Who are the students of 2020?
The students of 2020 are a challenging group to describe. The “traditional” students, those aged 18-22, can be understood by forecasting their progression from their role today as newly minted first-graders. However, the emerging needs of adult learners will be a strong influence in higher education as workers look to strengthen their job skills, baby boomers seek out new careers and lifelong learners broaden their knowledge base.

How will technology, economics and socio-political trends shape the class entering college in 2020? Here are some emerging trends that may provide a glimpse:

• The National Center for Educational Statistics predicts that only 41 percent of undergraduates nationally will be male by 2010. The feminization of undergraduates has implications for curricula, residence life, athletics and campus security.
• The percentage of persons of color in the U.S. continues to increase. The Hispanic population will increase most rapidly, while European-Americans will be a minority in the under-18 population by 2030. The students of 2020 will have grown up in homogeneous communities.
• Movement to a more global, information-based economy makes a traditional career path less likely. This will influence what students select as majors.
• Current national surveys indicate an increase in academic disengagement among college students (bored in class, missing class, decreased studying). These same students have increasingly consumer-oriented expectations for convenience, quality, service and cost. Will universities be able to successfully manage these trends by 2020?
• How will online courses and “swirling” (students attending multiple institutions to minimize costs and maximize convenience) affect enrollment and staffing?

The "traditional" students entering BGSU in fall 2020, members of the Class of 2024, were born after 2002. For them, Dale Earnhardt, Princess Di, Dr. Christiaan Barnard, Richard Nixon and George Harrison have always been dead.

• Have always had access to electronic technology in its latest forms (cell phones, MP3s, TIVO, computers).
• Some of their grandparents may have served in Viet Nam.
• Courses have always been electronic.
• Gas prices have always been over $3/gallon, but then, who drives a gas-powered car?
• The events of Columbine and 9/11 are just history lessons.
• Have always had to navigate airport security.
• Pluto was never a planet.
• Do not plan on having a pension.
• Lindsay Lohan plays a mom in a TV series.

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"The traditional-aged college student of 2020 is today a first grader. Students of this generation have grown up in a time of concern for personal safety driven by acts of terrorism and violence (at home, abroad, and on their school and college campuses). They have, and will be, educated about environmental degradation and as such will be motivated to make the world greener. In their post-collegiate life they will be sought after by employers seeking to fill the jobs vacated by aging Boomers, but will also be expected to bear the burden of funding social programs that will support those Boomers in retirement. In many ways, they will be the most diverse generation in history. However, I predict they will find new ways to work across racial, religious, ethnic, class, gender and sexual orientation lines, by setting aside the politics of difference. They will be different from today’s students, and yet it is important to remember that they will share a number of hopes and aspirations common to all of us, including the hope for a meaningful work and leisure life, the hope for strong communities, the hope for an authentic sense of self and the hope for a better world. These hopes will require a college learning environment that will guide students as they learn who they are, develop a strong ethical core, and grow into productive leaders for their community and the world."
–Dr. Michael D. Coomes, Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs

Questions? Comments?
Email us at strategicplanning@bgsu.edu
Post to our blog at http://blogs.bgsu.edu/strategicplanning

Resource Links
View You Tube video segments on the provost’s Web site
National Center for Education Statistics
Higher Education Research Institute
Chronicle of Higher Education