Chapter One | Pressures on Higher Education

Pressures on Higher Education

To summarize the analysis in this report, and other pressures outside its scope, higher education for the twenty-first century faces:


Changing demographics of college attendance		higher proportion of high school graduates students lacking recommended college preparatory curricula greater percentage of non-traditional students more cultural diversity with higher minority participation


New enrollment patterns		increased part-time enrollment multiple-institution attendance online and distance courses


The information explosion		huge and rapidly increasing quantity of information widely available looser review and control of information quality shift from remembering facts to finding and evaluating information


The technological revolution		new types of jobs for graduates changed nature of the classroom because of online learning


A stricter regulatory environment		greater call for accountability more intrusive state regulation of the curriculum in many states, the potential to expand from K-12 to college the strict standards and mandates that stress factual recall in testing accreditation emphasis on effectiveness and assessment


New educational sites and formats		rapid growth in the for-profit higher education sector, with little regulation and accreditation rise of the corporate university more flexible learning formats


The changing nature of the workplace		emphasis on creative problem solving, team work, and adaptability need for high-level intellectual skills demand for large numbers of technologically and quantitatively literate employees interaction with greater diversity of people


The global nature of major problems, requiring enhanced international cooperation		porosity of national boundaries worldwide environmental impacts multinational corporations post 9/11/01 awareness of global interdependency


Renewed emphasis on civic responsibility and the development of communal values		rise in student volunteerism cyclical student activism increased pressure on colleges and universities to join the community in resolving local problems


Decreased state funding for public colleges and universities