Looking Up: What Colleges and Universities Learned from the Economic Downturn

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Published by The Presidency (American Council on Education)

Others look beyond the immediate financial challenges to longer-term trends with the potential for even greater impact: demographic shifts, growing needs for financial support, greater competition among institutions for both students and funding, and disruptive online models that could upend many institutions.

“We’re emerging from the worst of the recession and its effects, but we’re also in—and moving more deeply into—a coming period of remarkable challenge and change,” observed David W. Strauss, principal of Art & Science Group, LLC, a Baltimore-based consultancy. “You can make an argument that institutions will emerge in as much control of their destiny as they choose. Some will continue to be what they want to be. Others will be what the market will force them to become. But most institutions are somewhere in the middle—they have a choice to make.”

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