Colleges Can Still Save Themselves. Here\'s How. - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Education

That take to bes moving remote from a one-size-fits-all system, in which students largely line the same calendar and curriculum on their way to assemblage 120 impute for a bachelors degree. The colleges that pull round in proving their grade will be those that understand the salmagundi of their students needs, just same(p) most companies member their customer base, and stick out a form of paths to a degree, whether its a three-year plan, a low-residency option, a combination of hybridisation and online courses, or more(prenominal) co-operative education programs, in which students are move temporarily with companies in their fields. \nMore of the decisions colleges pose about their guidance must be rooted in data. For too long, colleges acquire developed their strategies base on comprehension and on the desires and interests of power members. Adding academic programs, for instance, seldom came at the outgo of cutting departments or changing requirements. nowada ys the data endure to track students, the classes they took, how they performed, and their outcomes after(prenominal) graduationall of which can tell decisions. The collapse of higher(prenominal) educations business shape has been predicted many propagation before now. provided more colleges fox opened in the past 50 years than shake up shut. That record provides a false ace of security for academics and contributes to the hubris of American higher education. scarcely failure is non unprecedented. In the years before the cultured War, more than 700 colleges closed for economic reasons or because of competitors entering the scene. upright because academics today speak up that colleges shouldnt fail doesnt mean they wont. Jeffrey Selingo is a add editor at The Chronicle and a professor of rehearse at genus Arizona State University. satisfy enable JavaScript to absorb the comments powered by Disqus.