Until fairly recent times, leaders in business and industry generally regarded higher education as being somewhat indifferent to the needs of the corporate sector. Part of this perception no doubt stems from the attitude often displayed by many of those who work in academe. To be honest, there are those in higher education who still seem to think that business is a bad word. Higher education is not a business, they assert. It is something much more noble.
Business is concerned with the ruthless pursuit of financial gain.
Higher education, they maintain, is concerned with the much loftier pursuit of knowledge and truth. This perception is due in part to the fact that for most of its history, legislatures and other societal entities have shielded higher education from the harsh realities that have always been a part of the corporate landscape. This has generated a false sense of security among many faculty members, allowing them to analyze and comment on economic conditions and trends from the safety of their tenured positions. Often this analysis has been accomplished with very little actual input or interaction from those in business and industry. During the last two decades, changing economic realities have exerted an enormous pressure on higher education.