Has the time FINALLY come for higher education change?

As Inside Higher Ed reports, there has been yet another gathering of higher education leaders talking about how higher education needs to change.  This time they talked about the need to serve diverse and non-traditional students, borrowing ideas from the for-profit colleges and creating flexibility for students.  All sound good until you hear that one element of the conversation was that these leaders acknowledge that they have been having this conversation for decades without meaningful change.

There is no question that trouble is brewing.  The worst economic downturn in decades should be enough to stimulate action.  At least one would hope that to be the case.  And Jane Wellman of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability offered what is described as a “blunt” assessment that no new money is going to come to higher education.  Unfortunately, the article reports that this group demonstrated a long-honored tradition of talking about the predominant institutional model at the exclusion of community colleges and, perhaps, other alternative models.

It is good to see that leaders of the institutions that attended this gathering are talking about change – even if they have talked rather than acted for many years.  Maybe this time will be different … though I would not want to place any bets on that.  The real question is not whether change will occur, there are simply too many external pressures for that not to happen, but whether the change can or will come from within mainstream higher education.  Time will tell.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Mike