I learned today that in Georgia, an additional 2% is being cut from the University of Georgia budget on top of the current 6% budget reduction. And from Utah comes this report about similar reductions, with the same size of reductions being possible again next year (yes, a total of 15% eliminated from where the budgets were six months ago).
How can higher education possibly sustain this loss in financial support? It’s obvious that, like commercial entities, higher education will need to do some massive restructuring (can we lobby Capitol Hill for a bailout too?). What I’m wondering is whether higher education will ever be exactly the same? After such restructuring, will it return to like it was? Or will we enter a new age of higher education? Will the split between research faculty and teaching/adjunct faculty grow larger, killing off forever the classic professor who fulfills both roles? Will this be the disruption that tips the scales in favor of distance education? Will public universities severe their ties with the states, reject public funding, and become commercial enterprises?
I don’t know if things will change this drastically. Yet. But could the economic collapse represent the beginning of the end?
… or the end of the beginning?
There are some serious flaws in the current system.
– PhDs in many fields exist only to train new PhDs.
– Distance education programs, which are available to people who live anywhere in the world, charge students out of state rates if they actually take advantage of the online program but live in another state. More, they require the full-time faculty to be on campus even a the students (and adjuncts) are not.
– The cost of the infrastructure in brick and mortar schools can is rising faster than the school’s ability to increase tuition, forcing those institution who lack significant endowment to make cuts into service areas by axing programs that don’t meet certain financial goals.
– Economic forces are changing the business landscape faster than universities can change curricula. As a result, jobs exist for which no credential is required (or even available). As the credentialing function of higher education erodes, the whole concept of college as we know it will have less and less relevance.
But the interesting question is, “What will take its place?”
Right, that is the question. I think this may indicate higher ed will change … but into what? If there’s a silver lining to these economic troubles it might be that it could be the disruption opening to door for positive reform. IF there are educational leaders with a good vision to take advantage of it. The adapted higher ed model that replaces our current models might be better aligned with the needs of the 21st century economy, but I don’t know if professors will like the change!