Why higher education matters most in times of profound change

Reading the latest headlines, you might assume that a university president—especially one leading a Jesuit, liberal arts institution—would be deeply anxious about the state of higher education.

It is easy to understand why. Colleges are under intense scrutiny, pulled into polarized debates over free speech, and families are rightly concerned about whether a degree is worth the sacrifice as tuition costs rise. Meanwhile, the rise of artificial intelligence is forcing us to rethink how students learn and how we safeguard truth in a complicated information landscape.

But I am not worried about this moment.

Why am I not worried? Because what we are being asked to do—articulate our purpose and demonstrate our impact—is exactly what Jesuit education has always been about. 

Leading with empathy, acting with integrity

At Fordham, we are part of a tradition that stretches back for nearly 500 years. Jesuit education was born in times of upheaval; it was never designed for a static world. It was built for moments exactly like this one—moments when old assumptions are challenged and new, harder questions arise.

And its answer has never been to narrow education down to the most immediately practical technical skills, which are being displaced by technology in today’s landscape. Instead, we focus on educating the whole person (cura personalis).

That means forming people who can think clearly, who can listen and discern, and who have the courage to act with integrity even when the path forward is uncertain. These qualities may sound old-fashioned, but they are urgently relevant. I hear this from employers constantly. They need graduates who bring emotional intelligence to their work, who can collaborate across differences, who tap into creativity to solve tough problems, and who truly understand the human consequences of their choices.

Our humanity is a superpower

For a long time, the arts and humanities were cast as “impractical” compared to more “useful” fields. That framing always missed the point. Today, as the pace of change accelerates, it is becoming clearer just how much those human skills matter, because those are the jobs that will survive this new era of technology.

This is not an argument against technology. At Fordham, we are investing significantly in STEM and AI, fueled by a historic $100 million gift. Our students are learning to master the tools shaping the modern economy. But we do so with a clear sense of purpose. We aren’t just producing graduates who can use powerful technologies; we are educating the people who will guide how those technologies are used—and to what end.

Preparation for a life of purpose

The biggest challenges we face today are not merely technical—they are human. They involve judgment, values, and responsibility. They require us to ask not just what we can do, but what we should do.

That kind of thinking doesn’t come from technical training alone. It comes from engaging deeply with history, literature, and philosophy—traditions that have wrestled for centuries with questions of meaning and justice. It comes from the Jesuit habit of discernment: the practice of listening, reflecting, and choosing wisely.

It is an important moment to talk about the return on investment, but the push to teach only the most technical skills now must stop as those jobs diminish. A university education is not just job training. At its best, it is preparation for a life of purpose. It forms people who can lead, contribute, and navigate a world that will continue to change in ways we cannot yet predict. We have been doing this work at Fordham for 185 years, and the world has never needed it more.

Tania Tetlow has served as the 33rd president of Fordham University since July 2022, when she became the first layperson and first woman to hold the office since Fordham’s founding in 1841. Learn more about how Fordham is moving from inquiry to impact.