655F Fall 2025 Current Challenges Facing Higher Education and Where do We Go from Here?

In recent months, higher education has been in the daily news. We’ve all read about such things: challenges to research funding, questions about institutions’ responses to concerns about antisemitism, ongoing scrutiny of DEI, threats to institution’s endowments and not-for-profit status, concerns over costs, and persistent questions about the relevance of higher education. Why does it seem that higher education is suddenly in the news? And to what extent are today’s questions and challenges related to long-standing issues that have faced higher education for generations? This lecture will outline the principal questions facing higher education today, and frame them within the broader scope of higher education’s historical challenges. The goal of this lecture is to offer a path forward that can help higher education amplify its potential to have a positive impact on society, which in turn may help it enjoy wider support.

Dr. James Antony serves as the provost and executive vice president of George Mason University, the largest public research university in Virginia and a Carnegie R1 institution. As provost and executive vice president, Antony oversees George Mason University’s academic mission, including supporting scholarly excellence among faculty and fostering academic success for over 40,000 students on all four campuses. He joined the university in 2024 and works in conjunction with President Gregory Washington to shape and execute the university’s strategic academic priorities.