ABSTRACT
We have seen that new demands on higher education arise from time to time, resulting in new formulations of the mission of colleges and universities. For example, land-grant universities arose in part to respond to the need for practical arts education in fields such as agriculture and engineering. These subjects had not been considered “proper” for university study previously, but the rapidly expanding nation sensed that it needed builders, not (just) poets—and so these practical disciplines took their place alongside the traditional liberal arts, eventually appearing in the curricula of institutions even beyond those created by the Morrill Act. Higher education’s scope has grown to accommodate the expansion of knowledge and the need for more specialized skills in the economy. It is reasonable to think that this expansion of the academic mission will continue as social and economic needs evolve. However, it is also clear that we are entering into a time of unprecedented change that will bring qualitatively different challenges for colleges and universities than they have faced in the past. The growth of information technology, particularly the growing impact of artificial intelligence in our lives, signals a profound change in our concept of knowledge and learning—and, therefore, in what it means to be educated.
