| This study identified the critical factors facing and influencing higher education planning in New Mexico in the first decade of the twenty-first century. In this context, it is both a futures and a planning study. In the futures sense, it forecasts the critical factors to which New Mexico higher education is to be cognizant, and it also illustrates a variety of futures to which the higher education enterprise will be exposed. In the planning sense, it identifies the possible responses that, if effected, are likely to reconcile the forecast critical factors with the desired predicted futures. The study focused on the public two- and four-year colleges and universities. The Delphi technique was utilized as the primary tool of data collection. In Round 1 questionnaire, an expert panel comprising respondents from the institutions, legislature, state agencies, and the private sector were asked to identify critical factors of influence and impact during the first decade of the next century. In Round 2, the respondents rated the criticality of each factor in a questionnaire developed from the Round 1 responses. The Round 2 responses were developed into Round 3 questionnaire, which contained certain selected statistical information from which to converge toward consensus, or provide minority reports explaining the reasons behind the opinions which significantly differed from those of the consensus. Aside from the Delphi, visits were made over a 26-month period to five designated study regions throughout New Mexico to gain background information and data, and to sensitize the researcher to the New Mexico higher education issues and topics terrain.;The information adduced from this study, coupled with the extensive coverage of the literature review, should provide a basis from which to develop or validate a credible planning effort toward the future of higher education in New Mexico. The literature review covered trends facing higher education nationally and in New Mexico, characteristics of effective planning in general, and suggested possible responses in light of the identified trends. In this study, a primary appreciation of the literature review discussions is necessary, because the review constitutes an integral part of the study. It is from the review that the study's collective thesis of identifying the critical factors facing higher education and suggesting possible planning responses can be contextualized.;The information in this study should be useful to any individual or entity with a stake in an educated New Mexican citizenry, particularly the institutions, the private sector, and the state's higher education policy-makers in general, if not the public at large. |
