Occupier-Edge_Ed5_A4 - AR

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SUSTAINABILITY Students are concerned about the

environment, and so universities are as well. Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) reports that at least 330 U.S. institutions feature solar power that collectively generate about 250,000 kilowatts. In addition, colleges increasingly look to adaptive reuse of older buildings rather than taking the un-ecological approach of demolition and replacement. As noted by the World Economic Forum, consumers (and students alike) around the globe are increasingly concerned with a broad range of issues that impact their decisions: impact on environment, carbon footprint, labour standards, animal welfare, and school’s ethical trade track record.

RETHINKING EDUCATION SYSTEMS By one popular estimate 65% of children entering primary schools today will ultimately work in new job types and functions that currently don’t yet exist. Technological trends such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution will create many new cross-functional roles for which employees will need both technical and social and analytical skills. Most existing education systems at all levels provide highly siloed training and continue a number of 20th-century practices that are hindering progress on today’s talent and labour market issues. Two such legacy issues burdening formal education systems worldwide are the dichotomy between Humanities and Sciences and applied and pure training, on the one hand, and the prestige premium attached to tertiary-certified forms of education–rather than the actual content of learning–on the other hand. Put bluntly, there is simply no good reason to indefinitely maintain either of these in today’s world. Businesses should work closely with governments, education providers and others to imagine what a true 21st-century curriculum might look like.

DISRUPTION

65%

of children entering primary school will work in jobs that don’t exist today

-“Shift Happens”, Scott McLeod and Karl Fisch

Growing universities erect glitzy libraries, housing blocks, and research facilities to accommodate new students; shrinking ones do so in an effort to turn the tide.

8 million

students will graduate from Chinese universities in 2017 - World Economic Forum

- The Economist, Feb 23, 2017

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INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS Prestigious universities have been

£2.4 billion

operating overseas campuses for many years, but as this trend expanded, some institutions found it difficult to navigate the logistical, political, and cost challenges involved in planting their flags on foreign soil. In recent years, the trend has been toward partnerships with existing universities as a way to attract students in those countries. The trend is also becoming multi-directional. For instance, Tsinghua University of Beijing – known as the “MIT of China”– has worked with the University of Washington in the U.S. to start a graduate institute near Seattle that can accommodate up to 3,000 students.

- An excerpt from World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2016)

is spent by universities on construction annually across the UK, nearly double the pace of spending a decade ago - The Economist

DAVID C. SMITH Senior Research Director Global Occupier Services Americas david.smith4@cushwake.com CRAIG CASSELL Executive Managing Director Global Leader Education Sector craig.cassell@cushwake.com

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