Part 3 of our series Rewired: The New AI Architecture of Higher Education

Part 1: The New AI Architecture of Higher Education | Part 2: How Higher Education Proves Value in the Skills Economy

You can have the perfect enrollment strategy. You can deliver credentials that employers both trust and understand. But none of it matters if your systems frustrate students at every turn. 

The State of Higher Education 2025 highlights how AI is already transforming administrative operations. Institutions are cutting admissions decision times from weeks to days. That efficiency gain matters, but it’s pointing at something bigger. The most transformative applications of AI in higher education will happen in the invisible systems that touch students every day and determine whether institutions can actually deliver on their promises of personalized pathways, skills verification, and career outcomes. 

The Invisible Systems that Determine Everything 

Think about what student-facing infrastructure should look like: registration that anticipates scheduling conflicts before they derail a semester, financial aid that explains packages in plain language and flags missing steps in real time, advising that surfaces degree progress at midnight without requiring an appointment, and career services that connect learning to opportunity throughout the educational journey rather than just senior year. 

Now consider what most students actually experience. Most universities operate on infrastructure built before students expected real-time information, before mobile-first design, and before APIs enabled systems to communicate seamlessly. Advising platforms can’t access degree audit tools. Financial aid offices require documentation already submitted during admissions because systems don’t share data. Registration workflows assume students know course prerequisites that aren’t clearly mapped anywhere accessible. 

This friction is the difference between serving traditional students adequately and serving diverse learners well. A 19-year-old living on campus might tolerate process-heavy systems because they have time to navigate them. A 35-year-old parent working full-time while taking evening classes cannot. 

When Systems Don’t Talk  

Here’s what disconnected systems look like in practice: A student registers for next semester’s courses. The registration system confirms enrollment, but the degree audit tool doesn’t update for 48 hours. The student panics, thinking they’ve registered wrong, and emails their advisor, who also can’t see the registration because their advising platform pulls data overnight. By the time systems sync, the student has already spent hours searching for answers that should have been instantly available. 

Or consider the transfer student navigating data silos. Transcript evaluation sits in one system. The academic advisor works in another. The degree audit reflects only current-institution courses. Financial aid can’t see transfer credits until manually entered elsewhere. Each office operates with partial information, and the student becomes the integration layer, having to shuttle information between departments, resubmit documentation, and try to piece together what no system can provide. 

These challenges define daily operations for institutions managing disconnected systems, and they’re a key reason students choose to leave. Academic quality and affordability still matter, but experience now defines whether education feels achievable or exhausting.  

Building Systems that Create Advantage 

Better experiences lead to stronger retention, which enables sustained enrollment, which funds continued improvement, which attracts students who see a responsive institution. This cycle creates compounding advantages. 

As the State of Higher Education 2025 report notes, students want “an integrated and seamless experience on campus like they have with Amazon 1-Click, Netflix preferences, and Instagram likes.” The goal is not consumerization, but rather alignment with the baseline expectations of how digital systems should function in 2025. 

The institutions that invest in operational intelligence now will differentiate themselves in ways competitors can’t quickly replicate. Competitors can replicate program offerings, but integrated systems that learn from student behavior and adapt over time create advantages that take years to build. 

From Disconnected Systems to Institutional Data Intelligence  

The challenge institutions face goes beyond isolated student-facing systems. It’s a fundamental question about how data flows across the entire institution and whether that data can inform better decision-making at every level. 

The EDUCAUSE 2025 Horizon Report: Data and Analytics Edition identifies the shift “toward unified data models and integrated data ecosystems” as critical for institutional effectiveness. The report notes significant barriers remain: “slow adoption of common data standards, lack of in-house expertise, tight budgets, and concerns about privacy and security when connecting different data sources.” 

But institutions that overcome these barriers will build systems that “respond more quickly, spot and support at-risk students earlier, and evaluate programs more effectively as a whole.” This is what infrastructure modernization actually means: not just upgrading individual systems, but creating the connective tissue that enables institutional learning. 

Imagine infrastructure that functions like a learning organism. Student outcomes from last semester inform course scheduling for next semester. Advising patterns surface which interventions work for specific populations. Registration data reveals course conflicts before hundreds encounter them. Each cycle generates insights that make the next more effective. 

The EDUCAUSE report warns that “rapid AI adoption is introducing new risks” but is equally clear about the path forward: institutions must “develop clear policies and build cross-functional governance structures that include voices from IT, academic affairs, compliance, and student services.” This is the work of infrastructure modernization: integrating intelligence across systems while maintaining human oversight, transparency, and accountability. 

The Infrastructure Challenge for Lifelong Learners  

Traditional systems assume continuous enrollment, students who enter as freshmen and graduate four years later. These assumptions are embedded in everything from registration workflows to student information systems to advising models. 

Serving lifelong learners requires fundamentally different infrastructure. Systems need to remember students across years of non-enrollment. Credential systems must stack learning experiences accumulated across time and institutions. Registration workflows need to accommodate students taking one course while working full-time. 

The platform approach outlined in the first article in this series now defines the path forward for institutions ready to scale lifelong learning. Without unified infrastructure, institutions will continue to relegate adult learners to separate systems that feel like second-class experiences. The institutions that build infrastructure for lifelong learning will turn the enrollment cliff and broader demographic changes into drivers of innovation and competitive advantage.  

The Infrastructure Behind Skills-Based Credentials 

The second article of our series outlined the opportunity in skills-based credentials. But credential transformation depends entirely on infrastructure most institutions don’t yet have. Making educational outcomes relevant to employers requires systems that track competency development across courses and verify skill demonstration through assessed work. These systems must translate learning outcomes into employer language and enable dynamic credential pathways as employment demands evolve. 

Right now, course outcomes exist in syllabi. Assessment data sits in learning management systems. Career outcomes are tracked separately. None of these systems talk to each other, and none can generate the comprehensive, verifiable credentials students need. Building this infrastructure requires more than technical expertise. It depends on registrars, academic affairs, career services, IT, and institutional research working from unified data models. 

Where to Start  

Transformation gains traction through precise, coordinated initiatives that evolve into integrated systems over time. 

Start with a data integration pilot in one high-friction area, such as transfer credit evaluation, financial aid processing, or advising workflows. Build the connections that eliminate manual handoffs. Use that pilot to establish governance patterns and technical standards that can scale. 

Map the student journey to identify friction points. Follow students through registration, financial aid, advising, and enrollment. Document every place they encounter disconnected information or redundant data entry. These pain points become your integration roadmap. 

Most importantly, build with student-facing impact in mind. Every integration should make something tangibly better, such as faster information, clearer guidance, reduced manual work, or more responsive service. Infrastructure projects that deliver only backend efficiencies will struggle to sustain commitment. Projects that demonstrably improve student experiences will build momentum for continued transformation. 

The Infrastructure Imperative 

This series has outlined a clear progression: who to serve (lifelong learners at all career stages), how to prove value (skills-based credentials and AI-powered career connection), and what makes it possible (operational infrastructure that executes strategy at scale). 

The institutions that lead will approach transformation as an interconnected system. Success with diverse learners comes from modern infrastructure, and lasting credential innovation emerges from systems built to verify skills throughout learners’ lives. 

Infrastructure serves as a core differentiator, converting strategic vision into operational strength. It’s the difference between institutions that adapt to demographic change and those that watch enrollment decline while running on systems built for students who no longer represent their future. 

The work is demanding. It requires sustained commitment, cross-functional collaboration, and investment in capabilities that many institutions have historically under-resourced. Continuing to operate on disconnected systems while competitors advance with unified platforms limits growth and long-term resilience. 

Transformation begins with the essential work of modernizing systems, integrating data, and building platforms that serve lifelong learners. That’s where real differentiation happens, and that’s what determines institutional success in the decade ahead. 

The pace of AI change can feel relentless with tools, processes, and practices evolving almost weekly. We help organizations navigate this landscape with clarity, balancing experimentation with governance, and turning AI’s potential into practical, measurable outcomes. If you’re looking to explore how AI can work inside your organization—not just in theory, but in practice—we’d love to be a partner in that journey. Request an AI briefing. 

Key Takeaways 

• Infrastructure Determines Experience. 
  Student success depends on how seamlessly systems deliver that quality. Unified data ecosystems transform friction into retention. 

• Operational Intelligence Creates Competitive Advantage. 
  Integrated systems generate insights that compound, improving services, reducing friction, and enabling faster, more confident decisions across every department. 

• Data Modernization Fuels Skills Transformation. 
  Skills-based credentials thrive when infrastructure connects learning outcomes, assessment data, and career results across institutional silos. 

• Lifelong Learning Requires Lifelong Systems. 
  Serving returning adults, career changers, and continuous learners calls for infrastructure designed for flexibility, persistence, and re-entry across time. 

• Transformation Begins with Integration. 
  The most successful modernization efforts start small, targeting one high-friction process, and expand through clear governance, shared standards, and visible student impact. 

FAQs 

Why does infrastructure modernization matter for student success? 
Modern systems remove friction in core experiences such as registration, advising, and financial aid. When data flows seamlessly, students receive faster responses, clearer guidance, and more personalized support. 

What does operational intelligence mean for higher education? 
Operational intelligence describes systems that automate processes and learn from them. When institutions integrate data across departments, they gain the ability to anticipate student needs, identify risks earlier, and continuously improve operations. 

How does infrastructure connect to skills-based credentials? 
Skills-based learning depends on interoperable data. Institutions need infrastructure that connects course outcomes, assessments, and verified competencies, creating credentials that employers understand and trust. 

Where should institutions start with modernization? 
Start with a pilot that addresses a visible student challenge such as transfer credit evaluation or financial aid delays. Use that project to establish governance patterns, integration standards, and measurable improvements that demonstrate value across the institution. 

What defines a future-ready institution? 
A future-ready institution treats infrastructure as a living system that learns and adapts. It measures success by student outcomes, institutional agility, and the ability to serve learners continuously throughout their careers.  

Part 2 of our series Rewired: The New AI Architecture of Higher Education

Part 1: The New AI Architecture of Higher Education | Part 3: The Invisible Infrastructure That Determines Higher Education Success

Higher education faces a trust problem. College-going rates have dropped from 70% to 62% since 2016. When you ask students why, two themes dominate: affordability concerns and uncertainty about return on investment. Universities have responded by defending the value of degrees with more vigor and better marketing, but this strategy misunderstands what’s shifting. Students still want to learn, but they also want to know whether what they are learning matters to employers and how it connects to real employment opportunities. Degrees used to provide that assurance implicitly. Employers valued degrees, so students trusted their worth. But as employers shift toward skills-based hiring, that implicit value is eroding. Students now need explicit proof that their education translates into capabilities employers actually want. 

Meanwhile, employers are adopting skills-based hiring at accelerating rates. They care less about where you went to school and more about what you can do. This creates an opportunity for institutions willing to reimagine credentials entirely and use AI to connect learning to career outcomes in real time. 

The Credential Revolution  

The degree is evolving to become modular, transparent, and aligned to real-world capabilities. Today’s students demand degree programs where industry-aligned certifications are embedded throughout, not tacked on at the end. They want digital credentials that verify specific competencies in formats employers can instantly understand. They need evidence of skills activated, not just courses completed. 

This requires solving a problem most institutions are only beginning to articulate: making educational outcomes relevant and legible to employers. Right now, a degree signals institutional affiliation and field of study, but nothing more. Hiring managers need a clear view into whether a graduate can analyze datasets, lead cross-functional teams, or communicate complex ideas to non-technical audiences. 

Institutions know these things. Course learning outcomes exist. Assessment data sits in learning management systems. Capstone projects demonstrate applied competencies. But this evidence is trapped in internal systems, inaccessible to anyone outside the institution. Students leave with a diploma that says what they studied, not what they can do. 

Consider what this looks like from a student’s perspective. A sociology major graduates knowing they can conduct qualitative research, analyze social patterns, manage community-based projects, and synthesize complex information for diverse audiences. But their diploma says “Bachelor of Arts in Sociology.” Their transcript lists course titles and grades. They spend months after graduation trying to articulate their actual capabilities in resumes and interviews because their institution never made those skills visible or verifiable to employers. 

Institutions that build interoperable credential systems with digital credentials that verify specific competencies, stackable certifications embedded throughout degree programs, and verified skill demonstrations will define a new model for learning. They will become the trusted translators between education and employment. They will award degrees and validate capabilities that matter, serving students throughout their careers as they return for new credentials and competencies. 

Some institutions are already moving in this direction. Computer science programs embed AWS or Google Cloud certifications alongside degree requirements. Business schools offer IBM badges and Six Sigma certifications as integrated components of coursework. Universities partner with platforms like Credly and Canvas Credentials to issue competency-based digital badges that students can share directly with employers. 

Arizona State University is taking this even further with its Trusted Learner Network (TLN), building infrastructure for distributed ledger-based, verifiable credentials that can follow students throughout their lifelong learning journey—not just credentials from ASU, but a vision of interoperable credential exchange across institutions, employers, and learning providers. This is what credential infrastructure looks like when institutions think beyond single transactions to lifelong relationships. 

But most institutions are still treating credentials as isolated experiments rather than core infrastructure. A certificate program here, a digital badge pilot there, maybe some industry partnerships in high-demand fields. What’s missing is the institutional commitment to make skills verification foundational to how students progress through their education and how alumni demonstrate their capabilities throughout their careers. 

This transforms the institutional relationship from a four-year transaction to a lifelong partnership. Alumni leave with more than a degree, they maintain a credential relationship with the institution, returning for micro-credentials, professional certifications, and competency validations as their careers evolve. This is the infrastructure that makes lifelong learning operationally viable, a unified system where a 22-year-old recent graduate and a 45-year-old mid-career professional engage with the same credential ecosystem. 

Where AI Readiness Becomes Competitive Advantage 

Recent research surfaces a critical gap. Students are already using AI tools extensively in their academic work for research, writing, and problem-solving. Meanwhile, fewer than 20% of faculty feel confident teaching with or about AI. Most institutions are treating this as a training problem: a few workshops on prompt engineering, some guidance on academic integrity, maybe a pilot program or two. 

That response entirely misses the opportunity. The institutions that will differentiate themselves are doing more than training faculty on AI tools. They’re integrating AI into how students learn, how advisors guide, and how the institution operates. The difference is between treating AI as a tool to learn about versus treating it as the intelligence layer that makes every system more responsive. 

Consider what this looks like operationally. Right now, when a student struggles in a course, they might get flagged for early intervention. For example, they may receive an automated email suggesting the tutoring center, or maybe an advisor reaches out to recommend better study habits or office hours. That’s reactive and generic. 

An AI-informed institution operates differently. The system recognizes the struggle in real-time and surfaces personalized tutoring resources at the moment intervention is needed. These are not generic study tips, but alternative approaches to the material aligned with how that student learns best. When the student registers for next semester, the system adjusts course recommendations to sequence their learning more effectively while still maintaining progress toward their degree. The advisor still has the conversation, but now they’re working with intelligence about what approaches are actually effective for this student. 

The difference is more than better outcomes. It’s operational efficiency at scale. An advisor managing 400 students can’t manually track how each student learns best, which interventions are working, and what course sequences will set them up for success. But an AI-informed system can surface exactly which students need proactive outreach, what specific guidance would be most relevant, and how to sequence their learning path most effectively. The advisor’s time shifts from administrative triage to high-value relationship building. 

The challenge is organizational. It requires integrating intelligence across disconnected systems like advising platforms, learning management systems, career services tools, and student information systems. It requires training staff to use AI-informed insights without replacing their professional judgment. And it necessitates building workflows where AI augments human interaction rather than creating another dashboard no one checks. 

I’ve watched institutions pilot AI capabilities that never scale beyond the pilot. A chatbot answers basic questions but cannot access student records. An early alert system generates so many flags that advisors cannot possibly respond to them all, leading them to ignore the alerts entirely. An AI-powered degree planning tool recommends optimal course sequences but operates in a separate system, disconnected from the advising and registration workflows students actually use. 

The competitive advantage comes from embedding AI into how every system serves students. That requires treating AI integration as an operational transformation, not a technology deployment. And it requires infrastructure built to make intelligence actionable, not just theoretical. 

Proving Value Through Skills and Intelligence 

The institutions that solve the ROI crisis will be the ones that make learning outcomes transparent and connected to employment. They’ll build credential systems that translate education into employer-legible skills and use AI to connect students with career pathways from day one, not just senior year. Industry certifications will be embedded throughout their degree programs rather than treating them as add-ons. 

This transformation requires institutions to fundamentally rethink how they measure success, from degrees awarded to skills activated, from course completion to demonstrated capability, and from graduation metrics to career readiness at every stage. It requires building credential systems that prove competency, not just attendance, and treating career preparation as foundational to education, not a separate service bolted on at the end. 

The institutions leading this work will be the ones that understand proving value is no longer a marketing problem, but an infrastructure problem. You can’t demonstrate skills if you don’t have systems to verify and credential them. You can’t connect learning to careers if your academic systems don’t talk to your career services platforms. You can’t serve students throughout their lifelong learning journey if your infrastructure is designed exclusively for traditional four-year degree seekers. 

The next article in this series examines the operational infrastructure that makes all of this possible. The invisible systems that determine whether students persist or leave, whether institutions can deliver on these promises at scale, and whether the transformation from traditional education to intelligent learning ecosystems actually works in practice. 

Read part 3 of our Rewired series, The Invisible Infrastructure That Determines Higher Education Success.  If you missed our first article in this series, check out The New AI Architecture of Higher Education.  

The pace of AI change can feel relentless with tools, processes, and practices evolving almost weekly. We help organizations navigate this landscape with clarity, balancing experimentation with governance, and turning AI’s potential into practical, measurable outcomes. If you’re looking to explore how AI can work inside your organization—not just in theory, but in practice—we’d love to be a partner in that journey. Request an AI briefing. 

Key Takeaways 

• Credential innovation solves the ROI crisis. Making educational data legible to employers through verifiable skills credentials and transparent competency validation transforms how institutions prove value. 

• AI fluency becomes competitive advantage when woven into institutional operations. The differentiation comes from building systems where AI enhances advising, career services, and student support at every stage. 

• Skills-based hiring creates opportunities for forward-thinking institutions. Universities that embed industry certifications, create interoperable credential data, and connect learning to labor markets will unlock new revenue streams. 

FAQs 

Why do credentials need to change when degrees still matter to employers? 

Employers increasingly hire based on demonstrated skills rather than degree prestige. They need to understand what a graduate can actually do, not just where they studied. Verifiable digital credentials that translate coursework into specific competencies help employers make better decisions and help graduates prove their capabilities clearly. 

What makes AI fluency different from AI adoption in higher education? 

AI adoption means using tools like ChatGPT or administrative automation. AI fluency means weaving intelligent systems into how students learn, advisors guide, career services operate, and institutions run. It’s the difference between adding technology and reimagining how education works when intelligence can personalize, predict, and adapt at scale. 

How do institutions make educational data legible to employers? 

Through interoperable credential systems that translate courses into demonstrated competencies. Instead of transcripts showing only course titles and grades, modern credentials verify specific skills like data analysis, cross-functional leadership, or technical communication. Digital badges and stackable certifications create a common language between education and employment. 

What does AI-powered career services look like in practice? 

AI-powered career services track labor market trends in real time, connect coursework to emerging job opportunities, help students build competency portfolios throughout their education, surface relevant alumni mentors based on career interests, and personalize guidance based on individual strengths and market demand. The technology enables career planning from freshman year instead of senior year scrambling. 

Part 1 of our series Rewired: The New AI Architecture of Higher Education 

Part 2: How Higher Education Proves Value in the Skills Economy | Part 3: The Invisible Infrastructure That Determines Higher Education Success

The State of Higher Education 2025 report confirms what institutions have been tracking for years: the enrollment cliff is here. Peak high school enrollment arrived with the Class of 2025, and from now through 2041, the number of graduates will decline by 13%. 

Institutions knew this was coming. The story they aren’t ready to hear is what it requires: not better retention strategies or more aggressive recruiting, but fundamental reinvention of who they serve and how they serve them. Most institutions see the enrollment cliff as a crisis to be managed. I see it as the catalyst for higher education’s most exciting transformation in decades. 

The report captures a sector at an inflection point. Demographic shifts, AI advancement, and evolving student expectations are converging to create the conditions for fundamental reinvention. The barrier isn’t awareness or willingness, it’s execution. Institutions move slowly. Their systems are disconnected. Their infrastructure is rigid, designed for a traditional student population that no longer represents their future. 

The transformation requires work most institutions have barely started: reimagining who their students are, modernizing how systems serve them, and redefining what counts as proof of learning. 

The Student You’re Not Designing For 

I’ve sat in countless conversations with enrollment and student success teams. The pattern is always the same: everyone is focused on meeting this term’s targets, fixing immediate friction points, optimizing for the students already enrolled. There’s barely time to think about next month, let alone reimagine who you could serve five years from now. 

When leaders do push for serving non-traditional populations, such as adult learners, part-time students, and those with significant transfer credits, the instinct is often to squeeze these students into existing systems. Use the same registration workflows. Same advising model. Same assumptions about what ‘student success’ means. The result? You’ve diversified your enrollment numbers but not your infrastructure. 

This is the trap that keeps institutions focused on a shrinking market. As the traditional undergraduate population declines, a massive population of learners remains underserved: 

• Adult learners balancing work and family commitments 

• Students arriving with transfer credits from multiple institutions 

• Professionals seeking micro-credentials to stay relevant in shifting job markets 

• Alumni who earned degrees a decade ago and need new skills for roles that didn’t exist when they graduated 

These learners represent the future majority of higher education, and they bring fundamentally different expectations. They need to learn while working full-time, while managing families, while living far from campus. They require flexibility as a condition of participation. And they expect university systems to work like every other digital experience in their lives: responsive, intelligent, and adaptive. 

Online-only enrollment has already surpassed 5 million students, and online master’s degrees now exceed in-person programs. The pandemic validated what these learners already knew: flexible learning is the only viable path for students juggling multiple commitments. What institutions treated as emergency response in 2020 has become permanent expectation in 2025. 

Being “student-centric” requires building systems with institutional memory, platforms that recognize a returning student, pre-populate forms with known information, and give advisors visibility into a student’s full academic journey. The technology to do this exists in every other sector. Higher education’s challenge is the complexity of dismantling deeply embedded silos while keeping operations running. 

The institutions that will thrive aren’t the ones fighting to preserve systems designed for traditional learners. They’re the ones willing to do the hard work of building platforms that serve a 19-year-old college freshman and a 45-year-old professional returning for a certification with equal intelligence, systems that recognize both learners, understand their different needs, and adapt accordingly. 

The Platform Play Higher Ed Hasn’t Made 

Online education has proven its viability. The next frontier is integration. Online and on-campus work best as different modes within a unified learning platform that follows students wherever they are in life. 

Right now, most universities treat online programs as separate business units with distinct registration systems, student services, and cultures. I’ve seen this friction play out in painful ways. A junior takes a summer internship out of state and wants to stay on track by taking one online course. Suddenly they’re navigating a completely different registration portal, calling a separate help desk, and dealing with advisors who can’t see their on-campus transcript.  

Or consider the undergraduate alum applying to an online master’s program at the same institution. They’re re-entering all the information the university already has, speaking with advisors who have no visibility into their four years of history. Same institution, but the student experiences it as if starting from zero. 

The friction is real, and it’s expensive. Every moment of confusion, every duplicated form, every advisor who doesn’t have complete context is a moment where the student considers whether continuing is worth the hassle. 

The opportunity sits in building modular, always-on learning environments where micro-credentials, degrees, and continuous upskilling integrate seamlessly. Picture this: A student completes a graduate certificate in data analytics. Three years later, they return for an MBA. The certificate credits automatically apply, their prior work is visible to new faculty, and the advising team can build on previous conversations rather than starting fresh. The student doesn’t have to re-explain themselves. They’re simply continuing a relationship the institution remembers. 

This isn’t hypothetical. Some institutions are building this now, and it’s becoming their competitive advantage. 

This vision requires treating education as a lifelong relationship rather than a four-year transaction. It means building systems that remember students, adapt to their changing needs, and make re-entry feel seamless rather than starting from scratch. The institutions that crack this will turn alumni into lifelong learners and turn education into something that compounds in value over time. 

This fundamentally shifts how institutions think about their role. Instead of a four-year engagement, you’re building relationships that span careers. Alumni who return for stackable credentials every few years represent the best kind of growth: learners you’ve already served well, who understand how your programs work, and who are advocating for your institution with their employers. This is how institutions build enrollment resilience in a shifting demographic landscape. 

What This Looks Like in Practice 

Transformation at this scale relies on strategic planning and attention to detail. It happens when your data architecture can track a learner across programs, modalities, and decades. When your student information system doesn’t silo traditional and non-traditional students into separate workflows and data structures. When your advising model scales to support someone taking one course just as effectively as someone enrolled full-time. 

The institutions getting this right are treating it as a technology transformation, not just a strategy refresh. They’re building unified data layers, modernizing APIs, and creating seamless user experiences. They’re measuring success by how little friction a learner experiences, not just by enrollment and retention numbers. 

Building the Foundation for What’s Next 

The universities that thrive over the next decade will be the ones that expand their definition of students to include learners at every career stage. They’ll create unified platforms where online and on-campus blend seamlessly, building experiences that serve diverse populations with equal care. 

Transformation happens in the essential work of modernizing systems, integrating data, and building platforms for lifelong learning. It happens when institutions shift their focus from what they’ve always done to designing for who they could serve. 

The institutions leading this work will be the ones that respond to the enrollment cliff by expanding who they serve. The ones that understand serving lifelong learners requires purpose-built infrastructure. The ones ready to measure success by skills activated rather than degrees awarded. 

The opportunity is clear: institutions that expand their definition of ‘student’ and build unified platforms for lifelong learning will own the next decade. But expanding who you serve only matters if learners believe your programs are worth their investment. In the next article, we’ll explore how institutions prove value in a skills economy—how they make learning outcomes transparent, credentials employer-legible, and career pathways visible from day one. 

Read part 2 of our Rewired series, How Higher Education Proves Value in the Skills Economy.

The pace of AI change can feel relentless with tools, processes, and practices evolving almost weekly. We help organizations navigate this landscape with clarity, balancing experimentation with governance, and turning AI’s potential into practical, measurable outcomes. If you’re looking to explore how AI can work inside your organization—not just in theory, but in practice. We’d love to be a partner in that journey. Request an AI briefing.  

Key Takeaways 

• The demographic cliff creates expansion opportunities, not scarcity. Institutions can grow by serving first-time adult learners, transfer students, credential seekers, and alumni returning for skills throughout their careers. 

• Lifelong learning requires unified platforms. Students moving between on-campus, online, and micro-credential pathways need seamless systems that remember them and adapt to changing needs across decades. 

• Purpose-built infrastructure determines success. Serving diverse learner populations requires moving beyond retrofitted systems to platforms designed for lifelong educational relationships. 

FAQs 

How can universities grow enrollment during the demographic cliff? 

Growth comes from expanding who you define as a student. First-time adult learners, students with transfer credits, professionals seeking micro-credentials, and alumni returning for reskilling represent massive underserved populations. Institutions that build systems serving these learners as well as traditional undergraduates will find new revenue streams throughout the demographic transition. 

How do institutions serve traditional students and lifelong learners simultaneously? 

By building unified platforms where different learner types access personalized experiences through the same underlying systems. An 18-year-old residential student and a 40-year-old professional seeking a certificate have different needs, but both benefit from intelligent advising, clear pathways, and responsive operations. The technology should adapt to the learner, not force the learner to adapt to rigid categories. 

What does a unified learning platform actually include? 

A unified platform integrates registration, advising, credential tracking, and student services across all learning modes. It remembers student history regardless of how long they’ve been away, allows seamless transitions between degree programs and micro-credentials, and personalizes communication and support based on individual circumstances. The goal is making re-entry as natural as initial enrollment. 

Why is lifelong learning more valuable than traditional four-year models? 

Lifelong learning creates recurring revenue streams and deeper alumni relationships. Students who return multiple times throughout their careers generate sustained tuition revenue while building stronger institutional loyalty. Education becomes a compounding relationship rather than a single transaction, increasing lifetime value per student.