Let Colleges Fail: How to Unleash the Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education

Let Colleges Fail: How to Unleash the Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education

Author: Cato Institute June 18, 2025 Duration: 1:17:42

From declining enrollments and skyrocketing tuition to the stifling of intellectual diversity, Richard Vedder’s Let Colleges Fail exposes how centralized control, administrative bloat, and ideological orthodoxy have corroded our college campuses. But rather than lament, Vedder’s book proposes market-oriented reforms that could revive academic freedom and restore genuine competition in the world of ideas.

Can higher education be saved from the grip of bureaucracy and groupthink? What policies might unleash its true potential? Don’t miss this urgent conversation between Cato research fellow Andrew Gillen and Vedder about tackling the rot and dysfunction plaguing American higher education.


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