Full Description
How will America's colleges and universities adapt to remarkable technological, economic, and demographic change?
The United States is in the midst of a profound transformation the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Industrial Revolution, when America's classical colleges adapted to meet the needs of an emerging industrial economy. Today, as the world shifts to an increasingly interconnected knowledge economy, the intersecting forces of technological innovation, globalization, and demographic change create vast new challenges, opportunities, and uncertainties. In this great upheaval, the nation's most enduring social institutions are at a crossroads.
In The Great Upheaval, Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt examine higher and postsecondary education to see how it has changed to become what it is today—and how it might be refitted for an uncertain future. Taking a unique historical, cross-industry perspective, Levine and Van Pelt perform a 360-degree survey of American higher education. Combining historical, trend, and comparative analyses of other business sectors, they ask
• how much will colleges and universities change, what will change, and how will these changes occur?
• will institutions of higher learning be able to adapt to the challenges they face, or will they be disrupted by them?
• will the industrial model of higher education be repaired or replaced?
• why is higher education more important than ever?
The book is neither an attempt to advocate for a particular future direction nor a warning about that future. Rather, it looks objectively at the contexts in which higher education has operated—and will continue to operate. It also seeks to identify likely developments that will aid those involved in steering higher education forward, as well as the many millions of Americans who have a stake in its future.
Concluding with a detailed agenda for action, The Great Upheaval is aimed at policy makers, college administrators, faculty, trustees, and students, as well as general readers and people who work for nonprofits facing the same big changes.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Where You Look Determines What You See
Part One. Looking Backward
Chapter One. The Industrial Revolution and the Transformation of America
Chapter Two. Criticism, Denial, and Innovation
Chapter Three. New Models and Diffusion
Chapter Four. Standardization, Consolidation, and Scaling
Chapter Five. Transformation
Part Two. Looking Forward
Chapter Six. A Demographic Sea Change
Chapter Seven. An Emerging Knowledge Economy
Chapter Eight. A Technological Revolution
Chapter Nine. Adaptation
Part Three. Looking Sideways
Chapter Ten. The Music Industry
Chapter Eleven. The Film Industry
Chapter Twelve. The Newspaper Industry
Chapter Thirteen. Disruption
Part Four. Looking at the Panorama
Chapter Fourteen. What Will Change?
Chapter Fifteen. How and When Will Change Occur?
Chapter Sixteen. What Should Higher Education and Policy Makers Do?
Bibliography
Index
