The Broken Business Model in Higher Education

Once revered as the cornerstone of societal advancement and personal fulfillment, higher education now stands at a crossroads, grappling with a business model that is increasingly perceived as broken. This paradigm shift is propelled by economic, social, and technological factors that have exposed inefficiencies and shortcomings within traditional higher education institutions.

The business (a term academics hate!) model in traditional higher education encompasses all of the elements needed to deliver an education product or service—time, people, buildings, textbooks, dorms, etc.—laid out in front of customers (another term academics hate!), who then make a value determination as to whether that array adds value to them in proportion to the price. Does the transaction make sense? Does it have a return on investment?