I expect summer sessions will become more institutionalized, that is, more entwined in the ordinary fabric of higher education.  But, this has a potential down side. I wouldn't want to see the flexibility and innovation now characterizing summer sessions become stifled by heavy governance and bureaucracy. As a laboratory for experimentation, this freedom and flexibility to explore must be preserved, so the successes can be assimilated into the traditional academic year.

 

Summer sessions will continue to innovate in course delivery methods, such as those employed in shorter terms; we'll innovate in student programing, experiential learning, measurement of outcomes, resource and talent utilization, building interdisciplinary connections, promotion and awareness building, and the list goes on. Summer sessions will also play an important role helping students transition... from high school to college, from undergraduate to graduate studies, from college to the workforce... and from the workforce back to college.

 

I see summer session administrators becoming "special session" administrators charged with a wide range of programs and responsibilities that simply do not fit nicely anywhere else. That's what we do now, and as this skill becomes more widely recognized on campuses, we will help fill a management void. Many summer session administrators already oversee intersessions, run bridge and readiness programs, help recruiters attract target student populations in the home country and beyond its borders, run non-credit camps and workshops, oversee adult continuing education, and more.

 

Given the student need and benefit realized from summer and special sessions, there likely will continue to be a significant factor impeding faster growth in summer session attendance, particularly in the U.S., and that is students' inability to pay for it. The U.S. government has not been sympathetic to arguments for expanded financial aid availability for year-around student attendance. Consequently, many undergraduate students cannot afford to attend classes in the summer. This imposed limitation on government-backed financial aid is foolish, because a quicker path to graduation is often less expensive and puts graduates in the workforce sooner. So, we will be proactively advocating for summer and especially for the students we serve.

 

To do all this well, we will be preparing new summer administrators and updating seasoned professionals so they can better cope with this wide range of important and expanding obligations. And, we will continue to study, establish, and communicate to campus leaders the best practices for summer and special session administration. In the not-to-distant future, it will be extremely rare for a higher education institution not to have a viable summer session.