The Global Economic Crisis: Effects on U.S. Higher Education

© 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd .Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Beijing Forum.This paper discusses four issues. The first considers the effects of the recent economic downturn onpost-secondary education in the United States. I then review and evaluate the ways in which the U.S.government has responded to the crisis. Third, I argue that the diversity and independence of the higher education institutions within the nation has reduced the potential of serious long-term effects of theeconomic downturn and that the central effect has been to amplify existing problems and challenges. In afinal section I propose that greater reliance on community colleges and technology might offer partialsolutions to mitigate the effects of the global economic crisis on students and schools.