the foundation for future success and opens doors for us to have meaningful, sustainable, and impactful careers.

[01:10] Because at our desk, we can imagine the best business education worldwide. But if the reality is not happening in the classroom with students, the impact is not happening in how they learn and we teach—they are just nice ideas.

[01:27] We need what we think, what we discuss in these conferences, and what we think theoretically in our minds as deans, at the end of the day, really impacts our students.

Rana Sobh: [01:41] Everything we do in the curriculum, through our teaching pedagogies, innovative collaboration and models, and new teaching models, like offering macrocredentials and focusing on getting our students professional certificates even before they graduate.

[02:06] Everything we do revolves around that so that I can sleep at night.

Delphine Manceau: [02:11] Business schools have been built around the idea of international exposure. Studying abroad is very important. Faculty are international in most business schools.

What we think, what we discuss in these conferences, and what we think theoretically in our minds as deans really impacts our students.

[02:26] This has been going on for 30 years. And now, suddenly, many places are shutting down, and some countries have huge tensions that affect us.

[02:37] How are we going to educate our young generations with that? As educational institutions, I think this is a key topic for us.

Jacob Chacko: [02:46] That answer is different for the type of school you're from. For me, the biggest thing that's keeping me up is the enrollment cliff.

[02:57] My school is in Atlanta, Georgia, and Atlanta is one of those population places where enrollment is growing. So, why is that a cliff?

[03:09] There is a cliff because there was a structure before the pandemic. Students knew that certain students at certain levels, such as SAT scores, etc., applied to 'reach schools,' the 'sure schools,' etc.

[03:30] After the pandemic, schools have started saying scores are optional. And so the applications at the reach or out-of-reach schools have just soared.

Education in a business school is also about creating individuals who will be leaders at their jobs and in society.

MaryAnne Hyland: [03:42] One thing that keeps me up at night is the questioning of the value of a college education. We know that costs are increasing, and there's skepticism out there about the value of a college degree.

[03:55] We need to get the message out that having more educated individuals in our society is not just good for our workforce, but it's good for society as a whole.

[04:05] Education in a business school, of course, is about numbers and theories, but it's also about creating individuals who will be leaders at their jobs and in society.

[04:17] And so if we can get that message out there, hopefully it will help.

Hannah Holmes: [04:21] The thing that helps me address concerns about anything keeping me awake at night is talking to people. I am lucky to have quite a lot of mentors or, you know, good peers.

[04:32] Having somewhere where you can go and talk to them about the best way to do things or to have a space to share how you're feeling when it's difficult, I think, is what helps me get through.