ANN ARBOR, MI – JULY 30: Signage of the University of Michigan north campus at the University of … [+] Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 30, 2019 (Photo: Raymond Boyd / Getty Images)
Much has been written and thought about it in the past few years. The general consensus is that a growing proportion of the population – though still a significant minority – simply refuses to believe the experts, those with the best information and the best ability to understand what that information means.
The echo of this revolves around higher education. Not in him, although this may also be true, but around him, about him. This means that some of us are unwilling or unable to accept what the people with the best information and the most experience are saying. Some people just insist that they know better than those whose job is to literally know. Besides being contrary to the very premise of education, it is also strange.
This trend has emerged recently in response to a survey among university business officials. The problem is not what the survey says, what the business executives said – it’s quite clear. They are generally quite positive about the stability and near future of their institutions. The problem is that for some reason so many just don’t want to believe it.
The survey was conducted by an industry publication and was mostly reported there. The core news of the survey starts with all the reasons these businessmen would be concerned – “It seems like college and university financial leaders have a lot of worries,” he says. There is a decline in subscriptions, which is true but possibly misunderstood. Inflation. Stock market and so on.
But when they asked business managers, the people who have the most and the best information about their schools – “are in balance optimistic about the financial stability of their institutions and largely reluctant to see the need for radical changes in the way they operate,” said the survey report.
From the survey: “About two-thirds of business officials (65 percent) agree their institution will be financially viable over the next decade.” And that: “Sixty-four percent of business officials say their institution is in better shape than it was in 2019, before the pandemic started …” And that “About three-quarters of business officials said their institution was either very ( 54%) or a little (21%) is likely to end the fiscal year 2021-22 with a positive operating margin. ” And “Seventy percent of business leaders agreed with the statement,” I am confident my institution will be financially viable in the next five years. “
That should be good news. If you care for our colleges and for the young people they educate, it should be a great sigh of relief that senior business officials in our national schools are comfortable with their future.
To be clear, confidence and positive outlook have dropped from last year, possibly because the federal recovery and stimulus funds have disappeared or have dropped significantly. And because the registration has not yet bounced, although there are signs of it. But still – 65%, 64%, 75%, 70% – these are good numbers. That should be the headline, right?
Remember that the people talking are the people who would know it. They are experts. Undoubtedly, they know more about the future and the positioning of their institutions than others – for example, than me. When 75% of them say their book sheets end up in black ink instead of red, I believe them. I don’t know why they would lie.
And yet, you don’t need to look beyond the coverage of the survey itself to find disbelief.
Immediately after the survey results were released, a team of external ‘experts’ wondered just how wrong they were with the actual balance sheets. One said business leaders “can wear pink glasses.” Another said, “I don’t have overwhelming optimism.”
Let me say here that I am not sure if anybody is required to “understand” this. I guess it is enough for them to accept the views of people who know things. If an airline pilot announces that he or she believes the flight will go smoothly, I don’t look out the window and say “no”. I trust she has better instruments and more experience than me and there is no reason for her to mislead me.
This does not mean that the business leaders who participated in this survey did not see the threats ahead. They clearly do it and said so. And the dangers lie ahead. They usually are.
Even so, the results of the survey are quite literally: “The drivers quite unanimously agreed that their institutions are in better shape than they were before the pandemic, and that most of each sector agrees.” To be in better shape than before the pandemic – well that’s great.
However, the news says: “Most of the higher education finance experts who analyzed the survey data believe that many universities will have to think and behave differently if they are to thrive in an era of limited resources.”
So real experts, those with up-to-date information, with a margin of 65%, 64%, 75%, 70% and more, say the situation is stable, positive and better, with good prospects. However, some other “experts” with less information and / or worse information argue that these people “have to think and act differently.” Because we have to assume that those who have less information need to know better.
It’s strange that people say real experts don’t understand this and have to change. It’s weird to listen to these voices, to present them so clearly – especially in a very easy-to-understand development.
Portraying skeptics who pretend to know better than the experts is doubly strange and just as disturbing when it happens in or about education itself. If the people of education don’t hear what education is, the real experts have to say – I don’t know. I do not feel well.
In all cases, perhaps those who care about our colleges and universities would be better off simply taking the insights of our real experts for what they say, rather than guessing it a second time. They say they are financially better off than they used to be, that they are optimistic. It should be more than good, it should be more than good enough.
