Future of Higher Education: A Scenario Evaluation of Its Prospects and Challenges

The Future of Higher Education is a new kind of public policy analysis that stimulates serious discussion, thinking, and consideration of the challenges facing American higher education. Avila and Léger illustrate eight plausible alternative scenarios of how institutions of higher education, faculty, parents, students, employers, and policy-makers may ultimately adapt to or wither under the pressures of rising costs, increasing global competition, cultural change, and new technologies. Each scenario is a unique twist on how present day trends will play out in the future. The scenarios read like short stories. While entertaining, they will spark the imagination and provoke fresh and creative thought about the future, and challenge the implicit assumptions behind the current higher education model.