Higher education has faced many challenges since its meager inception. However, higher education today faces its greatest combinations of challenges: economic uncertainty, accountability, globalization and emerging technologies that are daunting to learn and intimidating to implement. VUCA accurately describes this complex, evolving and dynamic environment confronted by global higher education. Therefore, global higher education institutions are attempting to develop the capacity to adapt and modify the new models of knowledge, information and change. In the Industrial Era, work got done in silos with adherence to process and the cult of efficiency. However, this type of working will no longer suffice in an era characterized by flux and change--the VUCA world.

Global higher education institutions are significantly impacted by a key component of chaos during challenging times: the ability to effectively respond to ambiguity and uncertainty. Today’s COVID-19 global pandemic created a challenge so quickly that higher education leaders had little opportunity to assess, evaluate and make informed judgments. The dynamics of the situation presented more complexities than ever previously faced. Global higher education institutions with the ability to manage ambiguity and uncertainty can successfully survive. Conversely, the inability to cope with change could lead to failure.

Globalization has forced higher education into a new world, a world of change, instability and ambiguity, shaped by an increasingly integrated world economy, technology, an international knowledge network, and other forces beyond the control of higher education institutions. Futurists predict that the education systems of tomorrow will be drastically different from those of today. They forecast innovative approaches to teaching and learning will proliferate and will be used more effectively because of technology and telecommunications. Traditional universities historically have been producers of knowledge in the form of human capital, research, and scholarship and are now challenged to tap into the expanding need for lifelong learning. The need and desire for higher education are growing, but higher education is challenged to make significant changes driven by globalization and technology.

The leadership needs to develop new organizational structures and systems that will promote and encourage quality learning and the ability to assess the impact of the teaching. Governments across the world have steadily minimized their support for public higher education, and costs associated with gaining a degree have increased constantly over the last decade. Most universities are forced to adopt a restructuring model for commoditizing education to make a profit from large numbers of students. The road ahead for higher education is filled with challenges, risks and uncertainties that begin with education being valued as more than a simple commodity: education becomes a public good. Higher education is increasingly viewed as a major instrument of economic development. In order to hold universities accountable despite limited governmental budgets, many nations have adopted performance-based university research funding strategies for targeted programs.

Global higher education is experiencing a myriad of challenges that impact the performance and application of education throughout the world. Globalization is a force that encompasses the virtual economy and how knowledge and information are shared and used. Higher education is seen as the primary vehicle for nations to improve the economic conditions for citizens in this new economy. Concurrently, technology has impacted the ability of higher education to respond the multiple difficulties of virtual learning, increased communication efficiency and how to respond to the anytime, anywhere learning demands. Global higher education continues to develop and evolve and global leaders should recognize the essential mission of global higher education to the creation, exchange and implementation of knowledge in a global marketplace.

Digital technologies offer myriad access to learning; entree to education is still a necessity for economic success, with access increasingly promoted to those wishing access to furthering their skills (; Pascarella & Terezini, 2005; ). As new technologies and traditional education paradigms have collided, credentialing paradigms have also needed review (; European Association for International Education (EAIA), 2012, 2015; ). Traditionally, academic credentials and professional certifications were awarded as students emerged from education and vocational/technical programs (Ledesma, 2012). By 2015, global higher education institutions were considering validation of knowledge from online learning coursework in one single common, broad-based credentialing platform (EAIA, 2012, 2015). Accreditation for online learning or Massive Open Online Coursework provides challenges for universities to accept and acknowledge learning as credited coursework; awarding credit for different types of educational coursework disrupts higher education's traditional, formal educational processes for financial and educational accountability (; ; ). The challenge for post-secondary institutions is to look at online learning opportunities through a lens of reform and innovation and equally, as an opportunity to increase higher education participation. (; ).

The combinations of global networking and digital delivery have intense repercussions for higher education administrators who confront a magnitude of opportunities and challenges as the result of the digital revolution. Much of the reaction to technological change comes from those with a vested interest in either wholesale change or maintaining the status quo. Taking the resilience metaphor from ecology, the authors propose a framework for analyzing an institution's ability to adapt to digital challenges. To compete in today's economic environment, higher education institutions must become more adaptive, responding more quickly to changing expectations from society, politicians and customers. The non-linear approach to problem-solving evident in higher education and society in general, reflects a need to be more flexible, adaptive to alternative techniques and willing to invest in a new culture designed to acquire knowledge rather than specific solutions. This level of organizational flexibility and responsiveness fuels university performance. In the globally competitive and commercialized start to the 21st Century there has been a considerable increase in the demands for higher education institutions to provide additional global access, and increase opportunities while simultaneously reducing budgets. Globalization and technology have introduced critical alterations to higher education institutions. The context of education has become dynamic, energetic, and economically driven. The emerging technologies have rapidly turned knowledge to power. In this context knowledge is viewed as a commodity that can be managed (bought and sold) while being a vibrant source of social activity and learning.

VUCA describes today's chaotic, turbulent, and rapidly changing education environment, which is the new educational normal. VUCA; volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, terms coined for the military world also describes today's education world. As a result, educational leaders face the uncertainty of workforce reductions and budget cuts affecting the process of increasing student performance. In addition, rapid changes in technology are constant and ambiguity reigns as mandates for change increase In today's education world VUCA, the chaotic “new normal” is real. The financial crisis of 2008-2009, for example, rendered many businesses obsolete, and organizations throughout the world were plunged into turbulent economic environments. At the same time, rapid changes marched forward as technological developments like social media exploded, the world's population continued to simultaneously grow and age, and global disasters disrupted lives, economies, and businesses. In the new normal, higher education institutions are caught in a critically demanding and increasing unknown present and future characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.