Looking at College Funding Models in 50 Years? Time
Just as institutions have evolved in the past to suit the
market?s demands, colleges and universities will continue to adapt themselves
to meet societal needs. It will be critical for many institutions to change
their funding models to be able to continue offering required services.
The terms ?college,? ?university,? ?higher education? and
?tertiary education? are used almost synonymously these days. While what we
think of as ?postsecondary? education most likely had its start in Bologna,
Italy ? nearly 1,000 years ago ? its breadth, depth and architecture have
evolved in fits, starts and jumps over time. Major developments have taken
place in the past 250 years and, in just the past 125 years, we have witnessed
dramatic changes.
How Did We Get Here?
In the United States, the Oxbridge model of ?college?
intended for undergraduate teaching was in many cases coupled with the German
model of the research institute. Public policy used the capacities of higher
education to foster initiatives in population dispersal, scientific agriculture
and mechanic arts, veterans? readjustment from military service, and national
defense, each with multiple unanticipated but beneficial consequences.
During the 20th century, new forms of institutions were
created and the percentage of high school graduates continuing their formal
education increased from about four percent to nearly 70 percent. Formerly
religiously-affiliated colleges became secular and the percentages of students
in independently governed colleges and publicly-supported colleges switched
over the last 50-plus years: from 80-20 to 20-80.
Two-year colleges were started and three-year,
hospital-based nursing programs flourished and then declined in number.
In addition to private colleges of liberal arts and
sciences, some institutions added graduate and professional programs in
extension units separated from the central college of arts and sciences. Some
became major research institutions.
Early land-grant universities became large,
nationally-recognized public research entities with undergraduate colleges, and
former teacher education schools became colleges, and then developed into
regional universities.
The funding of institutions and the financing of student
enrollment changed over time, taking various forms: government grants and
loans, endowment income and tuition discounts, church and community
scholarships and more.
In recent years, for-profit ?colleges? have grown
dramatically, taking shape over time from privately-owned, skills-based trade
schools advertised on matchbook covers to regionally-accredited,
publicly-traded stock companies with more than 100,000 students.
The forces of change were the need for particular professions,
such as the clergy, medical doctors, lawyers and engineers; federal and state
needs for expertise and economic development; immigrant and religious groups?
desire for upward mobility; and entrepreneurs seeing an opportunity to fill a
niche. In other words, the forces of demographics, economics, technology and
politics all played a role in influencing the shape of higher education?s
development.
These same forces that influenced the creation of new
institutions, new types of institutions and online courses and programs, and
helped increase opportunities for a larger part of the population to
participate in higher learning beyond high school, are at work today and
continue to be major influences for change.
Looking to the Future
In the coming decades, expect increased political and
public demands for accountability, especially relating to student learning and
improved graduation rates, which are likely to affect the governance of
institutions and grant more authority to trustees who must understand the
delicate balance between governance and management.
In the public sector, this is likely to mean greater
centralization of authority and increased governing control of the numerous
regional two-year and four-year campuses, as exists in New York.
Such centralization is not likely to make the goal of
increased college participation and success any easier. Whereas early
20th-century institutional expansion and enrollment growth accompanied
increased immigration from Western European countries, which were host to the
university models adopted by the United States, some current immigration
patterns are different in terms of the laws governing immigration, cultural
priorities for education, the need for learning English as a Second Language
and the level of native language literacy.
A trend toward consolidation of institutions is likely to
be accompanied by a streamlining of the number of institutions with a mission
for research, and a concomitant focus on teaching and student attainment. The
nation needs a robust research agenda ? and big questions in science and
technology require institutions of sufficient size, not numerous,
inadequately-funded research departments.
The increasing use of technology for information
management in teaching, research and administration may lead to an increased
attention to efficiencies as well as effectiveness in campus and neighboring
libraries as well as increased access to instruction. Again, consolidation for
improved and more cost-effective services could result. Just think of the
numerous campus and community libraries in big cities which may have
inter-library loan programs but not much else to combat redundancies in
collections and services.
Every institution will have to develop an online
strategy, whether it is only to establish criteria for accepting credits earned
from online courses; or to provide courses in a ?blended? format; or to provide
online courses and programs of its own to alumni (who represent a natural
affinity group); or to be a partner with an organization or other university to
offer online programs beyond the usual reach of the sponsoring institution. In
any case, the online strategy will affect institutional policies and facilities
planning regarding the use of space.
These days, there is much talk about Massive Open Online
Courses (MOOCs) offered for free to tens of thousands of students by
prestigious institutions. The financial model will have to change, but even
when it does, this ?sage on the stage? approach will not totally replace the
?guide on the side? most students need.
To discuss the future of higher education is not to
ignore the shape and status of K-12 schooling. In fact, some of the forces for
change in post-secondary education will result from changes in the youth
population. One change, of course, is in terms of demographics and related
cultural values toward further education. Another is in terms of the wealth of
families. The long-term effects of the housing ?crisis? and the loss of equity
in homes ? a major source of wealth for many Americans ? as well as the results
of tax policies, will likely reduce disposable income and push the trend for
vocational and professional undergraduate degrees and certifications.
Another change is in the relationship of young people to
technology. Just as the changes in communications demonstrated by the evolution
of television from a source of information and entertainment offered by three
companies to the current situation, in which it is an interactive electronic tool
for content provided by hundreds of sources in addition to those downloaded
from the internet, so too has technology changed the role of student from being
primarily a consumer to being a content producer as well.
This change, as well as the imperative to adopt more
interdisciplinary approaches to courses and programs ? as we do in solving
problems ? has dramatic implications for high school and undergraduate
curricula and the preparation of teachers and professors. It also has great
implications for lifelong learning and the ongoing relationship of a student to
a source of authoritative information.
There are other changes to be considered. It is entirely
possible intercollegiate athletics will be separated from the campus, with some
teams joining with community leagues and others forming a partnership with
professional leagues. There are several reasons for these possible changes,
including distraction from the institution?s primary mission, both operating
and capital costs, and, for big-time college teams, a threat to tax status due
to big television contracts and the sale of sky-boxes on the one hand and the
theoretical conflict with the sale of tax-exempt bonds on the other.
The many forms of postsecondary education, whether
privately or publicly funded, will evolve in order to meet societal needs, as
well as individual student needs to be prepared for an evolving innovation
economy. An urgent concern for me is for high school and undergraduate
curricula to focus as much on character development and the responsibilities of
citizenship as on student preparation for careers and commerce. Our
civilization depends on it ? even 50 years out.
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