Abstract
Over the centuries, higher education has evolved in ways that closely track the dominant technologies and the associated social systems in society. This pattern can be seen in higher education overall and, more specifically, with public higher education systems in the United States. As technical and social systems evolved, so did the structure of higher education. With each successive era, new combinations of social and technical systems defined the era, but prior sets of social and technical systems did not disappear. Prior sets of technical and social systems were still present in important ways but no longer played a dominant role for the era (Piore and
Sable, 1984).
We are now in a post-industrial, digital era. The challenge for public higher education systems is to lead, adapt, or fall behind as new institutional arrangements move to the foreground. Will public higher education systems help to define the current era, or will other organizational forms become definitional for education and research? In other words, how will U.S. public higher education systems evolve in this digital age?