Academia Next

A must read for anyone involved in our educational system.

Using environment scanning and the scenario method, Alexander weaves together various trends in higher education, giving us an expanded—and more realistic—picture of what may come in the future. He is also clear about how these scenarios will impact different segments of higher education. This book will be read by university presidents, administrators, boards of trustees, faculty, policymakers, foundation directors, educational journalists, and educational entrepreneurs.

Bryan Alexander has thought longer and more penetratingly about the future of education than anyone I know. Academia Next is the capstone of all that work. At once, it is a practical guide for those who would reinvent colleges and universities as well as a richly researched exploration of the forces that will reshape our world. From this day forth, no one will be able to say that they haven't been warned about what's ahead and haven't been schooled how to deal with it.

Institutions of higher education need to be reimagined, and there is no better student of the future of higher ed than Bryan Alexander. The test of any futurist is his or her track record, and so far, Alexander has been a beacon of light in the murky field of educational forecasting.

In a time of great flux for colleges and universities, Bryan Alexander provides a clear-eyed view of the forces at work, the major shifts happening online and off, and the large-scale trends that are impacting the world of education. While there are no easy answers, Alexander asks exactly the right questions and provides the essential context for anyone who cares about the academy to begin to adapt to the future that is already frighteningly close.

With his usual generosity and clarity of expression, Alexander invites us to imagine not only what futures of higher education may come but what futures we want.

Unlike many futurists, Bryan Alexander grounds his views of the future in careful assessment of the past and present. The range of his documentation is breathtaking and the result is a more credible and authoritative book than the glib generalizations offered by others. This book will be the reference point for forecasting about higher education for many years to come.

Alexander's book is ambitious at a moment when we need ambition. Exhaustively researched and accessibly written, it's a challenge to those of us who care about higher education to raise our sights while we still have the option. Alexander's critique is sympathetic but unsparing; I gasped several times as I read it. It's bracing, in the best sense of the word.

Elegant and compelling, Academia Next explains how political, economic, technological, and cultural trends will combine to produce the educational institutions of the future. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what learning will look like in decades to come.