Three movements that have affected the structure of American postsecondary education are the development of governance by lay boards of control, the growth in power of state coordinating bodies, and the emergence of federal regulatory agency authority over postsecondary education. American postsecondary education has been characterized as "unplanned" and as a "nonsystem," because no agency of the national government has effectively determined the kind, number, or roles of postsecondary institutions. The roles of lay boards, the states, and the federal government are traced historically to the present. The following trends are projected: there will be a more coordinated structure in which the 50 states will develop their own more or less unified systems of postsecondary education; certain regional groupings will assume more significance, and private higher education, while retaining its independence, will in more ways be related to the evolving state systems; and in the latter quarter of the twentieth century, there will be significant change in the structure of postsecondary education. (SW)