Where does higher ed go from here?

Here's a few people who think they know. Some of it we've been saying for years.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/09/higher-education-is-not-monolithic-five-takeaways-from-pennlives-reader-panel-on-higher-education.html

 

We’ve been really trying to drill a change management and kaizen mindset into our leadership development programs. It’s unfortunate though that a historical mindset is still rampant in many institutions.

 

It's bigger.

The US really needs to take a look at tertiary education and training across the board.

Colleges and universities were often not much more than finishing schools for the well-off. The GI bill after WWII changed all of that. They became places where a lot of people could begin their careers. But the schools didn't change much.

In the early 1980s, we saw the elimination of defined-benefit (pension) plans. Employers moved to defined-contribution plans. This freed them from their obligations to retirees, but it also destroyed the notion of lifetime employment. No longer would employers pay heavily to develop their employees. This was exacerbated by the mobility of employees and their need for recognized, transferable credentials. Because the US didn't have a qualifications framework, college degrees would have to do.

This was even further pushed along by technology. Where on-campus was the only way to go, night school programs popped up. But the real explosion was the internet and online degree programs. Now, universities can deliver any form of education to anyone anywhere. For a price, of course.

And still no other tertiary alternatives to colleges and universities. They continue to operate under the same Carnegie paradigm of 100 years ago. Credits (based on time, not achievement) piled high enough--and in the right places--become degrees. Okay, but to what end?

This country needs a strong national qualifications framework, one involving a partnership between industry, the federal government, and tertiary (degree-granting and technical) institutions. A framework focused on what our society needs and demands of its human capital. A framework that provides a progressive set of credentials based on learning and experience (supported by testing and evaluation, natch). A framework focused on both entering and transitioning workers--towards credentials in occupations and professions this country needs to emphasize.

I'd do it, but I have to get up for work in the morning.