{"id":99073,"date":"2026-08-24T17:10:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=99073"},"modified":"2026-08-24T17:28:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:28:56","slug":"some-troubling-posts-re-the-state-of-higher-education-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2026\/08\/24\/some-troubling-posts-re-the-state-of-higher-education-in-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Some troubling posts re: the state of higher education in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hechingerreport.org\/once-globally-preeminent-u-s-universities-are-sliding-into-decline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Once globally preeminent, U.S. universities are sliding into decline<\/strong><\/a> &#8212; from hechingerreport.org by\u00a0Jon Marcus<br \/>\n<em>High costs, political attacks take a toll as fewer students come, top scholars leave<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Top scholars are leaving. Fewer international students are coming. U.S. universities are slipping in international rankings. And American universities have failed to keep pace as other countries pour resources into their higher education systems.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nBlaming the interruptions in funding that have already occurred, top research universities have admitted\u00a015 percent fewer doctoral students\u00a0for the coming fall, including in fields such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, according to the Association of American Universities, or AAU. Many didn\u2019t take any new doctoral students at all.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.highereddive.com\/news\/colleges-made-deep-staff-cuts-while-adding-tenure-track-faculty-last-year\/828447\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Colleges made deep staff cuts while adding tenure-track faculty last year<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0&#8212; from highereddive.com by Ben Unglesbee<br \/>\n<em>The latest survey of higher education employees from CUPA-HR found the biggest spike in tenure-track professors since at least 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dive Brief:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Full-time staff at colleges dropped 6.6% in 2025 compared to the year before, ending several years of growth, according to data released Wednesday by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.<\/li>\n<li>The decline was even sharper among part-time staff, whose ranks plunged by 23.9% last year, CUPA-HR\u2019s latest survey data showed.<\/li>\n<li>However, faculty numbers grew overall during the year. Tenure-track faculty headcounts saw the largest spike at 7% year over year, the biggest increase for that group since at least 2016.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hechingerreport.org\/pace-of-college-closings-picks-up-with-more-projected\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Pace of college closings picks up, with more projected<\/strong><\/a> &#8212; from hechingerreport.org by\u00a0Jon Marcus<br \/>\n<em>Falling enrollment, rising debt have put an estimated 1 in 4 institutions at risk<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">More than 440 of the nation\u2019s private, nonprofit four-year colleges and universities\u00a0are now at risk, based on enrollment trends, debt and other measures, according to projections by Huron Consulting Group. That\u2019s a quarter of the total.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Among the most endangered:\u00a0small, rural and religiously affiliated\u00a0institutions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">And how to dispose of the real estate is among the least of the challenges facing shuttering campuses and the students they serve.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.highereddive.com\/news\/university-of-houston-slashes-40-of-courses-from-its-core-curriculum\/828543\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>University of Houston slashes 40% of courses from its core curriculum<\/strong><\/a> &#8212; from highereddive.com by Ben Unglesbee<br \/>\n<em>The Texas institution cut about 100 classes, including in women\u2019s and LGBT studies, to comply with a state law mandating general education reviews.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dive Brief: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The University of Houston has slashed about 40% of courses from the flagship\u2019s core curriculum as it works to comply with a new state law dictating the architecture of general education requirements at Texas public colleges.<\/li>\n<li>In the 2026-27 academic year, UH will adopt a core curriculum list with roughly 100 fewer classes after the University of Houston System\u2019s board unanimously approved administrators\u2019 proposal on Thursday. Among the classes dropped were courses in women\u2019s and LGBT studies.<\/li>\n<li>The overhaul is meant to satisfy the Texas statute known as SB 37, which mandates that public institutions\u2019 core courses be \u201cfoundational\u201d to postsecondary education, prepare students for the workforce and civic life, and cover \u201ca breadth of knowledge.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embedded post\" src=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/embed\/feed\/update\/urn:li:share:7497754271719870464\" width=\"504\" height=\"1048\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #800000;\">From DSC:<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Re: Jeff&#8217;s posting above&#8230;I think that faculty often taught what <em>THEY<\/em> wanted to teach &#8212; versus what the market was asking for. If I were on the academic administration side of the house right now, I&#8217;d be seeking out and listening very closely to what the adjunct faculty members on campus are saying.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once globally preeminent, U.S. universities are sliding into decline &#8212; from hechingerreport.org by\u00a0Jon Marcus High costs, political attacks take a toll as fewer students come, top scholars leave Top scholars are leaving. Fewer international students are coming. U.S. universities are slipping in international rankings. And American universities have failed to keep pace as other countries [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,322,61,86,115,302,71,36,35,3,74,7,436,480,310,20,66,212,50,206,321,214],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21st-century","category-adjunct-faculty","category-business-side-of-he","category-change","category-colleges","category-community-colleges","category-faculty-staff","category-future-of-higher-education","category-game-changing-environment","category-higher-education","category-leadership","category-learning-ecosystem","category-reinvent","category-society","category-staying-relevant","category-strategy","category-student-related","category-surviving","category-teaching-learning","category-trends","category-united-states","category-universities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99073"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99089,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99073\/revisions\/99089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}