From the renowned futurist, a look at how current trends will transform American higher education over the next twenty years.

2020 Most Significant Futures Work Award Winner, Association of Professional Futurists

The outlook for the future of colleges and universities is uncertain. Financial stresses, changing student populations, and rapidly developing technologies all pose significant challenges to the nation's colleges and universities. In Academia Next, futurist and higher education expert Bryan Alexander addresses these evolving trends to better understand higher education's next generation.

Alexander first examines current economic, demographic, political, international, and policy developments as they relate to higher education. He also explores internal transformations within postsecondary institutions, including those related to enrollment, access, academic labor, alternative certification, sexual assault, and the changing library, paying particularly close attention to technological changes. Alexander then looks beyond these trends to offer a series of distinct scenarios and practical responses for institutions to consider when combating shrinking enrollments, reduced public support, and the proliferation of technological options.

Arguing that the forces he highlights are not speculative but are already in play, Alexander draws on a rich, extensive, and socially engaged body of research to best determine their likeliest outcomes. It is only by taking these trends seriously, he writes, that colleges and universities can improve their chances of survival and growth. An unusually multifaceted approach to American higher education that views institutions as complex organisms, Academia Next offers a fresh perspective on the emerging colleges and universities of today and tomorrow.

From the renowned futurist, a look at how current trends will transform American higher education over the next twenty years.

About the Author

Bryan Alexander is an internationally known futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher. A senior scholar at Georgetown University, he is the author of The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media, second edition, and Gearing Up for Learning Beyond K-12.

Reviews
An excellent resource for understanding trends in higher eduction and thinking about future scenarios related to these.
-michaelpaulus.org
Academia Next provides a wealth of resources about current challenges and opportunities, highlights two methods (trend analysis and scenario development) that can be used to prepare colleges and universities for the future, and identifies possible challenges and opportunities they might face in the future.
-Higher Ed Connects
Those who worry about the future of higher ed-and who among us is without worry?-would do well to put Academia Next on their reading list. The book provides academic readers with a set of tools from which to construct a set of scenarios, underpinned by trends, about the future of our schools and of our ecosystem. The book is certain to catalyze an informed and energetic conversation about the future of higher ed.
-Inside Higher Ed
Academia Next helps us know how we can intervene in the emerging nature of higher education.
-Association of Professional Futurists
Every day, I am involved in a discussion about one or more issues affecting higher education. Academia Next does a great job of capturing many of those discussions into one book. If you are an administrator in higher education, I would encourage you to read this well-researched book.
-tubarksblog.com
A must read for anyone involved in our educational system.
-Technical Communication


Awards
Winner of Most Significant Futures Work 2020 (United States). Runner-up for Foreword INDIES Award - Education 2020 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9781421443263
Author Bryan Alexander
Format Paperback
Page Count 360
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 499g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 24mm