The Atlantic

Here’s How Higher Education Dies

A futurist says the industry may have nowhere to go but down. What does the slide look like?
Source: Wang Zhao / AFP / Getty

Maybe higher education has reached its peak. Not the Harvards and Yales of the world, but the institutions that make up the rest of the industry—the regional public schools who saw decades of growth and are now facing major budget cuts and the smaller, less-selective private colleges that have exorbitant sticker prices while the number of students enrolling in them declines.

Higher ed is often described —and much like the housing market in 2008, the thought goes, it will ultimately burst. But what if it’s less of a sudden pop and

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