For the last decade, millennial students have captured the attention of higher education. We’ve studied them, learned about their perspectives on the world, and sought to serve them well through our educational system. Now the stream of millennial-minded students is maturing; they are no longer our traditional-aged prospects. They are currently enrolled as undergraduates. They are our young alumni. They are becoming graduate students. They are our adult non-traditional students. That means it’s time to focus on the next generation.
What shall we call the next generation? Some call them Generation Z, iGen, or Centennials. With birth years that begin roughly around the turn of the millennium, it’s hard to know what name will stick. For our purposes, we’ll call them Re-Gen, a name used by Tammy Erickson, an expert in generational research and recent keynote speaker at Eduventures’ Enrollment Management Day (EM Day) where we explored their new viewpoint and the implications for higher education. As it turns out, Re-Gens are distinctly different from Millennials.
According to Erickson, life experiences and events that occur between the ages of 11-15 are critical in the development of mental models or frames of reference that stay with people throughout life. In a much-shortened version of her in-depth research, the Millennial generation is substantially formed by its experience with 9/11 and the increasing ubiquity of technology.
Re-Gen, on the other hand, is a generation that is substantially formed by the great recession, accelerating climate change, and completely native use of technology. At EM Day, we discussed how the mental models of Re-Gen are likely to play out in higher education; here are the top three highlights of our discussion.