The Idea of the Digital University: Ancient Traditions, Disruptive Technologies and the Battle for the Soul of Higher Education by Frank Bryce McCluskey and Melanie Lynn Winter (review)

In their first sentence, Frank Bryce McCluskey and Melanie Lynn Winter offer their thesis: “The digital university is fundamentally different from the traditional university” (p. 3). With this rather simple proclamation, the authors launch their thesis that higher education must change in response to increasing demands for public accountability. They argue that this goal can be accomplished by harnessing the power of improved information and communication technology in the digital revolution. Citing the potential for new technologies to improve classroom teaching and learning, increase access to information, and coordinate data management on campuses, McCluskey and Winter assert that rapid change will force most colleges and universities to either adapt or cease to exist.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Cardinal John Henry Newman delivered a series of lectures published in 1853 as The Idea of a University (1982/1853). In titling their book, The Idea of the Digital University, McCluskey and Winter suggest that it is time to rethink the notion of higher education in the digital age. In fact, they cite Newman’s praise of “education for education’s sake” (McCluskey & Winter, p. 3) and highlight the fact that the current debate on the purpose of higher education has been around at least since Cardinal Newman’s time.

While they conclude that the university in the digital age should balance the value of education for education’s sake with its utility to the students, their position is that traditional higher education should reshape itself to more closely resemble the structures of the burgeoning for-profit sector.

The text is divided into five sections. Part 1 sets the context for the current landscape of digital disruption in higher education, while arguing that the so-called crisis in higher education might not be a true crisis after all. They describe three specific areas in which the digital revolution has impacted higher education: (a) Online courses have expanded the reach of universities and generated huge amounts of data that can be aggregated and analyzed to inform decisions related to a variety of outcomes like persistence and classroom success; (b) Improved access to information has changed the roles of libraries and librarians on campuses; and (c) Improved data management systems (Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP) now coordinate much of the activity and decision-making of universities, with information about all aspects of the institution available to any administrator.

The remainder of Part 1 suggests that the current crisis facing U.S. higher education and American society at large (e.g., globalization, skyrocketing debt, and declining graduation rates) should not be considered a true crisis because much of it was foreseeable by many of higher education’s stakeholders. Universities are not on the verge of dying. Rather, “something new has been born” (p. 32). They suggest that these changes were unavoidable and are attributable to the digital revolution, claims that are echoed throughout the book.

Part 2 offers a historic overview of higher education. Chapters 4 and 5 trace the evolution of higher education from its roots in medieval Europe through important milestones in U.S. higher education such as the development of land-grant institutions and the G.I. Bill. They conclude this review with recent events and development, including the Spellings Commission, the financial collapse in 2008, and the emergence and increased scrutiny of for-profit, on-line institutions.

Chapter 6 details the evolution of the debate between what the authors refer to as “the ancients” and “the moderns,” which can also be conceptualized as humanities-science, abstract-applied, or education-for-knowledge-versus-utility debates. In the end, they contend that “the modern university can and must serve both of these ends” (p. 69).

The remaining chapter in Part 2 details the historic emergence and decline of the faculty, suggesting that the role...