A wave of change is breaking over higher education. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a dramatic shift to online learning, the business of higher education now faces challenges that developed over decades.

Closed campuses, international travel restrictions, and unprecedented attrition from students who are either unsatisfied with their online learning experiences or whose own financial circumstances have changed threaten institutions that are unable to find their financial footing in a very different operating environment.

Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University, presented a grim future for colleges and universities that cannot innovate fast enough to recover from crippling revenue losses — he predicts that over 20 percent of universities listed in US News and World Report’s Top National College Rankings may be in danger of closing their doors for good without creative solutions to the disruption.

Panopto’s CEO and Founder, Eric Burns, has a different perspective. In a keynote presentation delivered at Panopto’s 2020 EMEA User Conference, Burns asserted, “I believe that we have the opportunity to revitalize higher education and to chart a new course that is distinct from the one Scott Galloway has predicted.” 

Watch Burns’s full keynote presentation in which he discusses how the pandemic and the “Zoomification of higher education” presents a unique opportunity to learn from online learning and to innovate how we deliver education experiences that students really want.