Georgia Tech Dean Bill Gaudelli addressed national leaders from higher education, business, and government at the Business–Higher Education Forum Fall 2025 Convening, offering a candid assessment of how universities can better meet the evolving needs of learners and employers.

“We’re at a watershed moment,” Gaudelli said. “The value proposition of higher education is under interrogation nationally and boldly in a way that it has not been in my lifetime.”

Gaudelli explained that the College of Lifetime Learning, Georgia Tech’s newest academic unit, reflects an institutional commitment to place learning at the center of the university’s mission.

“The College of Lifetime Learning is an effort on the part of a top-tier research and technical institute—Georgia Tech—to reposition the value of higher education vis-à-vis the marketplace and in relationship to communities in need. It’s a big bet,” he said.

Drawing from his early career as a classroom teacher, Gaudelli questioned higher education’s long-standing assumption that learning automatically happens when an expert speaks and others listen—an assumption he called “a fundamentally flawed premise.”

“It’s not actually about the teaching—it’s always and everywhere about the learning,” he said. “How do we center on the learner experience so that when learning occurs, it’s durable, meaningful, purposeful, and has an outcome that is demonstrable in the world?”

He highlighted the importance of metacognition—the ability to think about how one learns and to apply knowledge in new contexts—as a core skill that makes learning resilient and transferable.

Gaudelli also called for universities to rethink design principles for courses and programs. Effective learning, he noted, depends on clarity of purpose, timely feedback, modeling, and opportunities for application—whether in traditional classrooms, online settings, or through partnerships with employers and communities.

“We have to get better at learning,” Gaudelli said. “We’re already meeting learners where they are, and we look forward to partnerships with all of you in delivering on that value proposition—because Georgia Tech alone cannot meet this challenge. We all have to.”

By hosting the BHEF Fall 2025 Convening, the College of Lifetime Learning reinforced its mission to connect research, technology, and collaboration in service of high-quality learning that empowers people to grow and adapt throughout their lives.