Perspectives on Systemic Change for Thriving Postsecondary Institutions

Abstract

Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education, by Joshua Kim & Edward Maloney. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020. 232 pages. Hardcover $39.95; E-Book $39.95. I t is now common for advocates of change in higher education to acknowledge the systemic nature of the challenges that colleges and universities face. It is not so common for writers to address these challenges systemically! Many books and articles that focus on one target for improvement recognize the need for changes elsewhere in the system to support (rather than undermine) the better practices they recommend. Relatively few start out with the system itself—or at least significant parts of it—as the aim of their improvement efforts. Two new books fill this gap by taking systemic change seriously. In Pursuing Quality, Access, and Affordability, Stephen C. Ehrmann explores strategies that institutions have used to pursue systemic improvement in the recent past; in Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education, Joshua Kim and Edward Maloney examine the emergence of new professional positions and organizational structures that may play key roles in such work in the years ahead. While both books advocate systemic modes of change, they train their sights on different levels of the system. Pursuing Quality, Access, and Affordability By Mary Taylor Huber