Dive Brief:

• The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is pulling together a commission to study undergraduate education and the challenges and opportunities that face it in the next 20 to 25 years.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the group of more than two dozen academics, businesspeople, and politicians will spend two years preparing a report that will examine traditional institutions, as well as alternative offerings like MOOCs and the apprenticeship movement, and then a third year disseminating their findings.
• The Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, financed with $2.2 million from the Carnegie Corporation, will explore the needs of older adult students and examine the political and technological landscape that could bring innovations to shake up higher ed in the coming decades.

Dive Insight:

Tech companies are constantly talking about how their products will shape the future of higher education. Michael S. McPherson, outgoing Spencer Foundation president and the co-chair of the new commission, said one of the group’s challenges will be making their predictions and recommendations heard across the country, and particularly in Washington. They’ll certainly have plenty of competition. As the Chronicle notes, this commission is the latest in a long line of task forces, books, and conferences looking to predict the challenges and opportunities of the coming decades.