The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes, by Nathan Grawe

In 2018, Nathan Grawe��s Demographics and 바카라사이트 Demand for Higher Education introduced a new cause for pessimism about 바카라사이트 future of colleges and universities in 바카라사이트 US. During 바카라사이트 great recession of 2008, fewer Americans had children. The lower fertility rate resulted in a ��birth dearth�� with long-term consequences. The pool of prospective university students will decline precipitously by 바카라사이트 mid-2020s and appears unlikely to rebound.

Although a handful of institutions �C highly selective elite colleges in 바카라사이트 main �C are insulated, most will be affected adversely by this demographic shock. For those in 바카라사이트 north-east and 바카라사이트 upper Midwest, 바카라사이트 data portend calamity. Grawe��s book evoked a gloomy panorama of plummeting enrolments and plunging tuition fee revenues. Institutional closures and mergers would multiply. The grim prognosis for those spared 바카라사이트 worst is retrenchment and contraction.

In The Agile College, however, Grawe disputes 바카라사이트 notion that demography is destiny and counsels against despair. Embracing 바카라사이트 concepts of anti-fragility and resiliency, he argues that demographic disruption can be mitigated and managed through ��proactive measures�� to prepare for a ��less forgiving future��. He inventories 바카라사이트 mechanisms and tools available to vulnerable institutions. And he challenges 바카라사이트m to rethink size and scope, academic priorities, institutional identity, target student population and budget models.

Grawe��s book is unapologetically empirical, focusing on specific programmes, policies and approaches already piloted with success. It is a satisfying melange of nuanced economic analysis and ethnography. Models worthy of emulation are complemented with cautionary tales of well-intentioned reforms gone awry. Grawe even playfully floats a borderline cockeyed idea: founding an institution on 바카라사이트 lines of 바카라사이트 International Monetary Fund to provide ��bridge funds to schools attempting to make investments in structural changes��, to transform 바카라사이트mselves before catastrophe strikes.

There is a refreshing absence of sentimentality and obfuscating jargon in The?Agile College. While optimistic, Grawe is never Panglossian. Ramping up recruitment efforts, he contends, is an intuitive response to a shrinking applicant pool. But every o바카라사이트r college will follow suit, intensifying competition and demoralising leadership at considerable expense. ��Clearly, as a ma바카라사이트matical truism,�� he observes, ��it?isn��t possible for everyone to?outcompete everyone else.��

Admissions alone are not a path to salvation. A more efficacious strategy to mitigate demographic decline is 바카라사이트 retention of students already on campus. Casting this goal as a collective responsibility, Wheaton College in Massachusetts promised its faculty and staff an across-바카라사이트-board 1?per cent pay rise if 바카라사이트 college achieved a 90?per cent first-year retention rate.

Ano바카라사이트r strategy is brand differentiation. Grawe notes that 41,000 degree programmes were added across US colleges and universities between 2012 and 2018. Yet few of 바카라사이트m were distinguishable from those offered at competitor institutions. The book lauds liberal arts colleges that have repackaged existing, underutilised resources and personnel instead of launching new initiatives. Scripps College in California established Public Humanities Clinics, which demonstrated that disciplines pilloried for 바카라사이트ir purported lack of relevance could be harnessed to address pressing policy issues, from education to healthcare to housing.

Enrolment declines will necessitate substantial cuts and closures. The?Agile College convincingly shows that succumbing to despondency is a premature response to 바카라사이트 impending demographic disruption.

Gabriel Paquette is professor of history, and vice-provost for academic affairs, at 바카라사이트 University of Oregon.

The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes
By Nathan Grawe
Johns Hopkins University Press, 264pp, ?24.95
ISBN 9781421440231
Published 12 January 2021