New Careers in Higher Education

As the pace of change in the workplace quickens, higher education will not only be a resource for students to develop new skills but how students interact with higher education will continue change. Higher education is responding with its own changes, creating new opportunities for careers in higher education. Higher education employs a growing number of people, meaning emerging careers in the field can provide a significant number of new opportunities. In the United States there are nearly 1.6 million faculty and 2 million staff in higher education, according to the National Center for Education statistics.

Incorporating new technologies into Higher Education

It’s extraordinary realizing how far digitization has changed higher education in a relatively short period of time. In  2018, the Office of Digital Humanities, part of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is just now celebrating its 10th anniversary. The office’s mission, which explores how to “harness new technology for humanities research and the study of digital culture from a humanistic perspective,” novel 10 years ago, is now an essential part of education and its mission resonates with higher education institutions across the country.

New technical roles in Higher Education

The digital landscape has transformed education and higher education careers. This can be felt in a number of ways including developing and maintaining technology infrastructure, creating educational opportunities that leverage that technology, and using technology to amplify the message of the institution. For example, according to Hanover research, an effective and intuitive website is now considered crucial to most higher education institutions. This caters to new careers in IT, web development, and design. This includes supporting online course offerings with similar positions in addition to database administrators and back-end web developers. With only 20% of the top 100 academically ranked schools offering traditional online courses, these career opportunities are sure to expand.

Emerging educator roles

Alternative faculty careers are also being created as the types of higher education students diversify. Many students are no longer “traditional” students and have more diverse education goals. For example, Bard college and the Brooklyn Library started the first ‘microcollege.’ This is just one example of the new educational methods being explored by higher education. As educational needs fluctuate, there will be increasing opportunities to start your career as an educator at a higher institution.

Expanding careers in marketing in Higher Education

Choice continues to increase in higher education and demand scales along with that. 100% of institutions polled by Hanover Research used some form of social media. Beyond social media, marketing positions overall have changed. There are more marketing and branding professionals employed by Higher Education institutions. And these positions are not only digital – event-based recruitment continues to be one of the most successful marketing campaigns. For those in marketing, there is more opportunity than ever to begin a career in higher education.

As higher education adapts to new technologies and student needs, there will continue to be new career opportunities in higher education. Be sure to check HERC job boards to keep up to date on new opportunities for you to start your career in higher education.