5 arenas that are traditional higher ed’s most worthy competitors

These disruptive arenas will directly compete with traditional institutions—and here’s why

You’ve heard about MOOCs, online platforms, and other technologies like digital credentialing shaking up traditional offerings from higher education institutions, but where is it all coming from?

According to a new brief by Deloitte University Press, there are five distinct economic and social sectors that are generating the pathways, and technologies to leverage those pathways, in direct competition to traditional postsecondary education.

And it’s these five arenas that have listened the most to the needs of today’s 21^st Century learner, says the brief’s authors.

“Increasingly, individuals need both lifelong learning and accelerated, on-demand learning, largely as a response to the pressures of the broader evolving economic landscape,” explains the brief. “Technological advances [are also reducing] the lifespan of specific skills, and an increasingly globalized and automated workforce needs to continuously learn and retrain.”

The brief continues, noting that “existing institutions will likely have to choose what roles they can play sustainably and where they should be integrating emerging players and tools to support the learning needs of the future.”

However, before institutions can plan ahead, the brief suggests that they first understand what their major competition is and why.

(Next page: The 5 arenas providing traditional higher-ed’s biggest competition)