Do employers require too many college degrees from applicants? The New York Times now thinks so. An editorial today — not from a single author, but from the paper’s entire editorial board — calls on employers to be more open to would-be workers without higher education credentials. Let me walk…

What might colleges and universities do about the unfolding climate crisis? Several months ago* I had the opportunity to join a meeting of campus presidents. Nearly all were from the United States, fairly dispersed geographically. Institutions ranged in size, but tended to the small and medium. …

How do colleges and universities respond to enrollment and financial pressures? One response is to cut tenure-track faculty members. Years ago I nicknamed this “the queen sacrifice” after the desperate chess move, when a player gives up the most powerful piece on the board (here tenure-track faculty stand in for…

Guess what arrived at my house today? My new book, Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis, is the fruit of several years of research, interviews, writing, more research, and more writing. Some of you have seen parts of this through my blog posts on the topic. …

A datapoint for how American politics impacts higher education in 2023: the state of Florida just told one university to provide data about some of its academic operations. Specifically, how it spends money on diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory work. This is a developing story without a lot…

I’m not doing any “best of 2022” reflections this year. I’ve come to realize that those kinds of reflections are an utter, meaningless waste of time. At best they are irrelevant, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how digital creators and audiences work. …

Will the United States descend into civil unrest? This is a futures topic I’ve been tracking for years. There’s a lot of data from multiple domains to follow, with various trends and stories emerging. Today I want to update on one of those trends. Two weeks ago I wrote about…

How might rising US-China tensions impact higher education? This month we’re seeing developments on one small aspect of that larger question. Interest in blocking hit video app TikTok has been cropping up in the United States. Fifteen states now prohibit state staff from using the app, by the New York…

Posted on December 19, 2022 by Bryan Alexander What might ChatGPT mean for higher education? Last week I posted a list of resources on that question. Then on Thursday we held a Future Trends Forum session on the topic. More than 250 people joined us. A series of experts (Brent…