How are schools preparing students for the technological and social changes that will define much of their adult lives? In a paper calling for the restructuring of education to prepare students for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), the authors observe, “Educational institutions have contributed greatly to reshaping future technologies by being the test laboratories for innovations. In the meanwhile, there is an immense need for looking beyond the traditional educational approach.”

As accrediting bodies think about the future of higher education institutions, how much thought and planning is put into innovations in technology, sustainability, governance, communications, and community development? How closely are changes in demographics (global and local) examined? What about disruptive innovations in product development, e-commerce, banking, healthcare, and food production?

Considering the number of institutions that have closed since the Covid-19 pandemic, along with a rising cost of the attending the institutions that remain, accrediting bodies would do well to engage in their own futuring to 1) ensure that current standards do not hinder innovation and evolution of the institutions in their purview, and 2) that the assessments they conduct optimize the opportunities for emergence throughout the educational landscape.