Why higher education can't be treated as one gigantic industry
Public confidence in higher education may be slipping nationally, but that doesn't mean individual institutions are losing support closer to home.
Broad narratives about the sector often focus on highly selective institutions while obscuring the realities of institutions with vastly different missions, student populations and funding models, says Justin Schwartz, chancellor of the University of Colorado Boulder.
"The media tends to focus on the 3.5% rather than the 96.5%, and so much of the narrative doesn't apply to many of us," he says.
As a result, institutions must do a better job of differentiating themselves from the broader sector, particularly as questions about workforce preparation and return on investment continue to dominate public debate.
Read Schwartz's recent University Business op-ed here: American higher education is a mosaic, not a monolith
One way institutions regularly undermine their own messaging is by speaking about "higher education" as though all schools face the same challenges and serve the same purpose, Schwartz says.
"There's a difference between job training, career preparation and life preparation," he says. "Large flagships are not here for job training, and the idea that you [shouldn't] major in philosophy because there's no career path is a false narrative."
In fact, the university's role in championing the humanities will become more important in the age of AI, Schwartz forecasts. But the challenge is tailoring institutional messaging to Gen Z, which demands more flexible undergraduate learning routes.
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