The Rhetoric of Higher Education in Crisis

Author(s):  
Robert B. Archibald

Crisis rhetoric dominates the conversation about higher education. This chapter provides a few fictional stories about the future of colleges and universities facing today’s stresses. It introduces the threats that US higher education faces. These include internal threats, classified as those that come from conducting business as usual in the traditional model of producing a college education; environmental threats, broader economic changes in the world outside of higher education that make the current financial model for colleges and universities more challenging; and technological threats, that is, the expansion of online education. The chapter also discusses reasons apocalyptic predictions of disruption and bankruptcy for large segments of the US higher education system are overblown.

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-184
Author(s):  
John Bound ◽  
Breno Braga ◽  
Gaurav Khanna ◽  
Sarah Turner

In the four decades since 1980, US colleges and universities have seen the number of students from abroad quadruple. This rise in enrollment and degree attainment affects the global supply of highly educated workers, the flow of talent to the US labor market, and the financing of US higher education. Yet, the impacts are far from uniform, with significant differences evident by level of study and type of institution. The determinants of foreign flows to US colleges and universities reflect both changes in student demand from abroad and the variation in market circumstances of colleges and universities, with visa policies serving a mediating role. The consequences of these market mechanisms impact global talent development, the resources of colleges and universities, and labor markets in the United States and countries sending students.


2020 ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Yu. M. Tsygalov

The forced work of Russian universities remotely in the context of the pandemic (COVID-19) has generated a lot of discussion about the benefits of the new form of education. The first results were summed up and reports were presented, the materials of which showed that the main goal of online education — the prevention of the spread of infection, - has been achieved. Against this background, proposals and publications have appeared substantiating the effectiveness of the massive introduction of distance learning in Russia, including in higher education. However, the assessment of such training by the population and students in publications and in social networks was predominantly negative and showed that the number of emerging problems exceeds the possible benefits of the new educational technology. Based on the analysis of the materials of publications and personal experience of teaching online, the potential benefits and problems of distance learning in higher education in Russia are considered. It is proposed to consider the effects separately for the suppliers of new technology (government, universities) and consumers (students, teachers, society). It is substantiated that the massive introduction of online education allows not only to reduce the negative consequences of epidemics, but also to reduce budgetary funding for universities, optimize the age composition of teachers, and reduce the cost of maintaining educational buildings. However, there will be a leveling / averaging of the quality of education, and responsibility for the quality of training will shift from the state/universities to students. The critical shortcomings of online education are the low degree of readiness of the digital infrastructure, the lack of a mechanism for identifying and monitoring the work of students, information security problems, and the lack of trust in such training of the population. The massive use of online education creates a number of risks for the country, the most critical of which is the destruction of the higher education system and a drop in the effectiveness of personnel training. The consequences of this risk realization are not compensated by any possible budget savings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 225-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.N. MINAT ◽  

The purpose of the study is to identify trends that determine the dynamics and structure of funding for the US higher education system. The subject of this study is the dynamics and structure of funding for the US higher education system. The relevance of the topic of the article lies in the substantiation of possible threats to the use of financial instruments that have passed the path of evolutionary development in America. In accordance with the purpose, a retrospective assessment of these trends has been carried out over a long period of time. To analyze the vast theoretical and statistical material on the stated problems, such methodological techniques and tools as retrospective assessment, statistical and economic analysis, comparative assessment, generalizations, and the inductive method were used. The results obtained reflect not only the stages of spatio-temporal evolution in the development of the American higher education system, but also reveal indicators that make it possible to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of this system over a century of research. The identified trends highlight the contradictory nature of funding for universities in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. On the one hand, the instruments and results of funding reflect the distinct American way of combining centralization and decentralization in the evolutionary development of a complex higher education system. On the other hand, they confirm the worldwide, ambiguous in qualitative assessment, practice of financing universities - reducing the share of government spending by increasing private investment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Yan Ma

<p>In the era of continuous innovation of higher education, in view of the social positioning of various institutions of higher learning, the role and responsibility of the differentiation, so the local ordinary undergraduate colleges and universities have regional characteristics. To strengthen the innovation of the local ordinary undergraduate course colleges and universities, higher education can shift focus to cultivate applying professional knowledge and skills to do a special talent of professional social practice and students can use their own technology in the working practice and ability for practical talents. This is our country's higher education system on the level and type of the main development goals. The transformation and development of local undergraduate universities should be carried out from theory to practice. This paper tries to explore the reform and innovation in teaching curriculum from the innovative strategy of local universities.</p>


2020 ◽  
pp. 089590482095111
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Ison

Free higher education has become a major policy discussion of the past few years, one that is often debated or supported along partisan lines. Those supporting this policy initiative often point to the rising cost of a college education and the barrier it creates for underrepresented populations hoping to access higher education. Others point to a broken financial aid system that leaves more individuals financing their education through student loans, adding to a massive national loan debt now exceeding a trillion dollars. Various arguments for and against a free-tuition program within the American higher education system are addressed. While an argument can be made that all public American higher education should be tuition-free, limiting a large-scale federal program to the American community college has economic and political implications that could make the policy more feasible for a larger percentage of the American public.


Author(s):  
Harsh Vardhan Pant ◽  
Manoj Chandra Lohani ◽  
Jeetendra Pande

Online education has gained a lot of acceptance among the learners in the recent past. The advances in technology and changing demand from students and business as well as the possibility for reducing costs and generating income has led to a MOOC explosion. Over the last years, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have received a great deal of attention from the academic community, business, and the media, especially after the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020. The pandemic has caused educational disruption across the globe. Educational institutes faced with the challenge of maintaining the continuity of learning and were almost forced to switch to the online mode. The seemingly simple and immediate solution is to conduct school remotely using online resources. The aim of this study is to investigate the current trends and prediction with respect to the adoption of MOOCs in the Indian higher education system and identify various influencing factors facilitating this adoption.


Author(s):  
Robert B. Archibald

The American higher education system consists of over 4,700 institutions educating over twenty-one million students. The most striking feature of this system is its diversity. There is no “typical college.” Much of the story about the future of America’s four-year higher education institutions is found in their differences, not their similarities. Schools are public and private, large and small, elite and open enrollment, tuition dependent and well endowed, liberal arts oriented and vocational. The challenges facing America’s colleges and universities will affect the diverse parts of this system in very different ways. Generalizing about this system can be very dangerous.


Author(s):  
Robert B. Archibald ◽  
David H. Feldman

This book evaluates the threats—real and perceived—that American colleges and universities must confront over the next thirty years. Those threats include rising costs endemic to personal services like higher education, growing income inequality in the United States that affects how much families can pay, demographic changes that will affect demand, and labor market changes that could affect the value of a degree. The book also evaluates changing patterns of state and federal support for higher education, and new digital technologies rippling through the entire economy. Although there will be great challenges ahead for America’s complex mix of colleges and universities, this book’s analysis is an antidote to the language of crisis that dominates contemporary public discourse. The bundle of services that four-year colleges and universities provide likely will retain their value for the traditional age range of college students. The division between in-person education for most younger students and online coursework for older and returning students appears quite stable. This book provides a view that is less pessimistic about the present, but more worried about the future. The diverse American system of four-year institutions is resilient and adaptable. But the threats this book identifies will weigh most heavily on the schools that disproportionately serve America’s most at-risk students. The future could cement in place a bifurcated higher education system, one for the children of privilege and great potential and one for the riskier social investment in the children of disadvantage.


Author(s):  
Tetiana Dmytrenko

The monograph discusses the organizational and methodological foundations of the professional training of specialists in library science and informology in the US higher education system: structure and content, forms of organization, orientation of professional training to ensure the professional mobility of these specialists. The directions of using the US experience in modernization of professional training of specialists of information, library and archives in Ukraine are defined and substantiated.


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