Resources
Background Reading Related to UNC Forward & National Headwinds
The following articles are from a variety of sources that provide helpful background about the national landscape.
The Great Upheaval is an insightful book that cabinet is using as an additional reference. Chapters 15 through the end are particularly informative. The book’s publisher provides this helpful overview:
“The United States is in the midst of a profound transformation the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Industrial Revolution, when America’s classical colleges adapted to meet the needs of an emerging industrial economy. Today, as the world shifts to an increasingly interconnected knowledge economy, the intersecting forces of technological innovation, globalization, and demographic change create vast new challenges, opportunities, and uncertainties. In this great upheaval, the nation’s most enduring social institutions are at a crossroads.
In The Great Upheaval, Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt examine higher and postsecondary education to see how it has changed to become what it is today—and how it might be refitted for an uncertain future. Taking a unique historical, cross-industry perspective, Levine and Van Pelt perform a 360-degree survey of American higher education. Combining historical, trend, and comparative analyses of other business sectors, they ask:
- how much will colleges and universities change, what will change, and how will these changes occur?
- will institutions of higher learning be able to adapt to the challenges they face, or will they be disrupted by them?
- will the industrial model of higher education be repaired or replaced?
- why is higher education more important than ever?
The book is neither an attempt to advocate for a particular future direction nor a warning about that future. Rather, it looks objectively at the contexts in which higher education has operated—and will continue to operate. It also seeks to identify likely developments that will aid those involved in steering higher education forward, as well as the many millions of Americans who have a stake in its future.
Concluding with a detailed agenda for action, The Great Upheaval is aimed at policy makers, college administrators, faculty, trustees, and students, as well as general readers and people who work for nonprofits facing the same big changes.”
Helpful Articles
After Pennsylvania system mergers, overall enrollment is down — but first-year numbers are up
Oregon Higher Ed Body Recommends ‘Institutional Integration,’ Up to Mergers
The State of Regional Public Colleges
How to transform higher-education institutions for the long term
America’s Colleges Are Hurtling Toward an Enrollment Cliff: An article from The Wall Street Journal discusses the impact of a declining pool of high school graduates on higher education in the US. Data from Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates is cited. View original source. (This article is behind a paywall)
The Enrollment Cliff: How Fewer Applicants Are Reshaping Higher Education