Universities are under constant pressure to grow – more students, more revenue, more research, more partnerships. But growth and sustainability are not the same thing. What if the more important strategic question is not how a university can become larger, but how it can become stronger?

Universities don't lack ideas about the future. They often lack the capacity to implement them. Drawing on conversations with higher education leaders in Canada and Australia, this article explores the growing "adaptability gap" — the space between strategic ambition and an institution's ability to turn change into sustained action.