Writing in Issues in Science and Technology, Robert Brown and Bruce Guile explore the current state of American higher education and research enterprise sectors.
They examine why radical strategic shifts are needed within individual research universities and those shifts, taken together, must constitute an equally radical revision of the entire US system. University leadership and governing boards need to turn their attention away from chasing institutional prestige and rankings to focus instead on crafting intentional survival strategies.
Such changes are urgently needed to address risks from precarious federal funding cuts, decreasing enrollment projections, lowered public support for tertiary education, and rising global competition.