ippr with Pearson recently published a stimulating discussion of  future challenges to  universities, by Michael Barber and colleagues. I found it both elegantly and accessibly written, and radical without being shrill as too many futurist accounts are. It contains a wealth of examples of interesting innovations (though I have the sneaking feeling that all the authorshave a primary emotional bond to their backgrounds in highly elite institutions). More importantly, it identifies a range of developments which are already discernible and which might well combine in the near future to trigger a highly destructive landslide in our current university set-up (hence the title, An Avalanche is Coming). These include changes in the price-quality relationship…