The New Generation of Students

How Colleges Can Recruit, Teach, and Serve Gen Z: Meet the new generation of students, understand their influences and needs, and prepare to educate this diverse cohort.  For the last decade and a half, many colleges have catered to millennials, but they are no longer the traditional undergraduates. Gen Z has arrived on campuses just as four-year residential institutions, in particular, are competing for a declining number of high-school graduates. Planning for this transition means rethinking strategies and priorities to create an effective educational experience for Gen Z.  This Chronicle report draws on demographic trends, surveys, front-line observations, and an expanding array of Gen Z books and experts to introduce the new generation to campus leaders. Details are still emerging, but Gen Z — shaped by the Great Recession and the reign of the smartphone and social media — marks a break from even the recent past. Today’s students are more skeptical and money conscious, interested i