Resolving the Crisis in Higher Education

Covid-19’s Impact on Higher Education: How Business Continuity Planning Can Reverse It asks and answers probing questions affecting higher education in the post-COVID-19 educational landscape. The book examines whether private universities, particularly liberal arts colleges, have viable business models and discusses the risk posed by a faulty business model. It fits a liberal arts foundation into a sustainable value chain for a university and shows how business continuity planning (BCP) can help a university to achieve long-term sustainable operation. It also recommends goals, composition, and successful practices for a business continuity planning task force. Ultimately, this book creates a pathway to build viable undergraduate degrees on a liberal arts foundation. It concludes with authority, responsibility, and accountability in business continuity planning.

Dr. John J. Hampton has continued his book series on risk management in higher education by heralding risks, particularly to private liberal arts colleges. Covid-19 accelerated those institutional risks, as well as posing new ones. A stakeholder approach to enterprise risk management is urged on boards of trustees, college presidents, administrators, and professors to deal with shared risks and rewards, collaborative governance, and the need to reverse negative trends. Liberal arts education is not at all devalued, but rather is recognized as cultivating critical thinking, improving problem solving, and effectively analyzing information. A challenge is issued to reconceptualize curriculum and degrees based on a liberal arts foundation, including undergraduate and graduate degrees in Business. Institutions are further encouraged to develop student-centered and flexible approaches to course offerings, academic calendars, and the cost of college. Dr. Hampton presents a series of invaluable questions and tools to university leadership at all levels to guide the revision and adaptation of an institution’s business model and the identification and creation of its value chains., One of most common things heard in various institutions goes something like: “You can’t run a (church, school, non-profit, arts center, university) like a business.” The problem is that people don’t understand business and consequently do not define the term correctly. A business is any organization that provides a product or service, collects revenue, and has expenses. Obviously, the university qualifies. As both an experienced academic and a skilled business expert, Dr. Hampton understands that the present plight and questionable future of the traditional university is dependent on creating a business model that works in today’s environment. This book not only spells out the problems, but also discusses detailed solutions. It is easy to understand, reads well, and is important to the future of higher education., There is no question that one of the pillars of strength of a thriving society is an active, robust, forward-thinking educational system. Today, our institutions of higher education are facing enormous challenges—economic, social, health-related concerns—that require clear thinking and solid advice. Dr. Hampton provides just that. In an engaging Socratic manner, he shows us how business continuity planning and risk management are the tools that can help higher education institutions thrive, rather than succumb to outdated and narrow-focused thinking. This book is a must-read requirement for educators, administrators, trustees, government officials, and donors., Contemporary university education is more reflective of the medieval format of its origins than of today’s fast paced, technologically advanced society. It is no surprise that new graduates are often woefully unprepared for the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to be successful contributors to the modern workforce. Hampton tackles this disconnect by offering Business Continuity Planning to ameliorate the connection between university instruction and workplace practice. His analysis of the problems presented by traditional liberal arts pedagogy and their contribution to risk in the business of higher education highlights the consequences of ‘business as usual.’ The apparent bottom line, according to Hampton, is that, as long as universities ignore the importance of revising their business models to reflect contemporary Business Continuity Planning, the new graduate, and thus the contemporary workforce, will allow their work to control them, rather than controlling work for themselves. This insightful piece is a ‘must read’ for those charged with Curriculum Development and with Enterprise Risk Management at the university level., This outstanding book illustrates how the reader can obtain critical facts and apply risk management techniques to make logical decisions in higher education. We know that the choice of college today is a great challenge. Graduates are faced with huge student debt that can take a decade or even longer to repay. Proper planning and the right decisions are needed. The author explains strategies from both the student and college perspective. The book focuses on risk management tools that can be applied to make logical decisions. The author’s experience and intensive research produced this exceptional book that encourages readers to pursue critical facts before taking action on a choice of college or careers. The book is a must read for parents of future students. Also, it provides useful information for professors and other college decision makers.

John “Jack” Hampton is a professor at St. Peter’s University and a former dean of the schools of business at Seton Hall and Connecticut State universities. He is the author of multiple enterprise risk management books with the American Management Association and a series of higher education books with Rowman & Littlefield.