Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education

by Bryan Alexander

Overview

From the renowned futurist, a look at how current trends will transform American higher education over the next twenty years.

2020 Most Significant Futures Work Award Winner, Association of Professional Futurists

The outlook for the future of colleges and universities is uncertain. Financial stresses, changing student populations, and rapidly developing technologies all pose significant challenges to the nation's colleges and universities. In Academia Next, futurist and higher education expert Bryan Alexander addresses these evolving trends to better understand higher education's next generation.

Alexander first examines current economic, demographic, political, international, and policy developments as they relate to higher education. He also explores internal transformations within postsecondary institutions, including those related to enrollment, access, academic labor, alternative certification, sexual assault, and the changing library, paying particularly close attention to technological changes. Alexander then looks beyond these trends to offer a series of distinct scenarios and practical responses for institutions to consider when combating shrinking enrollments, reduced public support, and the proliferation of technological options.

Arguing that the forces he highlights are not speculative but are already in play, Alexander draws on a rich, extensive, and socially engaged body of research to best determine their likeliest outcomes. It is only by taking these trends seriously, he writes, that colleges and universities can improve their chances of survival and growth. An unusually multifaceted approach to American higher education that views institutions as complex organisms, Academia Next offers a fresh perspective on the emerging colleges and universities of today and tomorrow.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421443263
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	05/10/2022
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	642,615
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.93(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bryan Alexander is an internationally known futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher. A senior scholar at Georgetown University, he is the author of The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media, second edition, and Gearing Up for Learning Beyond K–12.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Trends
Chapter 1. Objects in Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear
Chapter 2. Catching the University in Midtransformation
Chapter 3. The New Age of Fewer Children and More Inequality
Chapter 4. The Marriage of Carbon and Silicon
Chapter 5. Beyond the Virtual Learning Environment
Chapter 6. Connecting the Dots: Metatrends
Part II. Scenarios
Chapter 7. Peak Higher Education
Chapter 8. Health Care Nation
Chapter 9. Open Education Triumphant
Chapter 10. Renaissance
Chapter 11. Augmented Campus
Chapter 12. Siri, Tutor Me
Chapter 13. Retro Campus
Part III. To the Future and the Present
Chapter 14. Beyond 2035
Chapter 15. Back to the Present
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Matthew Reed

Alexander's book is ambitious at a moment when we need ambition. Exhaustively researched and accessibly written, it's a challenge to those of us who care about higher education to raise our sights while we still have the option. Alexander's critique is sympathetic but unsparing; I gasped several times as I read it. It's bracing, in the best sense of the word.

Jaime Casap

Higher education isn't at a crossroads—it is at a traffic circle with multiple exits! The majority of students recognize the value of post-secondary education and are open to obtaining an education in unconventional and innovative ways. In a world of abundant information, higher education institutions need to transition from distributing data to providing students the opportunity to create intelligence and original ideas from the world's information. In this critical book, Bryan Alexander examines the future of American higher education. He methodically examines data-based forecasts and trends and gives post-secondary education leaders the intelligence they need to navigate the future of learning. Anyone concerned about the future of higher education in the United States needs to read this book.

Howard Rheingold

Institutions of higher education need to be reimagined, and there is no better student of the future of higher ed than Bryan Alexander. The test of any futurist is his or her track record, and so far, Alexander has been a beacon of light in the murky field of educational forecasting.

Anya Kamenetz

With his usual generosity and clarity of expression, Alexander invites us to imagine not only what futures of higher education may come but what futures we want.

Michelle Miller

Elegant and compelling, Academia Next explains how political, economic, technological, and cultural trends will combine to produce the educational institutions of the future. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what learning will look like in decades to come.

From the Publisher

Using environment scanning and the scenario method, Alexander weaves together various trends in higher education, giving us an expanded—and more realistic—picture of what may come in the future. He is also clear about how these scenarios will impact different segments of higher education. This book will be read by university presidents, administrators, boards of trustees, faculty, policymakers, foundation directors, educational journalists, and educational entrepreneurs.
—David J. Staley, The Ohio State University, author of Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education

Bryan Alexander has thought longer and more penetratingly about the future of education than anyone I know. Academia Next is the capstone of all that work. At once, it is a practical guide for those who would reinvent colleges and universities as well as a richly researched exploration of the forces that will reshape our world. From this day forth, no one will be able to say that they haven't been warned about what's ahead and haven't been schooled how to deal with it.
—Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center, coauthor of Networked: The New Social Operating System

Institutions of higher education need to be reimagined, and there is no better student of the future of higher ed than Bryan Alexander. The test of any futurist is his or her track record, and so far, Alexander has been a beacon of light in the murky field of educational forecasting.
—Howard Rheingold, Rheingold U, author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution

In a time of great flux for colleges and universities, Bryan Alexander provides a clear-eyed view of the forces at work, the major shifts happening online and off, and the large-scale trends that are impacting the world of education. While there are no easy answers, Alexander asks exactly the right questions and provides the essential context for anyone who cares about the academy to begin to adapt to the future that is already frighteningly close.
—Dan Cohen, Vice Provost for Information Collaboration / Dean, University Library, Northeastern University

With his usual generosity and clarity of expression, Alexander invites us to imagine not only what futures of higher education may come but what futures we want.
—Anya Kamenetz, NPR, author of DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education

Unlike many futurists, Bryan Alexander grounds his views of the future in careful assessment of the past and present. The range of his documentation is breathtaking and the result is a more credible and authoritative book than the glib generalizations offered by others. This book will be the reference point for forecasting about higher education for many years to come.
—Richard Ekman, President, The Council of Independent Colleges

Alexander's book is ambitious at a moment when we need ambition. Exhaustively researched and accessibly written, it's a challenge to those of us who care about higher education to raise our sights while we still have the option. Alexander's critique is sympathetic but unsparing; I gasped several times as I read it. It's bracing, in the best sense of the word.
—Matthew Reed, Vice President for Learning, Brookdale Community College

Elegant and compelling, Academia Next explains how political, economic, technological, and cultural trends will combine to produce the educational institutions of the future. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what learning will look like in decades to come.
—Michelle Miller, Director, First Year Learning Initiative / Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, Northern Arizona University

Higher education isn't at a crossroads—it is at a traffic circle with multiple exits! The majority of students recognize the value of post-secondary education and are open to obtaining an education in unconventional and innovative ways. In a world of abundant information, higher education institutions need to transition from distributing data to providing students the opportunity to create intelligence and original ideas from the world's information. In this critical book, Bryan Alexander examines the future of American higher education. He methodically examines data-based forecasts and trends and gives post-secondary education leaders the intelligence they need to navigate the future of learning. Anyone concerned about the future of higher education in the United States needs to read this book.
—Jaime Casap, Education Evangelist

David J. Staley

Using environment scanning and the scenario method, Alexander weaves together various trends in higher education, giving us an expanded—and more realistic—picture of what may come in the future. He is also clear about how these scenarios will impact different segments of higher education. This book will be read by university presidents, administrators, boards of trustees, faculty, policymakers, foundation directors, educational journalists, and educational entrepreneurs.

Dan Cohen

In a time of great flux for colleges and universities, Bryan Alexander provides a clear-eyed view of the forces at work, the major shifts happening online and off, and the large-scale trends that are impacting the world of education. While there are no easy answers, Alexander asks exactly the right questions and provides the essential context for anyone who cares about the academy to begin to adapt to the future that is already frighteningly close.

Richard Ekman

Unlike many futurists, Bryan Alexander grounds his views of the future in careful assessment of the past and present. The range of his documentation is breathtaking and the result is a more credible and authoritative book than the glib generalizations offered by others. This book will be the reference point for forecasting about higher education for many years to come.

Lee Rainie

Bryan Alexander has thought longer and more penetratingly about the future of education than anyone I know. Academia Next is the capstone of all that work. At once, it is a practical guide for those who would reinvent colleges and universities as well as a richly researched exploration of the forces that will reshape our world. From this day forth, no one will be able to say that they haven't been warned about what's ahead and haven't been schooled how to deal with it.

Editorial Reviews

An excellent resource for understanding trends in higher eduction and thinking about future scenarios related to these.

michaelpaulus.org

Those who worry about the future of higher ed—and who among us is without worry?—would do well to put Academia Next on their reading list. The book provides academic readers with a set of tools from which to construct a set of scenarios, underpinned by trends, about the future of our schools and of our ecosystem. The book is certain to catalyze an informed and energetic conversation about the future of higher ed.

Inside Higher Ed

An excellent resource for understanding trends in higher eduction and thinking about future scenarios related to these.
—michaelpaulus.org

Academia Next provides a wealth of resources about current challenges and opportunities, highlights two methods (trend analysis and scenario development) that can be used to prepare colleges and universities for the future, and identifies possible challenges and opportunities they might face in the future.
—Higher Ed Connects

Those who worry about the future of higher ed—and who among us is without worry?—would do well to put Academia Next on their reading list. The book provides academic readers with a set of tools from which to construct a set of scenarios, underpinned by trends, about the future of our schools and of our ecosystem. The book is certain to catalyze an informed and energetic conversation about the future of higher ed.
—Inside Higher Ed

Academia Next helps us know how we can intervene in the emerging nature of higher education.
—Association of Professional Futurists

Every day, I am involved in a discussion about one or more issues affecting higher education. Academia Next does a great job of capturing many of those discussions into one book. If you are an administrator in higher education, I would encourage you to read this well-researched book.
—tubarksblog.com

From the Publisher

Academia Next provides a wealth of resources about current challenges and opportunities, highlights two methods (trend analysis and scenario development) that can be used to prepare colleges and universities for the future, and identifies possible challenges and opportunities they might face in the future.

Higher Ed Connects

Academia Next helps us know how we can intervene in the emerging nature of higher education.

Association of Professional Futurists

Every day, I am involved in a discussion about one or more issues affecting higher education. Academia Next does a great job of capturing many of those discussions into one book. If you are an administrator in higher education, I would encourage you to read this well-researched book.

tubarksblog.com

"Academia Next provides a wealth of resources about current challenges and opportunities, highlights two methods (trend analysis and scenario development) that can be used to prepare colleges and universities for the future, and identifies possible challenges and opportunities they might face in the future."

Higher Ed Connects - Chris Mayer

"Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education is an excellent resource for understanding trends in higher eduction and thinking about future scenarios related to these."

Michael J. Paulus