Unleash Creativity

The most daunting challenge facing higher education is the academy's capacity to respond to external forces, the most dramatic of which are funding issues and technology advances that provide options for education delivery. Demographic challenges in New England heighten the imperative for change. How we teach, whom we teach and how it is paid for are shaking the centuries-old academy to its core.

There will always be external forces beyond the control of the academy. And, there is a way to leverage those forces to reconfigure the academy without compromising quality. The answer is to unleash creativity from within. Just as engaging students in learning inspires creativity, engaging faculty and staff in structured learning focused on academic excellence and increasing capacity for efficiency and effectiveness to deliver it promises to yield the same. We are learning communities.

There are two opportunities for such learning that strengthen the academy from within; they both require an investment. When done well, they unleash a creativity that is vitally connected to the heart of the institution. They strengthen its capacity to respond with integrity.

The first is in place and not taken seriously enough. Thoughtful engagement in reflective self-study, consideration of student-learning objectives and assessment, reordering of priorities, and strategic planning for sustainable improvement are essential. The academy, as a whole, does not take accreditation seriously enough.

The second is an intentional investment in personnel-typically, the largest budget item. Investment in human development expands individual and organizational capacity for efficiency and effectiveness. The expense is justified by industry, and not yet embraced by the academy beyond budgeting for seminars and sabbaticals.

In order to meet challenges, continued excellence in the academy requires a commitment to strengthening its internal capacity for learning. 

Dr. Kathryn G. Dodge is principle of Dodge Advisory Group, LLC, a higher education consulting firm based in Peterborough and the former executive director of the NH Postsecondary Education Commission. She can be reached at 603-924-9741 or at dodge.kathryn@gmail.com.