SAN FRANCISCO — Unless colleges and universities respond to technology demands by students as well as shifting workforce needs, the fiscal challenges clouding the academic landscape will not only deepen but perhaps force some institutions to shutter, several higher education leaders said Sunday.
“We have enormous infrastructure but dwindling numbers of students,” said Mills College President Alecia DeCoudreaux. “This is not only true at Mills but throughout academia. Parents don’t understand the value of college education. Our students use other ways to get the product. We need to operate more like a business and pay attention to what our customers need and want.”
DeCoudreaux’s remarks came during the first day of the annual meeting of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB). The association focuses on governance-related issues by studying transformative trends in postsecondary education and the responsibility of boards to lead the change. AGB provides guidance to trustees, board leaders and campus leaders in their governance-related roles.
Dr. Tony Coles, vice chairman of the Johns Hopkins University governing board, echoed DeCoudreaux’s comments by describing the habits of his two children, who are both college students. They often stay up late streaming a movie online—that actually aired the previous night.
“We need to meet the consumer of tomorrow where they are today,” Coles said. “Young people are already getting the content they want when they want it and how they want it. As an industry, higher education is in a crisis, and our business model has to change. What if there’s another economic recession? What would we do then?”
He and DeCoudreaux participated in an opening plenary session titled, “The Velocity and Trajectory of Change in Higher Education,” moderated by Dr. Richard Chait, professor emeritus of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The session produced a spirited discussion about some of academia’s greatest strengths—and weaknesses.
