Chapter 9: Survival and Growth

When we returned to our college campuses after the global pandemic, it quickly became apparent to us that the academic world that we had worked in for many years had been permanently transformed. Although the shifting tides had begun years earlier, the realities of market forces that had been ignored by so many colleges were finally recognized. Student enrollment did not rebound to pre-pandemic levels, but government support initially helped with financial operations, providing another distraction away from the issues that were pressing down. The private colleges that we worked at and that employed many of our colleagues are now struggling in ways that must be addressed if they are to survive. Traditional consumers of college education—including the students, their families, and employers—have begun to pursue more economical alternatives and novel career preparation models instead, and these alternative routes further threaten institutions of higher education. It is not too late to institute business models that focus on differentiation of services and cost efficiencies; two things that have been previously lacking in many institutions of higher learning.