The recommendations will provide the bases for future NPEC projects concerning technology and its data systems ramifications. Six main themes emerged from the panel as cogent indicators of the tasks and challenges facing those people and institutions charged with planning and implementing services and educational programs for students in the 21st century. Following are a few highlights of the many findings and recommendations from these six areas emanating from the policy panel and reflected in the final report. There is ample evidence that information technology is having a large impact on higher education and will have an even greater impact in the future. It is very clear that information technology is heavily integrated into the administrative functions of institutions of higher education and has become critical in the delivery of service and research missions.
Information technology affects the academic lives of students and faculty in many different ways.
Changing student demographics and the near universal presence of the World Wide Web and Internet are pressures and opportunities that most colleges cannot ignore. Most colleges have not fully analyzed the potential policy impacts of nontraditional course offerings to nontraditional students. The policy panel felt that policymakers at the state and national levels need additional information about the extent to which postsecondary education institutions are using distance learning and how they are using technology in instruction. G. Phillip Cartwright synthesized their contributions, and Robert Wallhaus provided introductory and summary sections. This work was carried out under the sponsorship of the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.