Nursing education to celebrate learning.

INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION currently face a number of challenges, from the increasing diversity of students, a growing disparity between what society and what the university defines as its core mission, and society's transition from an industrial economy to an information economy. As part of such institutions, schools of nursing will need to consider a new "business design," which may include: new course formats that will keep groups of students together for several years in the same "learning communities"; use of Internet communications for projects and public exhibitions and defenses of results instead of the regular weekly scheduled class; offering programs for learning entrepreneurship, business practice, management, and leadership; and establishing programs for working professionals that promise, deliver, and certify specified competencies. In the end, it will not be its physical trappings, nor the extended distance forms, neither convergence nor convocation, that will guarantee the university's continuing significance to our global society. That significance will be assured by maintaining the central values of a university: viz., helping students learn and grow intellectually. creating a climate where scholars can create arid test knowledge, and reaching out to enlighten a civilized community. The convergent university, in which all must be full partners, earl help achieve that worthy purpose (Hall, 1995). More than ever, institutions of higher education are being threatened by numerous challenges. The first challenge is the growing number of students entering academic institutions and the increasing diversity of these students. The second challenge is the growing disparity between what society and what the university defines as its core mission. This disparity is being voiced by employers, parents of college students, and state legislators. This challenge is also compounded by society's transition from an industrial economy to an information economy. The urgent need for knowledge workers is affecting all segments of our global society. A third challenge deals with the changing definition of learning. For many years, learning has been defined in terms of a teaching infrastructure. Now the where, when, what, and how of learning are being questioned. The last challenge is the ever increasing presence of information technology and telecommunications in our society. These industries, whose mantra is, "any time, any place, and any where," are placing increasing burdens on already financially strapped universities. The "new majority" of students has different views on what constitutes quality education To house this many new learners on a college campus, thirteen new universities the size of Harvard would have to be built to handle a single year's growth in corporate education (Davis & Botkin, 1994). The nontraditional student will have become the norm and will represent the dog rather than the tail (Heterick & Twigg, 1997). For centuries, higher education was available only to an elite group of students. According to Twigg (1994), there was less than one percent of our population that entered college at the turn of the century. As we embark on the turn of a new century, over 14 million people per year will be entering institutions of higher education and 75 percent of our current work force will need training. The student population of yesteryear, 18 to 22-year-olds attending school fulltime while living on campus, is increasingly giving way to older part-time students with multiple responsibilities (school, work, family). Less than 20 percent of college students are full-time 18 to 22-year-olds and 13 percent of the nation's undergraduates are under the age of 25. The changing student population and its needs are also becoming a threat to the modern university. Older students with multiple responsibilities can no longer take "time out" for education. …