Any college administrator will tell you that the landscape for higher education is shifting under our feet.

 

Consider some of the powerful forces that buffet academe today: Shrinking revenues. Stronger resistance to tuition hikes. Calls that universities produce more graduates. The rapid rise of classroom technology and online learning. Stronger competition, including the expanding for-profit sector. Shifts in student demographics. Globalization. More government scrutiny of university practices. Louder calls for transparency and accountability. Public skepticism about the value of higher education.

 

Welcome to the “new normal,” many say. Behind that cliché lie hard truths that raise perplexing questions. If the landscape for higher education has in fact been transmogrified, what now? How should colleges and universities respond? If the academy is changing fundamentally, is it time to fundamentally rethink the academy?