Why 'Brick Space' Institutions Aren't Going Away

Physical campuses of colleges and universities aren't going away anytime soon because they are about a lot more than learning. This statement may seem obvious, but it is routinely forgotten. When commentators predict the demise of colleges and universities as we know them, they are usually thinking in terms of the educational/learning function and forgetting about the other functions which higher education institutions fill.

Athletics -- Consider, for example, who are the highest paid individuals at many R1 institutions in the U.S.: the football and/or men's basketball coaches. Watch a moment of March Madness or talk to an Auburn alum about SEC football and the irremediable "otherness" of Alabama grads (and vice versa). The trend is toward the palatial -- ever bigger and better facilities, not the other direction. Such facilities are multi-purpose and become deeply embedded into the local community. For instance, my local example (the University of Maryland's Comcast Center) in effect helps support a small industry, including basketball camps and other special events in addition to the millions of fans who have attended athletic events there.

Cultural entertainment -- Through museums, film festivals, conservatories, and a host of other means, colleges and universities provide a major source of cultural entertainment for their local communities.

Research -- There's a reason why research is essentially a higher priority than teaching at research institutions: because it is a huge source of revenue as well as institutional and personal identity.

Then there are the less obvious but also important functions such as preparing citizens and academicians, not to mention other functions such as personal and social identity experimentation, building self-reliance skills (e.g., how to do your own laundry), social service, and various rites of passage and identity formation activities (more on this at the end of this post).

One could argue that most of these functions could be fulfilled by other means, and no doubt better in some cases. However, the key point is that this blend of functions evolved into its present form through an historical process. These institutions won't disappear unless and until our society finds alternative ways of fulfilling the same functions that work about as well and can be arrived at through a viable process of disruption. The 'provision of knowledge' function is just one of the ingredients which happens to blend well with some of the others in the current mix. The mix will continue to change appreciably in the coming decades, but the market for knowledge will not be the only or even the principal driver of change.

So, back to Drucker's prediction that universities as we know them will cease to exist in 25 years. Universities have changed a lot in the previous 25 years -- witness the huge rise in athletic facilities, the demise of card catalogs in the library, the elimination of long lines for registration, etc. etc. But they have certainly continued to exist.

And here is the #1 reason that they will continue to exist for the next 25 years: branding. Universities are a modern-day equivalent of tribes, which is why a favored form of tribal gathering in our present-day society is the tailgate party.

At the same time, look for most of the change in the evolution of higher education to continue to happen at the edges and outside the mainstream -- at for-profits, continuing education units, community colleges, and from within through what we currently call "blended" or "hybrid" learning.