To Make Better Decisions in Education, Break Some Boundaries

To Make Better Decisions in Education, Break Some Boundaries

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The persistent economic problems facing higher education these days make it evident that the financial models of most institutions are not sustainable. That challenge alone would be bad enough, but traditional educational models are also in trouble, as online learning upends the nature of higher education itself.

But more serious than either the economic or the educational challenge is the inability of academe’s decision-making model to respond to them. On almost every campus, decisions are made via decentralized patterns of authority in departments and programs that are largely self-governing. Underneath that system of autonomy is a resistance to organizational change and a cumbersome and splintered method of making decisions that do not serve our institutions well, especially in times of crisis.