Jim Burkee, President, Saint Leo University

In an interview with Invest:, Jim Burkee, president of Saint Leo University, discussed preparing students for the workforce through responsive programming, alignment with businesses, and reducing barriers to access. “We are looking to align our programs and partnerships in ways that will feed Tampa Bay’s priority sectors,” Burkee said.

What have been the recent key highlights for Saint Leo University?

I was brought here because our community has an appetite for leaning into the regional ecosystem for growth. The region is growing, and they want the university to grow. Like a lot of universities, we are in one of the most difficult environments for higher education, from declining enrollments due to demographic issues to the broader questions of whether American colleges and universities meet workforce needs.

We are looking to align our programs and partnerships in ways that will feed Tampa Bay’s priority sectors. Cybersecurity, AI, healthcare, and education are where the university has a strong track record, and is looking to grow, so our employers can scale and hire locally. We are looking to position ourselves to become the nation’s largest Catholic university, with a real global impact. 

What factors are affecting the university’s growth?

Higher education is changing quickly. Students expect flexible, affordable programs that are relevant for this economy and will lead directly to employment. We are taking bold steps away from traditional models of higher education, so we can be more agile for our students. There are a lot of universities that bring people in to be fundraisers, but fundraising, as I told our board and our community, is not the solution to our future. Having a strong business model means having a university that provides so much value that students are knocking down our doors to study here. That is how to meet the needs of our community and the workforce better than other institutions. 

Our work is focused on organizing ourselves for growth, investing in innovation from priority academic sectors, and leaning into international recruitment. While there has been a rollback in recruiting international students to the United States, this is an area of significant future growth in American higher education, especially in Tampa where we have such growth in the technology sector. Over the next five years, there will be a gap of more than 5 million tech worker graduates from American colleges, between what American demographics are able to produce and what the workforce needs. Our workforce, our employers, and especially our tech sector are going to need to open up the doors to the best and brightest from overseas.

What will be the university’s next step in advancing innovation and tech-driven learning?

This fall, our institution will become one of the first in the United States to integrate digital fluency and AI-driven competencies across all majors, preparing every graduate preparing every graduate, for an evolving workforce. Artificial intelligence is disrupting everything more quickly than we can imagine, but most universities are fairly inelastic businesses that take a long time to adapt.  In partnership with IBM, Saint Leo is taking a dynamic, student-centered approach instead that responds quickly to AI-driven change. Each and every program, whether it’s English, history, education, nursing, cybersecurity, robotics, and so on, will have certification to work in the world of artificial intelligence built into their curriculums in 2026, at no added cost to our students.

How do you leverage online education opportunities for adult learners?

We were one of the first in the marketplace with centers around the country, including on military bases. Every learner is different, so our commitment is to use multiple modalities that will meet learners where they are. Another part of meeting learners where they are is access, which means driving down the price, driving down the barriers to entry, and driving down speed to completion so they can get in the workforce faster.

Finding ways to get students to graduate earlier, if they’re capable, might mean utilizing online programs and tools from competency-based education, because the traditional modality of fixed, regular classes might not be for everyone. That’s another way of addressing the access issue that we are committed to solving in the coming months and years.

How does the university align its programming with in-demand sectors?

We have a strong nursing program, and there is a dramatic need for frontline nurses in Florida. Enrollment has slowed down after COVID, but the demand is still growing. We’re committed to meeting that need in a significant way. We’re looking to diversify our range of offerings to meet needs across different areas of healthcare.  We’ll be pursuing new programs that compress the time to completion. They will be meeting the needs of people who might want to pivot their career, for example into nursing, or from nursing to specializing in different areas. 

Traditional academic models are just not able to keep pace with workforce needs, and we’re working to close that gap. We’re integrating business, computing, and emerging technologies into a new, innovative academic model through the Tapia College of Business and Technology. Emphasis will be on cross-disciplinary coursework, applied learning, and industry collaboration. Students will work with AI tools, automation, data analytics, robotics, cybersecurity, and digital business strategies across programs to become career ready. 

We need to find a way to lower costs, lower time of completion, and get people into the workforce faster and better trained. Our MBA program offers accelerated pathways, and we’re developing executive tracks in other high-demand disciplines to help meet the needs of our employers. We’re also continuing to expand our online programming, military-aligned pathways, international partnerships, and experiential learning models, so our graduates are prepared to step directly into high-growth careers. 

What are the university’s top strategic priorities for the next few years?

One strategic priority is to connect in a more comprehensive and intentional way with the Tampa business community. We are working to strengthen a talent pipeline management program, which connects educational institutions to business leaders. The feedback loop coming from businesses will show what they need from graduates, and graduates will have better job opportunities. We’re also making sure that our programs respond rapidly to the needs of the workforce.

We are here to serve workforce needs, because the No. 1 priority, not just for our community, but also for students going into college, is coming out into a good job. Our work is to help them come through to become better citizens, and better people, as well as with a good job. Moreover, we want to lean into our Catholic identity as an institution. There’s something different about a Saint Leo’s education, with a focus on character, service, and ethics.

The world of AI is relatively unregulated, and the real leaders in this space are going to be the people who think about governance and ethics. We can be the institution that provides access and opportunity, and still have high outcomes.