Henry S. Webber: Higher education is in crisis. Here are some solutions.
Nationally and locally, 2023 was the worst year for higher education in many decades. 2024 may be even worse.
The leaders of four of the best universities in the world — Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania — resigned under enormous pressure. The Congressional testimony of the Presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT over allegations of antisemitism was a disaster, uniting Democrats and Republicans in anger over the inability of university leaders to distinguish between acceptable campus behavior and First Amendment rights.
Nationally, the number of students enrolling in college has declined by 2.2 million since 2010, after increasing by 15 million from 1970 to 2010. This decline has led to great financial pressure on all but the most competitive universities and an increasing number of college closures. Polls indicate that confidence in American universities is down sharply. Many states across the country are disinvesting in public higher education, in part over what they perceive as the ideological bias of faculty.
Locally, most if not all of the smaller universities in the St. Louis region are contracting, closing campuses and programs. Fontbonne closing after more than 100 years is only the most dramatic example of the struggle.
What is going on? It is not that college is no longer a good investment. The earnings of the average college graduate, over the course of a lifetime, are $1.2 million more than the earnings of the average high school graduate. Going to college remains a great path for most 18 year-olds.
In part the challenge is demographic. The number of 18 year-olds is declining, particularly in the Midwest and the Northeast. College officials, having seen an enormous increase in enrollment from 1970 to 2010, over-expanded, not anticipating the end of than enrollment boom.
But the crisis in higher education is about far more than demographics and overbuilding. There is, across the political spectrum, declining confidence in the leadership and moral authority of higher education.
Colleges are being asked to provide far more for students and too often they are failing. Traditionally, higher education’s role was teaching and research. Presidents and other leaders were selected on their demonstrated skills in promoting excellence in teaching and research.
Now colleges are expected to provide a comprehensive set of services to all members of their community, from recreation to mental health, affirm their students and faculty views on any and all subjects, raise significant funds, provide upward mobility for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and drive local and state economies. Donors, political leaders and others feel empowered to advocate powerfully for their views of how universities should operate, even to the point of influencing faculty appointments.
A particularly challenging role for many large universities and their leaders is managing the multibillion-dollar business of college sports — which has almost nothing to do with teaching or research.
I see no chance that the expectations on universities and their leaders will decline in the years ahead. The question is what is to be done.
Widespread affordable access to higher education remains critical for equality of opportunity. It’s the great promise of America. Higher education is still a great ladder of upward mobility. But something very significant must change.
I offer four suggestions, each directed to a different audience:
- Parents and students should understand that higher education is both mind-expanding and the best investment they can make.
- State governments, whatever their political views, must invest in a well-educated workforce from K-12 through higher education in order to ensure a prosperous future for their states. Virtually without exception, the states in the U.S. with the strongest economies have the best K-12 schools and universities.
- University leadership and faculty must recognize and support the great diversity of America — including ideological diversity. In my 30 years in the classroom, I have heard conservative students’ views dismissed by teachers and surprisingly often by other students. That is unacceptable and impedes learning.
All views, including our own, need to be analyzed, respected and challenged. That is how we learn. Universities must model the process of respectful dialogue and learning through challenging one’s own views.
- Those who select university presidents, generally Boards of Trustees, must grapple with the question of the right background and skill set needed to lead institutions that are simultaneously centers of teaching and research, very large businesses and, in many cases, centers of entertainment through college sports. As we learned last spring, being an excellent scholar with a world-class list of publications is not necessarily enough to manage a set of protests and congressional testimony.
Higher education is one of America’s great assets. Students and faculty from around the world want to attend universities in the United States. Research at universities has and will enrich our understanding of the world and save lives. University technology fuels new industries and creates new jobs. We should all respect these achievements.
There is, however, much work to be done to restore public confidence in universities and ensure that universities welcome all views and backgrounds.
Webber, the former long-time executive vice chancellor at Washington University, is currently the managing principal of a St. Louis-based consulting firm that works with higher education institutions across the country.
