The Student Experience: Engaging in Cultural and Economic Shifts in Higher Education

This research essay explores culture and economics as dynamics of VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) and their relationship to the invigoration of the student experience in higher education. The way in which academic institutions critically engage in the student experience is arguably essential for thriving in a VUCA world because its function as a cultural differentiator in the competing higher education marketplace, the response it provides to changing student demographics, and the effort needed to retain and graduate students in higher education institutions.