Good morning, and happy May Day, Monday, May 1. Today’s Briefing was written by Rick Seltzer, with contributions from Julia Piper. Write to me: rick.seltzer@chronicle.com.
‘The United States of America does not have a higher-education strategy’
Keep an eye on the Council on Higher Education as a Strategic Asset, which launched last week.
Over the next year, the group — HESA for short — will bring together roughly 40 leaders from business, higher education, the government, and the military. Its co-chairs are Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, and Linda R. Gooden, chair of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents.
The goal: Figure out ways to make sure the higher-ed sector is training the work force and educating the citizens the country needs to meet its priorities.
Think about the United States as a large enterprise, said Henry Stoever, president and chief executive of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, which is assembling HESA. Enterprises develop strategies to accomplish their objectives, but the United States hasn’t done so for higher ed.
“Our view is the United States of America does not have a higher-education strategy,” Stoever told The Chronicle. Instead, the country has a mishmash of state and federal spending.
Don’t stop if this sounds familiar. It’s true higher ed has seen no shortage of agenda-setting efforts and calls to action, many leading to little noticeable change.
But this one is intriguing because Stoever is emphasizing a multiyear roadmap for getting HESA’s ideas into the halls of power.
By June of next year, the group wants to deliver its recommendations to:
- The president of the United States
- Members of Congress
- State policymakers
- Higher-education boards and presidents
The rest of 2024 is about election season — engaging with elected officials and candidates who are running for office. Starting in January 2025, Stoever envisions being able to hit the ground running with those who’ve won their races.
That doesn’t guarantee HESA’s recommendations won’t gather dust on a shelf. Still, it’s important that someone is thinking about multiyear strategies for breaking higher education out of its malaise.
This is a sector once held up as among the best in the world — a key player developing tomorrow’s technologies and preparing students for good jobs that contribute to society.
It’s been 15 years since the Higher Education Act was reauthorized. Massive cracks have formed in the student-loan system. The patchwork quilt of the regulatory environment is constantly being re-mended.
Technological advances place new demands on teaching, quality assessment, and what students need to know. The demographic cliff threatens to upset an already-faltering business model. The sector has lost large chunks of public support.
Is the idea of the country’s global competitiveness enough of a motivating factor to reverse those trends?
Quotable: “What’s troubling is that many countries around the world have seen America’s strength in education,” Stoever said, “and are leveraging higher education so they can increase and strengthen their global competitive positions.”