Current Challenges Confronting U.S. Higher Education Good morning, everyone. In our last lecture, we discussed challenges that face universities and colleges worldwide.

Today we'll take a special look at U.S. higher education and see what challenges U.S. higher education is facing.

OK, let's get started.

The first challenge we are examining in today's lecture is the force of the marketplace on higher education.

Many people believe that the marketplace has overtaken state government as the dominant external force shaping and reshaping American higher education, even for public colleges and universities.

You may ask, why is it so?

Well, as is always the case, government support is not keeping pace with educational expenditures.

So in many ways, the market is having more bearing on higher education than government.

In order to create more flexibility, many public colleges and universities are now asking for less government regulation and supervision.

In some instances, they are even asking for less state money in return for more autonomy.