College Is Changing. Here’s Why We’re Optimistic.

Written by Forbes Mann, Director of College Counseling

New models offer students more opportunities.

Today, higher education in the United States is weathering pressure and transition. This testing, rethinking, and challenging of enduring American institutions by outside forces—whether government, society, or the market—isn’t a new phenomenon. More than a century and a half ago, the Industrial Revolution fundamentally remade this country, but the academic ecosystem that grew from the nine universities that predate the American Revolution had yet to evolve to meet the needs of a changed nation. In the mid-19th century, university work remained focused on the humanities, theology, law, and medicine, even as practical knowledge and ways to make money expanded rapidly. 

The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 realized a plan for government-supported agricultural education. The first Act enabled the establishment of Cornell, the University of Florida, and the University of California system, fundamentally expanding what American universities could cover. The second Act in 1892 established North Carolina A&T, Florida A&M, and Tuskegee, expanding the tapestry of HBCU’s. In short, the country underwent a period of change, and American higher education transformed to respond, emerging as an expanded version of itself.

After World War II, more than 16 million American service members returned to a workforce expanded by women’s participation. The GI Bill enabled broader socioeconomic access to postsecondary education. Brandeis and Claremont-McKenna, among other colleges, were founded, and the California Master Plan for Education rethought the role of the Cal State colleges, shifting them from teachers’ colleges to a broader role. Once again, the country changed, and our higher education system emerged more responsive to newer needs.

So today, as families ask questions about affordability and return on investment, and as universities face a different regulatory environment, what are some of the areas where we might see rethinking, rebirth, and innovation? In conversation with our colleagues on the college side, we are excited for our students on several fronts. For most students, four years at a residential college will remain the right next step after Field. Faculty relationships, campus community, and the growth that happens when students have space to discover what they care about have been essential to their Field experience, and growing in those same areas is a natural progression from their time here.

What is changing, though, is that this is no longer the only compelling model. As colleges change due to market conditions (well-publicized closures of academic departments, deficit operations), students are gaining more pathways, flexibility, and freedom to discover who they actually are.

• Liberal education and career preparation seem to be intrinsically linked in an age of AI. If AI becomes very good at technical production, skills like writing, interpersonal communication, persuasive speaking, ethical reasoning, and understanding human behavior become more, not less, valuable. A student might major in history while learning data analytics, or pair English and UX design. Last school year, I attended the national launch downtown of Brandeis’s new “second transcript.” Without abandoning their traditional liberal arts rigor, Brandeis is drawing clearer lines between students’ applied and experiential learning (which Field students have already enjoyed in high school) and their curricular coursework, showing the clear overlap between the skills of mind that many traditionally think of when they consider education, and emergent areas where our students may find productive and fulfilling careers. I anticipate seeing more approaches where colleges will demonstrate more clearly the relevance of their program in an era where a bachelor’s degree is not prima facie evidence of career preparedness.
• Colleges that change their offerings based on demand and their strengths will differentiate more clearly as students and families navigate the college search. For too long, too many colleges tried to be all things to all people—offering a broader-than-necessary list of programs of study that weren’t distinctive—but were expensive and underenrolled. As colleges make necessary changes to their business models (one college dean recently described this as “a manufacturer that pulls a product off the shelves after it hasn’t been touched for four years”), they have a new opportunity to double down on areas where they are distinctly strong. Students won’t be distracted along their search by colleges, no matter how prominent the brand, that don’t offer the thing that they want to do, and offer it well. In evaluating colleges, I am more bullish on colleges that are nimble and honest about the specific programs and opportunities that distinguish them, rather than on colleges that purport to do everything well enough.
• Apprenticeship programs are finding applicability in a wider range of attractive fields. Previously, they were associated with the building trades, which remain enormously valuable. But the basic model—learn in a structured training model while working and earning, moving toward a recognized qualification—has broader potential that is beginning to be realized. Rapidly expanding career fields like cybersecurity and healthcare already have similar models emerging.
• Diversified opportunities—including choosing a different path—are making colleges compete on affordability. If college is not the natural next step for all students, colleges need to present a more compelling value proposition for families in a variety of financial situations. Better merit aid, expanded need-based aid to middle-income families, and guarantees that a student can get the classes they need to graduate in four years or the college itself will pick up the additional semesters needed. A broad and growing range of colleges are already trying to position themselves as good values in the face of astronomical full-cost figures.

Right now, college admission deans are fond of saying that the only thing for sure about a given year is that it won’t be just like the year before. So, more areas for excitement may well emerge. But American higher education is unmatched in scale, accessibility, and market diversity. Small colleges that deftly navigate a changing landscape, as well as well-resourced legacy institutions that use those resources wisely, are well equipped to navigate today’s changes in a way that responds to the needs of the country and the world. It will look different from the restructuring after World War II and probably even more different than the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, but early indicators of a responsive new reality are already emerging, and when colleges meet this moment and this challenge, our students will be better equipped for the future.