Dive Summary:

• Consulting firm Art & Science Group has warned the University of Virginia (UVa) governing board that the university is at risk of falling behind the competition. 
• The firm recommended that UVa improve the undergraduate experience, breed a culture of leadership, charge a higher in-state tuition rate, hire distinguished faculty and do everything it can to make itself stand out as a one-of-a-kind institution.
• The consultants' report will be used to devise a long-term strategic plan for the university.

From the article:

Last June, U-Va. governing board leaders ousted President Teresa A. Sullivan, then reinstated her after a swell of outrage. Edwards recommended that U-Va. administrators become “public figures” in the national discussion about the future of higher education. There is enormous pent-up energy at U-Va., he said, and the faculty are anxious and eager for direction.

“Many fear that U-Va. is allowing to slip away the opportunity created by last summer’s leadership crisis, to assert in a very public way what it stands for and where it’s headed,” Edwards said. “Observers see U-Va.’s problems as both unique and representative of the problems faced by many universities. . . . Many are anxious to see how U-Va. responds.”