The literature on higher education includes a substantial genre devoted to the theme of crisis. While higher education is not alone in this, higher education researchers and writers all too often reach for the language of crisis to describe what they are experiencing or finding. Crises are identified at institutional, disciplinary, national and international levels, with radical and far‐reaching solutions to them sometimes set out. This article will explore and synthesize the crisis literature in higher education, attempt to explain its prevalence and speculate on how it might be resolved or taken forward.