Undergraduate Education: From consumers to citizens in a knowledge economy

The future “has a way of arriving unannounced,†as the columnist George Will once wrote, and we can already feel its presence in higher education. We don’t need a crystal ball to see the tectonic changes in culture, technology, and the economy that are shaping the lives, hopes, and plans of our students and their families, our communities, and the worlds in which we live. But we do need to take some time to reflect on the state of our democracy, as this provides the context for thinking together today about what a good education should include as preparation for this future. And in this regard, the shifting ground beneath us offers unprecedented opportunities and dangers. It is widening the abyss between rich and poor, the “haves,†and the “have nots.†On one side of the chasm is a level of prosperity, luxury, mobility, and opportunity unthinkable.