With the causes and challenges related to increased homogenization likely to continue influencing higher education, institutional diversity will likely continue to decline, which will threaten historical institutional missions. In today’s post, I want to share an excerpt from my monograph, Understanding Institutional Diversity in American Higher Education, with recommendations and future research to show campus leaders can support institutional diversity.
Public institutions will likely continue to face increased pressures to privatize and support expanded academic programs in light of declining state resources.
Comprehensive colleges will face recruiting challenges to maintain student enrollments and the aspirational urge to expand graduate and doctoral education.
Liberal arts colleges will face enrollment and recruiting challenges while also receiving pressure to expand business, professional, and graduate education programs.
Increased student consumerism and savvy parents will demand responsiveness, amenities, and services while also seeking greater alignment between academic programs and employment outcomes (Harris, 2009a).
The trend pushing community colleges toward a primary focus on workforce development and eschewing other functions lets economic circumstances and labor needs drive institutional activity.
Within the for-profit sector, a source of growth of institutional types in recent years, a number of bad actors and diploma mills will likely weaken the reputation of the sector overall (Fain, 2012) and challenges with technology and scale will continue to face the industry.
Campus leaders, state higher education officials, and system offices would gain from understanding institutional diversity.
While no leader wants to stand and argue for the historical status quo, new initiatives and innovations should be considered within the context of historical purposes and missions of the institution.
Lofty institutional rhetoric without considering traditional functions within the higher education system should be avoided. Instead, market-based strategies and innovations should include specific actionable recommendations for how new approaches can benefit and indeed strengthen the institution’s role in the higher education system.
Second, college leaders should limit the degree to which program expansion is incentivized as institutional reward structures can focus on areas outside of the college’s primary functions.
Understanding both the system of higher education and the institution’s specific role in providing a well-balanced diverse higher education system should remain at the forefront of institutional decision making.
An appreciation of the history and context of the increasing marginalization in higher education and the declining degree of institutional diversity within the system provides institutional leaders a more comprehensive view of higher education’s strengths and values.
I have presented the benefits of institutional diversity for students, colleges, and society in attempts to contextualize the broader discourse currently prevalent within higher education regarding institutional aspiration, prestige, and deregulation.
Campus leaders under seemingly constant attack for inefficiency, a lack of accountability, increasing costs, and a lack of student learning may see reputational factors and less regulation as a potential strategy to gain enrollment, revenue, and political support.
However, as many institutions attempting to pursue the lucrative oasis of online education learned, no single strategy proves to be a panacea.
The University of California spent millions of dollars on an online education program that has enrolled virtually no students (Asimov, 2013).
Instead, the goal for institutional activity should be linking new and innovative approaches within the context of the historical value the institution has played within the system.
The teaching, research, and service functions of institutions when considered in this vein form stronger and more effective grounds on which to build the institution’s future.
As a result, careful strategic planning with a variety of internal and external stakeholders allows an institution to chart a course into the future while recognizing its important role from the past and the necessity of building a strong diverse higher education system.
In order to more fully understand how changes in the higher education environment and institutional strategy influence the degree of institutional diversity present, more empirical research is needed.
Better data would improve our understanding of how institutional approaches to the changing political, economic, and social environment may result in greater homogenization.
This research would complement the existing literature addressing the increased influence of the higher education marketplace as well as privatization.
Studies exploring how changes in institutional mission shape institutional diversity would also benefit scholars and practitioners. For example, colleges and universities seek to expand into new student markets to increase enrollment and stabilize finances.
In particular, the growth of graduate education programs often presents an institutional advantage for improving enrollment, financing, and a better utilization of campus facilities for evening, weekend, and online models.
Empirical research considering how these strategies move institutions in directions either complementary or contradictory to their traditional role within the higher education system would benefit campus leaders as well as policymakers.
By increasing the understanding of the ways that institutional strategy reduces the overall strength of the system, campus leaders and administrators will benefit in negotiating between the traditional mission and new initiatives.
While many of the strategies employed by colleges across a variety of institutional types have improved or stabilized the academic and financial position of the college, the increased marginalization of long-standing values and missions at both the campus and system levels presents an ongoing risk as higher education continues to confront current environmental challenges.
Additional research to understand those programs and disciplines most susceptible to environmental pressures and likely to lead the institution away from its place within the higher education system would improve the practice of academic administration by identifying specific areas within the institution that warrant additional oversight.
