Two years ago this week Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures, edited by Laura Czerniewicz and myself, was published openly by Open Book Publishers. To our amazement, the publication has been downloaded over 27,000 times in two years. This is a testament to the work of the 70+ authors and artists, a panel of generous reviewers, and a publisher who fully committed to this open access work from the start. We are grateful to all of the book’s contributors, readers, and educators who’ve used chapters in their teaching.
And yet. As difficult as the challenges in higher education were in 2023, they are more daunting now. One need only read the opening chapter of Higher Education for Good, Robin DeRosa’s brilliant Writing from the wreckage: austerity and the public university — together with Robin’s most recent blog post, I lost my job, in which she writes:
What’s happening at my university is a direct result of the decades-long underfunding of public higher education in New Hampshire. This year’s latest legislative cut to the state university system that already had the lowest per-student funding (and the highest student debtload) in the country was the nail in the coffin for our operating budget. So a third of the faculty are being asked to leave. If we don’t, we will have to leave anyway.
Like many, I was dismayed and enraged to hear Robin’s news — and news from other good friends who have found themselves in similar situations this year. Inspiring educators and leaders, every one.
And so, I’m thinking about the courage of all who are working to name (out loud) the daunting challenges, even/especially when it is difficult, to make new connections, to refuse billionaires’ visions of tech utopias, to imagine alternative and equitable futures for all, and to work on the ground to realise those futures. This work is not easy, it is risky, and there’s no guarantee that those who do it will see its benefits. But it is essential. I offer my deep thanks and respect to the many in my networks and beyond who show up to do this work, in all kinds of ways, every day.
Finally, the image shared here is by the artist George Sfougaras, who kindly allowed us to use his powerful artwork as the cover image on Higher Education for Good. As George describes in his reflection in the book: “hope survives and sustains us — even guides us — when we face insurmountable odds.”
Hope and solidarity to all.
[This post was shared on LinkedIn on 27th October 2025 and I am replanting it here, for ease of open sharing]