A transdisciplinary approach to industry and higher education

Given the rapidly changing business, industry, technology, and higher education environments, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the organizational structures of higher education institutions in the context of standards for learner success and an employer-educational skills perception gap that needs to be remedied. While prior work has focused on aligning curricula with employer skills, an overlooked area is aligning higher education organizational structures with industry structures and developing the required employer skill sets to support career readiness and learner success. An enhanced organizational framework is developed to improve integrative learning, enhance the adaptability of institutions and graduates, and close the skills gap. As emerging technologies and operating environments progress, such as through advancements brought by AI, a review of the structure, processes, and policies is required for continued industry and higher education success. This paper presents a learner success-based operating model and offers a discussion opportunity for higher education learning leadership to enhance industry alignment, accompanied by additional contributions that provide philosophical, social, and practical perspectives on higher education innovation and change.