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Embracing the Unexpected Challenges Posed by Liberal Education's Success
The panel discussion focused on embracing the challenges of liberal education's success. Steve Bragaw discussed how liberal arts colleges face strategic and financial challenges as "content bundlers" in an environment where students want more flexibility. Mark Rush discussed the challenges of internationalizing liberal education, including balancing democratic values across different political systems. Bryan Alexander argued that liberal arts institutions should participate more in the open education movement to reduce costs, improve content, and participate in innovation.
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Embracing the Unexpected Challenges Posed by Liberal Education's Success
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- 2. Why We AreDoing This Panel Different background experiences leading to Common shared celebration of liberal ed success concern about challenges to traditional model of higher ed and defensive responses from contemporary stakeholders
- 3. The Challenges Challengesposed by successful responses to previous “higher education crisis” phases Challenges posed by successful internationalization Challenges posed by successful incorporation of technical competence
- 4. What this panelis not Yet another session about the apocalypse facing higher education
- 5. What this panelis A plea/invitation to a positive discussion of challenges to the traditional model of higher education brought about by its success with a spirit of stewardship for future generations of students and faculty
- 6. STEVE BRAGAW WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY @STEVEBRAGAW Strategy and Financechallenges for liberal education
- 7. Higher ed crisisin America! (?) The Challenge: • Experts predict that between ten percent and thirty percent of America’s 3100 colleges and universities will close their doors or merge with other institutions…On many campuses the fear of imminent contraction or demise is almost palpable…The specter lurks in colleges and universities of all sizes, public as well as private, although smaller private colleges and the academically weaker state colleges and community colleges are widely expected to be the worst hit. Indeed, hundreds of college and a few universities are already near an end.”
- 8. The problem: Thatwas 1983 George Keller, Academic Strategy Crisis of late 1970s-early 1980s Challenges: demographic dip over expansion from 1960s flat stock markets
- 9. Response to theprevious “Crisis” Demographic dip——changing enrollment strategies over expansion——changing infrastructure 1970s economy——changing development and endowment management
- 10. TODAY Challenges—- Debt—-Studentand institutional Price/value proposition—-question of the cost Adjunctification Particular challenges to liberal arts colleges— vulnerability as compared to comprehensive and state institutions with their own particular challenges
- 11. The greatest threat My argument: The greatest threat to liberal arts colleges in the current environment is failure to recognize that they are businesses, whose business model is potentially threatened by changes in current environment Emphasis on liberal arts colleges being “different” because of mission tradition of shared governance This can lead to grave failure to recognize threats and adapt
- 12. How dowe think our way out of this current situation?
- 13. Disruption Liberal artscolleges are “content bundlers”—-their business model hinges on “bundling” together a number of fixed costs in one package “Content bundlers” are under incredible stress as consumers try to pry the pieces they want loose and only pay for the parts they want
- 14. Core questions: • Howshould colleges and universities not just adjust, but fundamentally rethink their strategies accordingly? How can they find ways to take advantage of this new environment? • How do these changes place stress on the core business model of the college or university? • My answer: don’t focus on how liberal arts colleges are different from other for profit and not-for-profit businesses. Instead, ask what can we learn when we focus on what they have in common? • What’s the institution’s unique competitive advantage? What forces are going to influence the institution’s strategic position?
- 15. Viewing the challengein a different way Michael Porter “The Five Forces”— Competition with established rivals Threats from new entrants to the market Bargaining power of suppliers Bargaining power of buyers Threat of substitutes
- 16. Viewing disruption throughPorter’s Five Forces
- 17. Challenge of “disruption” Challenge for business models of liberal arts colleges come from: Threat of substitutes (online, mostly) Bargaining power of buyers—-price sensitivity, desire to purchase the pieces of the degree credit hours elsewhere Not a bricks versus clicks argument, but rather threat of pieces of the degree being bought elsewhere. Disruption and content unbundling in the newspaper and publishing industries
- 18. Key takeaways • Faculty,administrators, and trustees need to understand how their institutions are not immune from strategic imperatives of competitive forces that challenge key assumptions upon which their business models are formed. • Responsible stewardship requires adjusting and adapting by challenging fundamental assumptions and values, regardless of who is upset. • Educating stakeholders to embrace rather than resist • Difference between “failure is not an option” versus “failure cannot happen”
- 19. Embracing thepotential of technology, collaboration, and internationalization not as threats but as ways to grow the business model of liberal arts colleges We’ve worked our way through many types of crisis before. Secret now is to not shy away from core threats or treat them with old strategies, but embrace new thinking and approaches.
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- 21. The Liberal Ed- Liberal Dem Connection "The approach to higher learning that best serves individuals, our globally engaged democracy and an innovating economy is liberal education." —AAC&U Board of Directors, 2002 AACU “What is a 21stCenturyLiberalEducation?”
- 22. The Challenge ofInternationalization We have opened our doors… but to Which Democratic Values? What Happens when Liberal Education leaves the symbiotic confines of Liberal Democracy?
- 23. Successes: U.S. BranchCampuses Abroad, 2015 Freedom House Score Count Perce nt Free 37 45.1 Partially Free 17 20.7 Not Free 28 34.1 Total 82 Sources: Freedom House; SUNY Albany’s Global Higher Education http ://www.globalhighered.org/branchcampuses.php
- 24. Success: Internationalization Trends 974,926 international students attend US universities 2014/15 ( www.iie.org, Open Doors) 304, 467 US Students abroad 2013/14 Delaware, 2014: 935,614 (census.gov) 1 congressman and 2 senators =1.5 Vermonts, btw…
- 25. An Increasingly IlliberalWorld Freedom House 2015: 54% of countries are partially or not free. Law and Versteeg (2013): Steady, consistent decline of U.S. Constitutional values around the world since 1946. (David S. Law and Mila Versteeg, “The Declining Influence of the United States Constitution” New York University Law Review 87 (2012): 762) See also Fareed Zakaria, Illiberal Democracy (and subsequent writings).
- 26. History Did NotEnd: Democracy Evolves Apologies to Francis Fukuyama (The End of History and the Last Man) cf. Robert Kaplan: “Was Democracy Just a Moment?” (1997)
- 27. Global Challenges I “The assumption is that you can only be a great educational and research power if you do it the American way. I think you could be proved very wrong and it may be too late when you find out.” Ian Gow, 2009 Ian Gow, principal and chief executive of the Sino-British College in Shanghai and former provost of the University of Nottingham’s campus in Ningbo. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/chin
- 28. Global Challenges II Yale-NUS cannot simply be a “carbon copy” of Yale’s American campus. Instead, the university “needs a curriculum and a college ethos that respond to the regional context of Asia.” Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (2015). http:// www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/yale-nus-college-has-to-adapt-the-yale-model-to-a
- 29. Global Challenges III “Singapore's Venture With Yale to Limit Protests” ( http:// www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303933704577530524046581142 )
- 30. Global Challenges IV Turkey academics held for criticism of army offensive (BBC 16 January 2016)
- 31. Global Challenge V The Flag that did not fly over the US Consulate in Dubai, June, 2013 (U.S. v. Windsor)
- 32. Challenges at Home:Speech? University of Illinois censured for pulling professor's job offer over antiIsrael tweets (USAToday 18 June 2015)
- 33. Challenges at Home:Integrity In one study, the University of Windsor in the Canadian province of Ontario tracked how many foreign students were being cited for academic dishonesty compared with their Canadian classmates. It found that one in 53 international students had been charged versus one in 1,122 Canadians. (timeshighereducation.com 6 Oct 2011)
- 34. Barbarianization of LiberalEd? What will the American Model look like in a generation? Liberal values in an increasingly illiberal marketplace? Which version of Yale will survive? Accreditation concerns? Odoacer, 476-493 A.D.
- 35. The Technology Challenge On to Bryan
- 36. The open movement andliberal education AAC&U annual conference Snowpocalypse 2016
- 37. Liberal education andopenLiberal education and open My thesis: open education has developed to a sufficient level where liberal arts institutions can - and should - participate.
- 38. The open revolutionTheopen revolution Open education Open access scholarship Open source software
- 39. DefinitionsDefinitions “Open education isabout sharing, reducing barriers and increasing access in education. It includes free and open access to platforms, tools and resources in education (such as learning materials, course materials, videos of lectures, assessment tools, research, study groups, textbooks, etc.)…”
- 40. “…Open education seeksto create a world in which the desire to learn is fully met by the opportunity to do so, where everyone, everywhere is able to access affordable, educationally and culturally appropriate opportunities to gain whatever knowledge or training they desire.” “About Open Education,” Open Education Week, February 2012, http://www.openeducationweek.org/about-open-education/.
- 41. Open…Open… educational resources (OER) Courseware (OCW) Courses (MOOC) teaching
- 42. Open…Open… learning tools(Moodle) Assessment (badges) access scholarly communication learners universities
- 43. Why open?Why open? Cost and flexibility Improving content, learning Outreach and visibility Participate in innovation
- 45. Open and liberaleducationOpen and liberal education Early adopter phase Ex: OA - Trinity, Oberlin, Bucknell, Hope Why not mainstream? › Awareness › Less cost pressure › Wrong scale
- 46. Research on 2013Researchon 2013 “We are in baby steps.” NITLE Network queried 32 campus leaders › Chief Information Officers › Academic computing leaders › Library directors › IT managers
- 54. Why is yourinstitution not pursuing open education at this time? My institution lacks awareness of open education My institution does not see open education as being in its strategic interest Open education is best pursued at the faculty level, not the institution-level
- 55. Why no LAengagement until now?Why no LA engagement until now? Usage Awareness Quality concerns Inertia Specific OER Etextbooks Production IP concerns Sustainability Faculty time
- 56. So why now?Sowhy now? • Technologies all mature • Growing concerns about equity • “ “ “ globalization
- 57. Student cultureStudent culture Desire for open content Experience of open content Financial pressure of post- 2008 world
- 58. Liberal education casesLiberaleducation cases
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- 62. OA mandatesOA mandates Trinity University led the way - 40%+ adoption
- 63. The open revolutionTheopen revolution Open source software Example: CLAMP ( https://cme.clamp-it.or )
- 64. RecommendationsRecommendations Strategic rationale Multiple campus populations Upper-level institutional support Awareness
- 65. RecommendationsRecommendations Rewards andincentives Pilots Experiment pedagogically Explore sustainability models
- 66. The library role •Informing the community • Maintaining repository • Helping faculty find appropriate, high quality materials • Advocating for open access
- 67. Open source hardware? RepRap •Open source hardware • Can serve as a recycler • ( http://reprap.org /) https://www.flickr.com/photos/watsdesign/17280506475/
- 68. One huge implication Artificialintelligence has open education to draw upon
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Editor's Notes
- #24 Sources: Freedom House; SUNY Albany’s Global Higher Education (http://www.globalhighered.org/branchcampuses.php)