In the current climate of disruption and uncertainty on our campuses and in the US, we need some joy. We need to remember the excitement and wonder that our students feel when things go well, when they find their passion, and when they feel that they unlock the secrets of their disciplines and engage in the true, deep learning that comes from their own hard work—aided by the guidance of committed faculty members. We need to lean into these moments and consider how we might foster them in our institutions and our faculty members’ classrooms.
Beyond the Credential Factory: Why Higher Education Must Shift from Management to Flourishing
For decades, higher education leadership has obsessed over “student success” as a purely operational metric. We track retention and graduation rates and postgraduation outcomes with the same linear precision that
Yoshitaka Iwasaki
August 3, 2026
