In 2015, the higher-education landscape will look dramatically different than it did at the turn of the millennium. The industry will suffer a bruising round of consolidations similar to those undergone by the health care, banking and oil industries. Most of the 3,500 or so institutions of higher education that existed in the year 2000 will form regional and international consortia in a dozen or so loose networks of international education behemoths. A seminary professor at Andrews University shares a lecture with students in Germany via video conferencing technology. Two small colleges in the Philippines and the Ukraine form a partnership with a university in North America.
Students share experiences and become partners online for their class projects.
To enhance their class offerings and become more cost-effective, the Adventist University Consortium shares classes and professors, online and face to face. This consortium includes all 95 institutions of higher learning in the Adventist church. A new company is offering a select group of universities a chance at Wall Street riches in return for the right to use their names and their faculty expertise for developing courses in business, engineering, and writing. F P Adventist businessmen provide funding to develop online courses needed by institutions around the world. Students enroll, pay tuition to, and receive credit from the originating university.