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Peak Higher Ed

How to Survive the Looming Academic Crisis

Bryan Alexander

Publication Date

Mapping out the strategic future of higher education.

Over the past decade, American colleges and universities have seen enrollment decline, campuses close, programs cut, faculty and staff laid off, and public confidence erode. In Peak Higher Ed, futurist Bryan Alexander forecasts what the next decade might hold if we continue down this path. He argues that the United States has passed its high-water mark for postsecondary education and now faces a critical turning point. How will higher ed institutions respond to this wave of change and crisis?

Combining data-driven research with scenario...

Mapping out the strategic future of higher education.

Over the past decade, American colleges and universities have seen enrollment decline, campuses close, programs cut, faculty and staff laid off, and public confidence erode. In Peak Higher Ed, futurist Bryan Alexander forecasts what the next decade might hold if we continue down this path. He argues that the United States has passed its high-water mark for postsecondary education and now faces a critical turning point. How will higher ed institutions respond to this wave of change and crisis?

Combining data-driven research with scenario modeling, Alexander outlines a powerful framework for understanding what led to this moment: declining birthrates, surging student debt, rising tuition, shifting political winds, and growing skepticism about the value of a college degree. He maps out how these forces, if left unchecked, could continue to reshape academia by shrinking its footprint, narrowing its mission, and jeopardizing its role in addressing the planet's most pressing challenges, from climate change to artificial intelligence. Alexander explores how institutions might adapt or recover, presenting two possible futures: a path of managed descent and a more hopeful course of reinvention.

Peak Higher Ed examines the fraying of the "college for all" consensus, the long shadow of pandemic-era disruptions, and the political polarization that has placed universities in the crosshairs. Written for educators, policymakers, students, and anyone invested in the future of higher learning, this book offers a deeply informed, unflinching look at the road ahead and the choices that will determine whether colleges and universities retreat from their peak or rise to a new one.

Reviews

Reviews

Bryan Alexander foresaw higher education's "peak scenario" back in 2013, and now revisits that analysis in a world utterly changed with the effects of a pandemic, accelerated climate change, an unprecedented political assault on institutional autonomy, and the revolutionary impact of artificial intelligence. Alexander not only helps institutional leaders understand what is going on, but he offers valuable counsel for navigating these stormy seas.

Alexander offers both a historical lens and forward-looking roadmap for navigating higher education's post-peak landscape. In the process, he provides the tools for strategic resilience and a vision for how colleges and universities can adapt, innovate, and regain momentum in service to students and society.

Bryan Alexander combines the foresight of a true futurist with the passion of a Biblical prophet. He sees the problems of higher education whole, and he charts the possible pathways forward with a clear sense of how these citadels of civilization can save themselves—and us in the process.

There is no use in pretending that higher education will go on as before—there are too many demographic, political and financial challenges. But as the author makes clear in this fascinating book, once you accept that premise your mind is freed to consider (and work on) a whole host of possible outcomes, some of them strikingly beautiful.

Bryan Alexander is a futurist, a builder of scenarios, a higher education activist, and both a practical and visionary thinker. In Peak Higher Education he does the near-impossible: supplying us with the data, research, and context for the present and unfolding 'polycrisis' in higher education while offering sustainable, sane, and even practical suggestions not just for "managing descent" but using the context of this crisis to make valuable and productive changes in higher ed. Invaluable!

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Book Details

Release Date
Publication Date
Status
Preorder
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
224
ISBN
9781421454702
Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Higher education passing peak
Introduction
1. Peak higher education, the first decade
2. Forces pushing academia further downslope
3. After the consensus shattered
Academia and the future

Table of Contents
Higher education passing peak
Introduction
1. Peak higher education, the first decade
2. Forces pushing academia further downslope
3. After the consensus shattered
Academia and the future's great challenges
4. Automation comes for the campus
5. The Anthropocene is here, ready or not
6. Academia and the struggle for humanity's future
What is to be done?
7. Managed descent
8. Climbing back towards peak

Author Bio
Bryan Alexander
Featured Contributor

Bryan Alexander

Bryan Alexander is an internationally known futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and professor. A senior scholar at Georgetown University, he is the author of Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis and Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education, as well as other books.