Crisis on Campus_ A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities - Mark C. Taylor [78]
While many American colleges and universities are contracting, other countries, especially in Asia, are investing heavily to expand higher education. In a recent article entitled “America Falling: Longtime Dominance in Education Erodes,” published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Karin Fischer writes:
Whether the current system,1 if unchanged, can weather recessionary storms and increased competition from overseas is an open question. Unlike their counterparts in Asia, Americans have simply not felt the urgency to reinvigorate and reinvest in higher education as a means to better position the country in a competitive and shifting global economy, says Charles M. Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering and a former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In such an environment, the unthinkable becomes thinkable. What if Harvard were to fail? When the next financial crisis hits—and there will be another one bigger than the last—Harvard might not have sufficient liquid assets to service its staggering debt and might be unable to make enough cutbacks to remain solvent. In this situation there are four possibilities: Harvard could declare insolvency and close its doors; the university could seek a government bailout; creditors could take over the university and sell its assets—financial and otherwise—to recover some money for investors; or creditors could sell Harvard’s debt to China or another country, which would then assume control of Harvard. Impossible? So was the bankruptcy of General Motors.
The problems facing colleges and universities are not only financial. The two-hundred-year-old industrial model that remains the foundation of their organization and operation is inadequate in today’s fast-changing networked world. The inability to adapt quickly and effectively is making it increasingly difficult for colleges and universities to provide the kind of education people need. The outdated ideal of faculty, departmental, disciplinary and institutional autonomy must give way to cooperative associations that extend from the local to the global. The people and institutions willing and able to adapt to these changing circumstances will thrive, and those that resist change will quickly become obsolete.
Many of the changes we have been considering are likely to accelerate in the near future and to lead to a major transformation of higher education in the next decade. Traditional instruction in colleges and universities will continue but will become less affordable and therefore less accessible. Older, more diverse and more mobile students will demand education more directly related to their personal and professional needs and will require new means of delivery. Fewer students will be eighteen to twenty-two years old and more people will take courses intermittently throughout their lives. Higher education, like everything else, will become increasingly global. Colleges and universities will not remain autonomous but will be networked with other institutions around the world to create a global education network that holds the promise of improving and enriching human life.
It is, of course, important to recall Yogi Berra’s warning, “It’s always risky to make predictions—especially about the future.” But projections are unavoidable; human life is unimaginable without a vision of the alternative futures toward which we might move. So let me conclude by offering a sketch of what life