A new year is on the horizon, and we recently spoke with Apollidon leadership about anticipated trends and hopes for 2025. Overall, the themes for education will be adaptability and agility in changing and unprecedented circumstances.
An Uncertain Education Landscape
The most consequential development of 2025 could be the dismantling of a crucial federal agency. With broad-ranging but unknown implications, the potential restructuring of the Department of Education loomed throughout our conversation:
Ann-Louise Everett, COO of Apollidon: The future is really hard to predict because we have no idea what’s going to happen with the Department of Education. Part of the discussion has been getting rid of that department, which gives federal funds to students. I believe the funds will continue, but might be given to the states to distribute, and they will allocate funds differently
John Everett, CEO of Apollidon: Institutions should be paying attention to what’s happening at the Department of Education, how that’s going to specifically affect online programs, and what they need to do to adapt, but not overreact. Because three years from now, it’ll be different.
It is difficult to just eliminate the Department, but if financial aid gets suddenly set up into block grants delivered by the state, it will disrupt the financial aid process. There are millions of people looking to have their financial aid debt wiped out. An undergrad can’t go for an MBA if they have to pay that debt.
As Ann-Louise explained, Apollidon is already looking for ways to mitigate financial aid concerns:
Ann-Louise: One of the important things we’re working on for 2025 is tuition reimbursement: Helping students recognize that if they’re already in a profession, they likely have tuition reimbursement of some type. Pretty much every industry is doing something. Pharma does $10,000 per employee per year. That pays for any kind of education you want.
The Increasing Importance of Technology in Education and Careers
The status of the Department of Education notwithstanding, the pace of technology implementation is expected to accelerate in 2025.
AI and Adaptive Technology
AI and adaptive learning technologies are reshaping education delivery. These innovations enable personalized learning pathways, enhanced student engagement, and more efficient assessment methods.
Ann-Louise: We need more education faster because technology is driving and changing every single discipline. Institutions might need to just embrace the technology and tailor it to the individual. Just like you have precision medicine—why not precision education?
John: AI must be part of any curriculum. Adaptive technology allows you to make sure everybody meets the same standard. It helps you learn the material in a way that’s adapted to you rather than struggling through it yourself.
Interactive, Visually Enhanced Learning
Advanced imaging and 3D visualization technologies are powering incredible strides in educational delivery, particularly in the STEM fields:
Ann-Louise: In bioinformatics, they’re looking at the imaging from diseases and mapping the images. We get so much richer information by using imaging and videos.
One of the big things in medicine now is that you can read a lot more detail in all the radiology and MRI imaging and then analyze it in 3D. With video imaging, you get a virtual view of the body. Are we going to use [this technology] going forward? Absolutely!
John: The best example of that is what Arizona State has been doing for several years. They hooked up with DreamWorks and created a program where you’re studying biology on another planet. Traditional biology techniques apply, but it’s gamified.
If you’re a university, you’d better be adapting to this. You’d better not be thinking you’re going to teach the way you have been for the last 10 years. Student expectations are high.
Academic Subjects and Skills Needing More Attention
Evolving technology, demographics, the business climate, and other factors will drive greater emphasis on certain academic subjects in 2025 and beyond.
Healthcare
The aging population continues to drive demand for healthcare education programs, requiring expanded offerings in medical and health-related fields.
Ann-Louise: Healthcare in general continues to be super important because of our aging population. So the research, education, knowledge, and professions all related to the broad area of health are going to continue to grow vastly.
Specializations in Business and Beyond
Business education requires industry-specific specializations and enhanced technological integration.
Ann-Louise: The average student coming out of high school is interested in business. How do you make business education more relevant? Offer more specialization by industry. And you must make it more technology driven, because business is too general at this point.
UT Permian Basin is a perfect example. They’ve expanded their MBA programs since we started working with them, and their enrollments are up 31% because of the specializations. The more you specialize, the more students you get because you’re meeting their needs as opposed to a one-size-fits-all [approach].
John: The question that all universities should be asking is: How can I tailor my curriculum to attract students that are looking out into a future that doesn’t include a lot of the curriculum I’ve been offering for the past 100 years? It comes down to being agile and aware not just of a new administration coming in, but of a whole new world of work that’s happening.
Look at your English degree, your history degree, your humanities degree, your psychology degree, and determine what those students are going to need besides the foundational things you’ve been teaching to adapt to what’s coming in the next 30 to 40 years of their working life.
Critical and Analytical Thinking Skills
As universities adapt to evolving educational demands, certain skills are emerging as essential for students’ long-term success.
Ann-Louise: I don’t know that the university is the best place to learn Python [programming language]. But critical thinking is not something that Microsoft is teaching. It’s not being taught anywhere except for higher ed. And even then, a lot of the education is not focused on critical thinking.
John: When mom and dad send you to school and you take humanities, and they say: What are you going to do with that? The school needs to have an answer to that, and the student needs to have an answer. For the latter, it’s: I’m going to learn critical thinking and how to communicate such that I can adapt myself to any job out there.
Ann-Louise: One of the big missing skills is analytics. We’re undervaluing and underselling the fact that that’s a skill that’s going to help me survive 30 years from now because I’ll have to analyze whether an image, for example, is authentic or not. I have to be able to deduce the reality of what I’m looking at, what I’m hearing, and be much more critical.
History and Humanities
Beyond analytical skills, a well-rounded education should also emphasize the importance of historical context and cultural understanding. Here’s why history and humanities remain crucial:
Ann-Louise: I would argue that humanities has gotten the short shrift. On average, we don’t understand history [and] the fact that we as humans essentially do similar things over and over again. We don’t learn from the past to apply to the future. To me, that’s part of critical thinking skills. History helps us understand what the implications of the world are.
Streamlined Admissions
Higher education institutions are harnessing technology not just in the classroom, but also to make the admissions process more efficient.
John: Student expectations of the application process and how they’re handled before, during, and after applying to a school are also being disrupted [and] assisted by AI and similar tools. If you don’t offer that kind of service, they’ll instantly go somewhere else because there are so many choices out there.
AI may not be where it needs to be to consider all the little nuances of letting a student in, but watch out, because that’s right around the corner. It will very rapidly become better at deciding who’s the best student for your school.
Apollidon Learning can help your institution navigate the coming changes as a partner in launching and supporting your online programs. Contact us for a tailored consultation.
Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brennanbarnard/2024/09/17/college-admission-an-ai-revolution/