In this period of high conflict, polarization, and eroding trust in institutions, both public and private, a strong higher education community that is increasing access to education—and therefore economic mobility—and expanding the frontiers of research is more important than ever.
Higher education is far from monolithic. The sector is a tapestry of institutions that serve a wide variety of constituents and stakeholders. Yet, many institutions share similar challenges, despite being very different in terms of their location, learners served, and scope and scale. Despite the differences across the sector, there are many issues, challenges, and opportunities that are common across institutions. By meaningfully engaging in topics that have implications for the entirety of the sector, the future of higher education will emerge stronger, informed by the experiences and innovations that have developed organically and inorganically across institutions and within adjacent sectors.
The prevailing external narrative around higher education today is of a sector slow to change, starved for business and operating model innovation, and possibly even predatory in some cases (as evidenced by the steadily declining public trust and erosion in the belief in the “return on investment” of the sector). Some of this decline in trust is not without merit. The “paradox” of declining public trust and the empirical evidence of the value of higher education is becoming stark. Despite this prevailing narrative, there has been significant innovation from all corners of the higher education spectrum from which we can all learn—although institutions will continue to incorporate aspects differently into varied missions.
As the higher education sector emerges into its new era, there is a compelling need to break down intra-industry silos, finding the common ground among top research schools, small/mid-sized privates, regional publics, state systems, athletic conferences, religious affiliation, etc. Limiting the scope of our common efforts could minimize innovation and reduce our collective ability to truly change the declining perception of higher education in America and internationally.
Change comes slowly in higher education, and this isn’t helped by the relatively slow pace of the exogenous forces acting on us (slow drip of enrollment declines, confined only to certain segments of the higher ed panoply, or the incremental jumps in distrust in other institutions, which leads us to believe: “We’re better than most … so why change?”). Regardless of what corner of the higher education ecosystem an institution occupies, these challenges (and opportunities) are shared by all.