The Paradigm Project: A Call for Radical Renewal of Higher Education

Posted by Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning on March 28, 2023

The current issue of Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning includes David Scobey’s essay on the Paradigm Project.

This article offers a call and an invitation. It calls for a radical renewal of American undergraduate education. It invites you to take part in a project—really, to help build a movement—aimed at catalyzing that renewal. I will describe the project below. But first let me speak to the current context that makes such an effort necessary and the vision on which it’s based.

If the recent past has taught us anything, it’s that the academy finds itself at an inflection-point. Change—big change—is coming. Higher education confronts crises of precarity, of legitimacy, and of purpose. The stakes of change are high, and so is the urgency of the moment. Twenty years from now, I believe, college education will be very different for most students—for students attending all but the wealthiest institutions. But the shape of that future is still up for grabs. There is no standing still; the options are to make change or be changed. The question that faculty, staff, students, and our public allies face is, what kind of change do we want? And what can we do about it?

Read more.