The Future of Higher Education: Perspectives from America's Academic Leaders (review)

We recently used Gary Olson and John Presley's The Future of Higher Education: Perspectives from America's Academic Leaders as a textbook for the doctoral course "Issues and Trends in Higher Education. The collection of 22 essays proved to be a good choice, one that engendered deep discussion across a wide range of topics during the 16-week semester.

The Future of Higher Education is not a research-based or "how-to" collection for leaders in higher education. It takes a more theoretical approach that presents opinions, ideas, and critiques based in extensive experience in academic administration on college and university campuses and which are also distilled from such sources as Academe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Change, Education Week, Inside Higher Ed, books, national agency and association reports, classic works of literature, and academic journals.

The 26 authors (24 from the United States, two from Canada; 19 male and seven female) represent an interesting cross-section of American higher education: present and former college and university presidents or central administrators, consultants, distinguished professors, and government agency officials.

The essays appear in five sections: Part 1: "New Aims: Rethinking Higher Education's Objectives," Part 2: "New Assumptions: Reexamining the Philosophical Underpinnings of Higher Education," Part 3: "New Responses: Addressing the Changing Context of Higher Education," Part 4, "New Students: Rethinking Access to Higher Education," and Part 5, "New Leaders: Preparing the University Presidents of the Future."

The authors discuss themes that include the increasing effect of finances on the decision-making process; the current and future role of technology in higher education; the need for institutional and curricular reforms (humanities and quantitative literacy); student demographics, access, outreach, recruiting, and transitions; shifts from content-centered teaching and assessment to student-centered learning and assessment; and the importance of leadership in instituting transformational change (including presidential roles and searches).

Other main topics include achievement gaps, the business model, data-driven decision making, for-profit institutions, globalization, institutional culture, diversity and governance, institutions as promoters of democracy, p-20 initiatives, stakeholders (internal and external), and teaching versus research. Hot topics addressed within the chapters include books versus e-texts, the role of athletics, sustainability and green campuses, and transparency.

The editors have grouped the essays into loosely related topics, with no indication that the authors are reacting to one another's works; they simply stand alone as more or less isolated essays. As provided, the essays can represent solid "leaping off" positions for further inquiry, yet the collection could be even more valuable if it provided more divergent perspectives on specific topics.

One topic that does incorporate wider views is tradition versus change. While some authors enthusiastically embrace change and others are directly involved in change on their respective campuses, still others suggest a need for caution and prudence.

The underlying theme of Part 1 is the debate on public good versus private benefit. All four chapters in this section recognize the current trends. They call for changes in direction. One of those trends regards the dichotomous relationship of the financial haves versus the have-nots, which becomes a recurring theme.

To some degree, Part 2 might be better labeled, "New Assumptions: Reexamining the Political Maneuvers in Higher Education," as the chapters focus more on the political maneuvering that has occurred over time than on higher education's philosophical underpinnings. An interesting combination of chapters in Part 2 includes the writings of J. Hillis Miller, who promotes a rejuvenation of the humanities and addresses militaristic reform; John Dossey, who addresses non-militaristic reform and promotes an increased commitment to quantitative literacy; and Sheila Stearns, who comments on the role that literacy should play in the future.

Essays in Part 3 are unified by the idea that transformational change is occurring in...