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The total number of students enrolled in US higher education institutions grew steadily in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. However that total peaked in 2011 at around 18 million students. It’s been declining ever since. You can imagine some of what that means—fewer students means less tuition, which means fewer faculty and staff and the closure of colleges and universities. US higher ed has been on the downhill across multiple measures for about 15 years now.

That decline is the focus of Bryan Alexander’s new book Peak Higher Ed. If a whole book on the crash of higher ed sounds grim, well, there’s some hope in the subtitle of Bryan’s book: How to Survive the Looming Academic Crisis. See, Bryan Alexander is a futurist—his work helps us imagine what might come next for higher ed and what steps we can take to navigate those challenges. I’m excited to have Bryan, who is also a senior scholar at Georgetown university, on the podcast today. We talk about the methods that futurists use in their work, the shape of higher ed’s current decline, the possible futures of generative AI and how higher ed might respond, and lots more.  

Episode Resources

Peak Higher Ed by Bryan Alexander

Bryan Alexander’s website

The Future Trends Forum

Bryan’s other books

Bryan’s 2020 appearances on the Leading Lines podcast

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