Higher Education’s Future - Not Failing the 3R’s

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) may seem to be doing just fine in these uncertain times: enrollments continue to increase; students are graduating in record numbers; and funding appears to be relatively stable. Unfortunately there is a flip side to this assessment: tuition is increasing well beyond inflation and income growth; preparedness for the workplace continues to slip making the value of the degree drop; and state and federal funding (direct and indirect) are dropping and will likely drop even more in the future. As I look at the future of higher education I see three things institutions must do better to survive (not just succeed but survive). In thinking about this my list began with RELEVANCE and RESPONSIBILITY so I thought if I added another “R” word I could slip a “3R’s” into the framework. I admit I struggled with the third “R” and after rejecting “resilient, rigorous, realistic, and re-envisioned,” I chose RELATIONSHIPS. Below I argue that these elements are essential to the future of higher education – and three elements most likely for failure.

Higher education will only succeed if it is RELEVANT in its programs and in its research to the needs of society and the needs of students. IHE’s must provide their graduates with the skills and knowledge to solve the vexing problems we face as a society. These problems include addressing climate change, not only through mitigation but also through adaptation. These programs will include those that specifically address technological solutions (i.e. green jobs) as well as those that ensure that all students have a citizen’s knowledge and skills to create a sustainable society. IHEs must ensure that their graduates can solve problems through systems thinking, understanding consequences, and multi-generational considerations. Programs must also meet the needs of the individual for a personally fulfilling life that include entrepreneurial opportunities for economic success and personal needs for intellectual fulfillment that fit into a sustainable society. In addition, IHEs should direct the research they support towards the production of knowledge that solves those vexing problems and helps us understand how to live sustainably.

A relevant IHE is in part a RESPONSIBLE IHE but responsibility requires more. IHEs need to be responsible in their practices, their purchases, and their investments. IHEs play a special role in modeling professional behavior to the professionals-in-training (students) that they prepare. From the facilities they provide to the chemicals they use, IHEs provide examples of how to behave (or not behave) to create a sustainable future. Likewise, the purchasing choices of IHEs model decision-making as well as create (or fail to create) opportunities for sustainable supply chains. The choices made by IHEs in how they invest their billions of dollars of endowments can support (or fail to support) technologies and services that will create the sustainable future. As important the practices, purchases, and investments are in demonstrating responsibility, the key responsibility of institutions is to wisely use the funds they collect to educate their students. If IHEs are to meet their social (and fiscal) responsibilities, they must develop strategies that provide affordable, relevant, rigorous education to their students.

Finally, (although I would invite you to add additional “R’s”) it is important that IHEs recognize, cultivate and support RELATIONSHIPS with the outside world. Public relations and alumni relations are typically the relationships most valued by IHEs, but many IHEs have found that community relationships (be it the local community or the international community) are the most difficult (and often the most important) to establish and maintain. The hardest part about community relationships is that (unlike public relations) they require as much listening as they do speaking and IHEs are not typically the best listeners. Nonetheless, without community relationships, IHEs will lose the support and the context they need to succeed over the long run.

In most of the world, higher education is held in high regard and supported in a variety of ways. As both a public good (society benefits) and a private good (individuals benefit), higher education is scrutinized from both perspectives. Failure to provide social and individual benefits (i.e. to be relevant) will lead to institutional failure. Failure to meet social and individual responsibilities will also lead to institutional failure. Failure to develop the necessary relationships that ensure relevance will lead to failure. Attention to sustainability throughout an institution can resolve the failures of relevance, responsibility and relationships. Time is of the essence.

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