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ACE Presidential Roundtables

Roundtable Essays
		The Dynamic Nature of Knowledge: Future Challenges and Opportunities for College and University Leaders (2008)
		Collective Foresight: The Leadership Challenges for Higher Education's Future (2007)
		The Times Demand Innovation: Responding to Declining Resources and Heightened Accountability (2007)
		Toward Higher Ground: Reclaiming Public Confidence in a Competitive Environment (2006)
		Peering Around the Bend: The Leadership Challenges of Privatization, Accountability, and Market-based State Policy (2005)

Past Roundtable Series
•	The Changing Relationship Between States and Their Institutions
•	Transatlantic Dialogue

Roundtable Background

Since 2004, the American Council on Education (ACE) has held a series of roundtable conversations with higher education leaders to explore the key trends colleges and universities are facing. These conversations provide opportunities for campus leaders to think aloud with their peers about a set of inter-related trends and challenges and to explore the implications for campus leadership. The conversations also formed the basis of a series of essays widely disseminated throughout the higher education community.

Discussing the Future

To date, the roundtables and essays have focused primarily on immediate challenges. Yet, a need exists to project what these and other trends portend for higher education over the next 15–20 years. In April 2007, ACE convened a group of 14 presidents to begin to explore higher education's long-term future. From that conversation, consensus emerged on three topics that, as that roundtable discussion demonstrated, require additional attention. Those topics, enumerated below, are the focus of the forthcoming roundtable series. At the conclusion of these three discussions, ACE plans on hosting a summit that assembles participants from all of the roundtables as well as leaders from the business and non-profit sectors to connect the conversations with the aim of helping campus leaders better position their institutions for higher education's emerging future.

Specifically, each conversation will explore the contours of the topics outlined below. The roundtables also will include a discussion of strategies for addressing the future, with specific attention to:

1. Campus practices and structures (and assumptions about them)—What is needed within our institutions to best position and prepare higher education? What is it about our practices that will continue to serve us well? What will prevent us from moving ahead effectively?
2. Public policy/public perception—How can we create a favorable external environment for higher education given these trends?
3. Developing future leaders—How do we identify and prepare the next generation of leaders, given emerging trends and issues?

A sister set of ongoing presidential discussions takes place in the Transatlantic Dialogues, which since 1989 in conjunction with the European University Association, brought together presidents from the U.S., Canada and Europe for focused discussion on pressing global challenges. The previous set of roundtables explored The Changing Relationship Between States and Their Institutions.

Getting Involved

ACE is committed to engaging presidents and higher education leaders in cutting edge issues and promoting a wider dialogue on these issues. To that end, we seek input on topics, issues and participants for future roundtables.

For further information, contact Peter Eckel, Director, Programs & Initiatives, Center for Effective Leadership at: leadership_programs@ace.nche.edu or 202-939-9728.

Please direct questions about this page to
leadership_programs@ace.nche.edu
This page was last updated on 02/26/2009