"After a year that has tested the resiliency of a centuries-old sector, ideas for reinvention have emerged. Most agree that higher ed is in a moment of crisis, but few agree on what exactly is the cause."
"Research universities have lost billions in federal funding, rich selective universities face higher endowment taxes starting next summer, and institutions relying on TRIO grants or minority-serving-institutions funding saw millions of dollars disappear overnight."
"Take the Manhattan Institute's Statement on Higher Education. It proposes reforms that are "starting points" for the restoration of academia, "which can push back the forces of radicalism and create the space for real knowledge." It also suggests that the U.S. president should require institutions to agree to terms such as merit-based decision-making and reporting on campus attitudes toward free speech and civil discourse."
Higher education faces simultaneous financial shocks and declining public confidence. Research universities lost billions in federal funding while selective institutions face upcoming endowment taxes. Programs serving low-income and minority students experienced sudden funding losses, and public trust in colleges remains low. Diverse institutional missions and constituencies make a single corrective prescription infeasible. Some conservative proposals advocate greater government conditions, reporting, and mandates tied to funding, framing reforms as protections against campus radicalism. Alternative proposals include tuition freezes and standardized admissions in exchange for funding preferences. The combination of budgetary strain, politicized reform proposals, and fractured public support has created an urgent institutional reckoning.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]