How competition catalyzed innovation and set the stage for the collapse of American higher education
27th October 2025, 1-2 pm GMT
Online (Teams) and in-person (Edinburgh Futures Institute, room 4.30)
Speaker: Joshua Travis Brown
Chair: Ben Williamson
Abstract:
This presentation takes a behind-the-scenes look at the changes shaking higher education and what the future holds for universities in this new financial climate. Based on the newly released book, Capitalizing on College: How Higher Education Went from Mission Driven to Margin Obsessed, this talk shows how market-oriented government policies incentivized universities to find necessary financial resources by establishing new enrollment markets. Institutional leaders innovatively created new educational products for non-traditional student groups, leading to higher financial margins that provided a temporary salve. But as competition for students expanded, a hierarchy of winners and losers emerged. As a result, many university leaders found themselves confronted once again with palpable “trade offs” between mission and money – decisions with significant impacts for faculty, staff, and students.
Bio:
Joshua Travis Brown is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership in Education at Johns Hopkins University and Fellow at the Center for Skills, Knowledge, and Organizational Performance (SKOPE) at the University of Oxford. His research is positioned at the intersection of public policy and organizational theory and examines how economic policies have incentivized colleges and universities with limited resources to pursue margins in new markets at the expense of their educational missions. His work has been featured and discussed in The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Guardian, USA Today, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.