Higher Ed GPS: How Will We Get Where We Are Going?

  Occasionally I am asked to either review grant proposals or to comment on symposia and the like that deal with the future of higher education.   Perhaps the most common prefix I encounter in these endeavors is “re-“.   And especially used in the words “rethink” and “reinvent.”   These treacherous words can be found in any organization that is looking for innovation or a conversion event of some sort, but I have found this to be particularly true in higher education. My experience is that the verb being sought after in such instances is not “re-“ anything.   It is “change.” Rethinking and reinventing can be insidious traps.   They too often assume that the same teams working inside the same boxes can produce something new.   What usually happens is that we find the same pieces in the same box, just reorganized.   There is a great commercial that shows how mattress companies “rethink” mattress composition on a regular basis. It explains that ...

Breaking news:   There is an enormous population of underserved adult students.   They are older than high school graduates; they work, have families and have limited access to higher education opportunities. Higher education needs to take action! Oh, wait, you already knew that?    Apparently so does everyone else except higher education. Higher education insiders (read: faculty, administration, researchers, and the education media) keep making this discovery almost daily.   Well, to be fair, they are making different discoveries.   One study reveals the plight of “adult students.”   Another provides a profile of “non-traditional” students.   Yet another gives us the details of “post-traditional” students (my favorite).   As a former insider, I am both embarrassed and insulted. In a recent piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Christian Smith cites a variety of examples of BS in higher education.   Among the more prominen...

In his painfully insightful opinion piece “Higher Education is drowning in BS” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Christian Smith recently observed that the amount of inanity generated within its ranks has toppled higher ed from its once pristine pedestal into the muck that we know as “the real world.”   Smith rightly points out that higher education is now succumbing to the harsh, damaging influences of society that it once stood above and sought to correct through education. This situation presents higher education with a true dilemma, the horns of which threaten to gore the ivory tower (how’s that for an elite mixed metaphor?).   Higher education has traditionally been inwardly focused.   It developed coursework intended to enlighten the understanding of content and foster critical thinking and communication skills.   As such, much attention was paid to curriculum development, including not only pure content but also basic skills like writing and math. ...

In an earlier post I referenced Christian Smith’s astute article “Higher Education is Drowning in BS” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, in which he outlines the various turds on the higher ed poop pile.   He cites among others the outdated tenure system, needless (and useless) jargon, and the state of denial concerning ongoing funding. His article has drawn considerable attention for its perspicacity and forthrightness. But perhaps the most astute observation comes when Smith steps back from the dung heap and looks at the big picture, or mound, as the case may be.   His spot-on analysis is simple.   American higher education today embodies the very problems that “it was intended to transcend and transform.”   He lists unreason, duplicity, and an inability to comprehend the big picture, as examples of these ills.   I think a closer, more specific look is in order here.   America is in the throes of a cultural shift that is characterized by the “...