The nature and role of higher education leadership was a focus of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' annual Higher Education Forum in Aspen, Colorado in June 2025. The cross-sector meeting included more than one hundred higher education experts and leaders, including leaders from Academy Affiliates, Academy members, and attendees from higher education institutions, professional associations, philanthropy, business, law firms, and media.
The 2025 Forum centered on the theme, “Is Higher Education Leadership Possible?” Over three days, attendees engaged in conversations that grew from this overarching theme and addressed questions related to: challenges of higher education leadership, students’ readiness for work and the world, artificial intelligence and values in higher education, the changing legal and policy landscape, building equitable and ambitious educational systems, polarization on campus, finances, housing, governance, cultural institutions, national security, and academic-industry partnerships. [The meeting was held under Chatham House Rule to encourage candid conversations.]
The Academy utilized its strength as a convener to bring together a wide variety of institutions for this year’s Forum and include new voices and perspectives. Represented institutions included small and large public and private universities and colleges, community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Minority-Serving Institutions. Higher education attendees represented a wide variety of institutional leadership positions including current and former presidents, provosts, deans, general counsels, chief financial officers, faculty members, trustees, and more. In today’s more polarized climate, when higher education faces declining public trust, the Forum offered space for higher education stakeholders to speak openly about problems and think boldly about solutions. Attendees had much to discuss based on their experiences of finishing the recent academic year and the first six months of a new federal administration.
The national climate for higher education lent an urgency to this year’s Forum meeting, which has always involved a blend of practical conversations and future-oriented imagination. There was significant emphasis on the need to build solidarity across the higher education sector and to work collectively to navigate the current moment and future changes. Discussions included lessons to be learned from recent polarization on campuses, with points being made about colleges not being immune from what’s happening in the world, that there has been a failure in the marketplace of ideas in academia, and that the relationship between higher education administration and governance is fragile especially if there are weak mechanisms for collaboration and consensus.
With regard to the federal government’s attention on elite higher education institutions, one attendee asked how institutions could take collective action in response. Another attendee made the case for higher education by emphasizing that national security is its derivative, as higher education provides the only pipeline and catalyst for the U.S. national security and intelligence infrastructure. Overall, there was consensus that the higher education sector needs programming like the Forum to help facilitate collaboration and discussion among leaders in this challenging time.
After days of stimulating discussions, Academy President Laurie L. Patton summarized key takeaways and important questions for the Academy to consider, including but not limited to:
What can different types of higher education institutions (such as community colleges, liberal arts colleges, minority-serving institutions, state and regional universities, and R1 research universities) learn from one another? How can they collaborate in ways that are less transactional?
What is the relationship between higher education and the media? How can higher education leaders and journalists build trust?
What does intellectual diversity in higher education look like and how can it be achieved?
What is the responsibility of anchor institutions, like colleges and universities, to the public? How can they help address pressing local issues such as housing and the collapse of local journalism?
What can higher education learn from public cultural institutions about successful incremental leadership?
What new financial models are possible for American higher education? How can different sectors contribute?
The Academy is grateful to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Lumina Foundation, TIAA, Spencer Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Bank of America Private Bank, Barclays, BrandEd, and Kaplan, Inc. for their support of the Higher Education Forum and the effort to provide leadership and learning on pressing issues in higher education with a cross-disciplinary and cross-sector approach.