Higher education is under siege. It needs to reinvent itself

Universities need to develop their students more holistically, cultivate resilience and facilitate employability over a lifetime.

- Lily Kong

In a recent late-night Zoom call, I spoke with a leading professor from one of the best universities in the United States. The conversation turned to whether the current turmoil in US higher education would, in her view, pass, if we waited patiently two to three years. The response was chilling. "After Trump, we can't go back. Trump took away one thing that was great in America. It took so long for America to be the chosen destination for students and their parents, and for the best brains looking to undertake their research in a stimulating environment. This will no longer return."

In a post-colonial twist, she then mused that "perhaps it's not a bad thing... (for) the last vestiges of empire (to fall)". The hope she held out was for universities in Asia and South-east Asia, in particular, to become sources of light in a darkening world.

By now, readers will be aware of the wrenching developments that threaten US universities: funding cuts, visa revocations, a halt to international student enrollment at Harvard ("Harvard, for now; the rest of us will have our turn," another US academic shared), and a halt to issuing student visa applicant interview appointments.

This comes on the back of many other challenges in recent times Congress hearings on campus anti-Semitism with highly publicized appearances by presidents of leading universities, pro-Palestinian protests on campuses, hostile environments in an anti-DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) climate, and so on.

Decades of disinvestment in public education have reached a breaking point in some places. State funding for public universities has been steadily declining since the 1980s, shifting the burden onto students and deepening the crisis of affordability. Similar crises have been observed in the UK, Australia and elsewhere.