Around the country and around the world, higher education institutions and states are negotiating a new balance of regulatory autonomy, performance accountability, and public funding. This transformation has been driven by a variety of factors, including shifts in the revenue streams of public institutions, a political philosophy that uses the market to organize the public sector, and a heightened level of competition for students, prestige, and funding. The combination of these trends is steering public universities and colleges toward privatization and threatening higher education’s mission of serving society’s needs.

Based on five years of research, the Futures Project advocates for a new framework for colleges and universities that preserves their public missions while meeting demands for performance accountability. Each institution must be held to its own agreement based on its particular role and mission. To learn more, please download our Policy Brief and view the Autonomy and Accountability questions you can ask academic leaders and policymakers.

Contact us