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Sandra Featherman believes that colleges are in denial about the
severity of the threats to the current model of higher education.
Based on her own experience as a president, as a trustee, and as a
board member who has worked in private and public universities -
and on interviews with the presidents of major institutions - she
offers both a trenchant analysis of those threats and clear
prescriptions about the painful but necessary decisions that
colleges need to make to ensure they remain viable, accessible and
affordable, and deliver a high-quality education. Sandra Featherman
considers higher education to be at a game-changing moment. When
markets don't function well - as is the case with today's college
marketplace with offerings that cost too much and return too little
- it opens the door to new types of suppliers, who offer new ways
of providing what students are looking for, particularly the
increasing cohort of mature, working students. In the face of new
competitors - for-profit education companies, technology start-ups,
and foreign universities vying for international students -
trustees and senior level administrators are generally stuck in a
traditional ethos and with decision-making processes unsuited to
these times. They know what used to work, and find it easier to
follow old ways than to make the difficult transition to new ways
of delivering education. She lays out a strategy: that emphasizes
the centrality of students and how to provide them with the most
effective learning environment; that is clear-eyed about focusing
on the core missions, and abandoning practices that constrain or
impede them; and that requires constant self-monitoring to learn
from and act upon what works. She offers a blueprint for
redesigning institutions, for paring away what is unnecessary and
cost ineffective, and for adopting the best technologies, all in
the service of developing meaningful degree programs at an
affordable price, and widening access for under-represented groups.
She ranges over the implications of budget decisions,
accreditation, and MOOCs; addresses government regulation and
tuition costs; presents promising new models; and concludes with 11
key recommendations that should be heeded by all higher education
administrators and trustees.
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