Future of the University – Adaptation in Higher Education

Higher education leadership (Photo credits: https://changinghighered.com/higher-ed-change-leadership-the-new-normal/)

In this blog post, I explore “the” one thing that should change in higher education. The use of “the” in the preceding sentence should give a sense of my personal believe that a holistic transformation of the higher education system involves a change of just one thing.

Ironically, this one thing is the ability of higher education to change; to adapt to new conditions, accept these conditions, and change. The article cited in the illustration above highlighted one important lesson, about the pandemic. The fast-paced and uniform response of universities to the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the ability of higher education if they really wanted to bring about real reform in diversity and inclusion, social wellbeing of students and faculty, safety, etc. It is often the case to hear responses such as “we do not have the power to change this”, “this is outside the scope of what we can mandate”. These responses are often default response meant to serve one purpose; preserve the bottom line: profits. While profit making is not bad in itself, the exaltation of profits over the welfare of employees and students can only result in a strained higher education system.

Conclusively, I would like to end with this quote from the former prime minister of the United Kingdom; Winston Churchill “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” I think the quote needs no interpretation as it relates to the future of high education.