Higher Education Faces 'Polycrisis' of Declining Enrollment, Funding, and Public Support
Higher education in the U.S. is grappling with a 'polycrisis' characterized by declining enrollment, reduced public funding, and a shift in public perception regarding the value of a college degree. Bryan Alexander, a senior scholar at Georgetown University and author of 'Peak Higher Ed: How to Survive the Looming Academic Crisis,' describes this period as a confluence of multiple overlapping crises that exacerbate each other. Enrollment growth, a hallmark of 'peak higher ed' for decades, has reversed, with a 2.6 million student decrease in the last decade and an anticipated 11% to 15% further decline in the next five years. Public funding for state universities, which once constituted two-thirds of revenue for institutions like Kent State University, has significantly diminished, now standing at 22% for Kent State. The bipartisan consensus that college is a public good has eroded, with increasing skepticism, particularly among Republicans, and a growing sentiment that college is not for everyone. This pol... 
