Six Ways To Redefine Global Growth in Higher Education
How can academic institutions navigate complex international markets and explore new gateways to growth?
How universities create impact and engage students internationally is undergoing its most significant transformation in decades. Global demand is shifting as the era of the dominant “big four” international locations of the US, Canada, UK and Australia is coming to an end. At the same time, there is a greater need for upskilling and reskilling globally, driven by AI.
While international enrolments are projected to grow, the locations where learners are seeking university experiences are changing. Students in some of the countries that have traditionally fed the “big four”, for example India, are now choosing to stay closer to home. China’s shrinking youth population and rising domestic options are reducing demand for overseas study.
At the Academic Leadership Group, we regularly invite clients and contacts to join our webinars where we explore the most pressing issues in higher education today. To discuss the topic of how top universities grow globally, we were joined by a panel of expert leaders from Stanford University, Arizona State University, Parallax Global Advisors, and Emeritus. Our panellists shared fascinating insights into how their institutions are adapting, innovating, and expanding globally. We’ve captured their key insights here.
So what insights did our panellist share with us? Read on…
Global growth is about adaptability, not competition
The conversation opened with a powerful reframing: global growth in higher ed is no longer about competing for students. It's about adapting to a new reality where excellence can emerge from anywhere.
All our panelists agreed that the institutions that thrive in the global marketplace won’t necessarily be the biggest and most prestigious. They’ll be the most adaptable: rethinking how learners engage, how partnerships are built, and how delivery models evolve across borders.
2. Partnerships: The new operating system
Faced with budget constraints and the need to evolve at speed, universities are making strategic decisions about what they build, what they buy, and what they partner for. Success depends on strong internal teams and strategic external alliances. Innovation today is built on ecosystems, not silos. Our panellists shared that even vendor relationships are now treated like partnerships. Many vendors are now viewed as strategic collaborators, with shared goals and clear understanding around who does what. Brand protection is also a key consideration.
3. Innovation at speed: Turning ideas into scalable learning programs
Institutions win by being flexible, innovative, and fast—not by protecting old models.
Future-focused universities are developing new learning opportunities for students in an agile, iterative way to meet evolving needs at speed. They are moving away from traditional development cycles that prioritize perfection, as these can be slow to progress.
Panellists shared that they are achieving breakthrough innovations through collaborating with partners to spark innovative approaches, combined with rapid piloting which is speeding up time-to-market while also increasing relevance and improving quality.
4. From programs to pathways: Lifelong, personalized learning
Lifelong, personalized learning is rapidly becoming the defining model of modern education. As learners demand more flexibility, autonomy, and relevance, the age of traditional, one-size-fits-all programs is coming to an end. Rapidly evolving technology, including AI, now enables individualized pathways at scale—supporting multilingual learning, adaptive pacing, and context-specific experiences.
Our panellists emphasized the importance of meeting learners wherever they are on their journeys. One leading institution is exemplifying this shift by serving individuals from 22 months to 96 years old across 157 countries through AI-powered personalization and integrated, stackable credential frameworks. Before the pandemic, many regions resisted online education; today, leading institutions are offering online and hybrid delivery combined with self-paced learning through modular content.
5. Going “glocal”: Local context for global content
A “glocal” strategy, where global content is delivered with local context, is becoming essential for both relevance and scalability. While often underestimated, the ability to adapt world-class material to local realities is what ultimately determines impact. Effective programs go beyond simply importing global frameworks; they translate them into locally meaningful case studies, examples, regulations, cultural norms, and economic conditions. Successful institutions are anchoring strong, faculty-driven content to the needs and dynamics of the regions they serve: balancing global excellence with deep local resonance.
6. Career relevance in a rapidly changing global workplace
Career relevance has become a priority for both learners and employers, who increasingly expect educational programs to develop in-demand skills with direct workplace application. As organizational structures flatten, students are expected to enter the workforce at a higher level of readiness, equipped to contribute meaningfully from the start in interconnected, multicultural environments. This is especially true in fast-moving economies such as India, where employers place a high value on globally-competent, industry-ready graduates who can continuously upskill at pace in this hyper-speed age of AI and other evolving technologies.
Get ready for a new era of global higher education
We are entering a new era of global higher education, where success will be defined more by adaptability and collaboration than tradition and prestige. In this interconnected world, leading institutions are innovating at speed to create learning ecosystems that are flexible, inclusive, and future-ready—equipping students to learn and excel in a rapidly-changing global marketplace.
Like to know more?
If you’d like a link to watch this 60-minute panel discussion, please let us know and we’ll send one to you. We’d also be happy to talk through your own global growth challenges in more detail. Please get in touch any time.