Where Is Higher Education Headed in 2025: Four Questions For Josh Kim

One of the things I am looking forward to most in 2022 is our new “Four Questions” feature, in which we will interview practitioners and thought leaders in the graduate and online space. In these interviews, we will learn what they are focusing on in their jobs, what they see on the horizon for higher education, and also learn a bit about them personally—and all in four questions!

Josh Kim is director of online programs and strategy at Dartmouth College, co-author of the widely read Learning Innovation, and the co-chair of RNL’s new Graduate and Online Advisory Panel. Josh agreed to sit down for the first of these interviews. Here’s what he had to tell us about the issues of the day, and why Raiders of the Lost Ark is his favorite movie:

From where you sit, what are the most pressing issues your institution will be looking to address in the next couple of years and how has the pandemic informed or affected that strategy?

Josh Kim: For us at Dartmouth and my colleagues around the country at colleges and universities, the challenge is really thinking beyond the next couple weeks or even months. It’s really difficult to think about the years to come when we’re trying to navigate the COVID situation now. For right now, our biggest priority is to have our students on campus learning in classrooms. We’ve learned that the cost on student well-being of not being able to come to campus is incredibly high.

So we’re all very committed to making the situation for our students as normal as possible in this very difficult time. I’m a parent of a college senior now, so I’ve seen this, and it really rings true for me. We’re focused on getting through the situation and keeping everyone safe—our students, faculty, and staff. Continue to have as much intimate relational education as we can. But, as we think about the lessons of COVID, we need to think past the immediate horizon and think about how to put what we’ve learned to work to ensure we are ready for the next big thing. That is really hard to do in the current situation.

What do you think American higher education is going to look like in 2025?

Josh Kim: I very much hope that the variants are over, that we’re able to be fully back in person, that we’re not in this situation now where we’re so constrained with all the mask wearing and constraints on how we gather. We’ve learned that at least residential education is very much dependent on our ability to come together. So I very much hope in 2025 that the public health situation is better.

Having said that, it’s clear that the divide between online and residential education has really disappeared. We know that we’ll have to be resilient to all sorts of shocks and external factors so that our education can continue no matter what happens. I think in 2025, the norm will be a deep integration between analog and digital education. We will have both in person and online and they’ll come together (hopefully) seamlessly so that education works for all of our learners, no matter where they are or what’s going on in the world.

What do you hope to accomplish as part of the RNL graduate and advisory panel?

Josh Kim: Most institutions are thinking about the future of new online or low residency programs. There is a lot of interest in trying to understand, particularly, how graduate education is changing, how graduate students are changing. And it’s clear that the model of only having people come to campus is evolving very quickly. COVID evolved that very quickly.

As a director of online programs and strategy at Dartmouth College, I think about this each and every day. A big part of the future success of online education is understanding how to reach and build relationships with prospective students so that they know about your programs. In this area, there is a lot of room for colleges and universities to partner with organizations, companies like RNL, that have long history in thinking about how to connect with students.

The world of marketing and enrollment management companies is something I don’t really know so much about. I’m a learning person. I come from a background of designing courses and designing programs. I used to teach college. The whole world of digital marketing—the critical element in reaching today’s student—is kind of new to me. I’ve been in higher education for a while, but digital marketing best practices are changing so quickly that there is a need for the type of deep skills and expertise that can only come from focusing on this stuff day in, day out. So as a co-chair of the RNL Graduate and Online Advisory Board, my big goal is to learn as much as I can about the industry, about the sector of marketing and enrollment management, particularly on the digital side.

On a personal note, what is your favorite movie of all time and why?

Josh Kim: A movie that really made a big impression for me was Raiders of the Lost Ark. It came out when I was in junior high school. I think that’s when I remember it, and just the idea that there’s this big world out there that you can be an academic. Because remember Harrison Ford’s character is an academic. That you can have an academic career, but have this big, exciting adventures. So that’s always been kind of my motto of what academia could be like. I don’t know if I quite got it right, but it’s been an influential movie for me.

Hear from Josh and many other experts at the 2022 RNL Graduate and Online Innovation Summit

Josh Kim and more than a dozen additional experts will present at the second annual RNL Graduate and Online Innovation Summit, a one-day virtual event on February 23. Join us online as we:

• Address the new realities of enrollment management.
• Tap into new and next digital marketing.
• Share the latest strategies to achieve long-term institutional sustainability.

Register for the online summit