Insights
The Next Competitive Advantage in Online Education
Adam Fein, Vice President of Academic Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at 2U, reflects on how online education has become an integral part of institution-wide strategies and why alignment and partnership are increasingly important to its success.
Online education has always required many parts of a university to work together: admissions, financial aid, academics, advising, career services, and technology, among others. What’s new is how central it has become to an institution’s long-term strategy. What was once treated as a specialized afterthought is now core to how universities reach learners, build their academic catalog, respond to workforce needs, and ultimately create new revenue streams.
You can see that shift in the diversity of what institutions are bringing online. Degree programs are now one component of a broader portfolio that can include certificates, microcredentials, enterprise partnerships, and other forms of learning.
As online learning takes on a bigger role, the success of an institution’s portfolio depends on more than the strength of any individual program. It requires a perspective shift, in which online strategy becomes inseparable from institutional strategy. Universities able to align around this shift will increasingly develop a competitive advantage.
I heard this firsthand at UPCEA’s 2026 Summit for Online Leadership and Administration (SOLAR), where I moderated a panel aptly titled “No Lone Wolves: Why Online Programs Thrive on Campus-Wide Alliances.” With about 50 institutions represented in the room, the questions varied, but they pointed to a common need: leaders who bring people together around shared goals, build strong relationships across the institution, and know when to bring in expertise from beyond campus.
Start with alignment inside the institution
Let’s start with the learner experience. The teams responsible for each part of that experience may sit in different corners of the university, but learners don’t experience them that way. They experience one institution.
That means online leaders need to intentionally cultivate collaboration: shared ownership of the strategy, goals, and a clear understanding of how everyone contributes to them. What are learners looking for? Where is the workforce headed? What does the institution do particularly well? Bringing those perspectives together helps connect decisions about programs, enrollment, and student support that might otherwise happen independently.
Getting there may require some “spicy” conversations, especially when the team you need at the table is already stretched thin. My view is that you can and should push for change. However you'll have far more success when you build trust and bring colleagues alongside that change, rather than bulldozing through existing structures.
But trust alone isn’t enough. Sunay Palsole of Texas A&M made a point during our panel that takes that idea one step further: while trust gets the people you need to the table, lasting partnerships need structure. Define responsibilities, deliverables, and service levels so everyone knows what they own and what success looks like. That’s how alignment becomes part of the way an institution operates rather than something dependent on individual relationships.
Extend partnership beyond campus
The same principle applies outside the institution. Universities are making different choices about what they build and manage themselves and where they seek external support. There isn’t one model that works for everyone. Knowing what your institution does well, where another perspective could help, and what problem a partner could help solve are all key factors to weigh when evaluating external options.
The right external partner can bring insight into learner demand and workforce trends, lessons learned across institutions, and experience translating those signals into action.
Trust matters outside the institution, too. From the partner side, that means listening first, understanding the institution and the problem it’s trying to solve, and earning the opportunity to become a trusted thought partner. The goal here isn’t to outsource institutional strategy, but to make that strategy stronger and easier to execute.
Lead differently as the strategy evolves
Online education is no longer peripheral to how many universities think about their learners—especially adult learners—programs, and future. That’s progress, but it also means we can’t lead it as though it still operates independently from the rest of the institution.
That, to me, is the bigger meaning behind “No Lone Wolves.” Build trusted relationships across operating units. Give them structure. Bring the right people and perspectives to the table. Keep everyone working toward the same institutional goals.
Get this right, and the opportunity is bigger than online growth. It’s a university that can make better decisions, adapt faster, and serve learners more effectively. In this time of significant change in higher education, the ability to work together nimbly—inside and beyond campus—to meet the moment, is the competitive advantage.
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