The Perfect Storm in Higher Education

Abstract

Higher education has always faced challenges, but what happens when colleges and universities are facing a 'perfect storm?' One of the victims of a pandemic, rising tuition costs, and less funding could be the traditional classroom or worse still a dramatic decrease in student enrollment. [...]the pursuit of attending an institution of higher learning have become so pervasive that attending college is a part of the 'American dream.' [...]history shows that any society, government, or industry can experience an accelerated decline under intensely adverse conditions. Since the first college was founded in America over 380 years ago, for the most part, that experience has taken place within the confines of the traditional campus. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, for the fall 2020 semester out of nearly 3,000 colleges, 10% went fully online, 34% were primarily online, and 21% adopted a hybrid model (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2020).