Walking Back the Higher Ed Conversation

California Lt. Governor, as aspirant to higher office, Gavin Newsome declared "Code Red for higher education" during a talk at the Tech Crunch Disrupt Conference last week. Newsome pointed to the usual issues--cost, employability, non-scalability, access, etc.--as reasons why colleges and universities need serious reform. Bashing higher ed is now political de rigueur.Interesting that what politicians seem to want most from schools is to ensure the employability of graduates while providing an affordable education. And this at the very time when those institutions that have historically focused on work skills and affordability, U.S. community colleges and smaller urban two and four-year schools, are increasingly trying to look and sound like big private and public universities.I am becoming convinced that we are watching a slow-motion fragmentation of higher ed back into strata that used to make sense and still does. The U.S. needs large, public and private universities as economic engines and producers of the advanced degrees that some--but not all--students will eventually need. It also needs a number of smaller liberal arts colleges providing undergraduate education for education's sake. And then it needs a tier of two and four-year schools focusing on vocational preparation for those students who might not be interested in advanced degrees or education for education's sake, but who still need serious training in sophisticated workplace skills. And the latter group is likely to contain the largest pool of students.So, here are my two recommendations (more may follow):

1. Governing boards at smaller and less research intensive schools need to challenge administrative initiatives that drive toward program proliferation, more advanced degrees, and vestiges of their larger university cousins. Instead, boards and administrations should identify their institution's place in the emerging stratification of higher ed and then drive for excellence within that niche.
2. The national conversation should shift from making all higher ed affordable to helping students find and engage with the level of higher ed that makes sense for them. Some degrees should cost far less and some should cost far more. Employability for those who care will follow once we have students in the right places.

Higher education should not be treated as a one-size-fits-all product.