The author cannot think of a time in his career when the leaders of higher education institutions have faced so many complex issues and hard decisions, with the possible exception of the student uprisings in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Unlike that earlier time, however, the issues facing higher education today go to the very heart of who people are and what they will become. The author argues that the future shape of higher education is more in question now than at any time in a writer's memory. What might that mean for education policy research? In this article, the author talks about education policy research in uncertain times. He raises this question based on his sense of how limited the value of several policy reports he has been affiliated with in the last year may be to those who must move the institutions forward. He suspects his concerns could be demonstrated by any other set of recent papers produced for policy purposes. (Contains 1 resource.)