The Great Upheaval: Higher Education's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future

Summary

In The Great Upheaval, Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt examine higher and postsecondary education to see how it has changed to become what it is today—and how it might be refitted for an uncertain future.

Taking a unique historical, cross-industry perspective, Levine and Van Pelt perform a 360-degree survey of American higher education. Combining historical, trend, and comparative analysis of other business sectors, they ask

● how much will colleges and universities change, what will change, and how will these changes occur?

● will institutions of higher learning be able to adapt to the challenges they face, or will they be disrupted by them?

● will the industrial model of higher education be repaired or replaced?

● why is higher education more important than ever?

The book is neither an attempt to advocate for a particular future direction nor a warning about that future. Rather, it looks objectively at the contexts in which higher education has operated—and will continue to operate. It also seeks to identify likely developments that will aid those involved in steering higher education forward, as well as the many millions of Americans who have a stake in its future.