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This article examines the multifaceted challenges confronting Canadian higher education, situating these against a backdrop of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) and the poly-/meta-/perma-crisis. We examine 10 specific challenges, including uncertain finances; affordability crisis; complexities of equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization, and Indigenization; intergenerational dissonance; public (ir)relevance; ecological destabilization; ambivalent AI; mental health epidemic; hyper-polarization; and lack of capacity for coordination. While these challenges threaten the stability of our institutions, they also offer opportunities for higher education to catalyze institutional, societal, and systemic transformations that prioritize intergenerational and interspecies responsibility. We suggest moving in this direction will require staff and faculty to deepen our relational capacities and offer a case study to illustrate this possibility.
Stein et al. (Mon,) studied this question.