The Crisis of the Publics: An International Comparative Discussion on Higher Education Reforms and Possible Implications for US Public Universities (symposium: March 26-27, 2007)

Research Focus

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National systems of public higher education are in a state of flux. Throughout the world, a shift is occurring in the support and perception of the purpose of public research universities. Many national governments are attempting to bend their higher education systems to meet their perceived long-term socio-economic needs. At the same time, there are relatively new supranational influences on higher education markets and practices that will grow in influence over time, including the Bologna Agreement, the European Commission, and the pending General Agreement on Trade and Services.

England has embarked on a large range of higher education reforms intended to expand access, bolster accountability measures, and revise funding including the inclusion of post-graduate fees and new infusion of monies from the national government. Australia has experimented also with post-graduate fees and has adjusted to lower levels of government funding by embarking upon a major mission of expanding revenue through accommodation of students from other Asian countries. The Bologna Agreement has led to structural reforms in Europe, particularly in Germany and Italy, and the development of matriculation agreements and a rising transnational flow of students. The European Commission has launched a potentially significant effort to create a European research area with ambitious goals for exceeding the U.S. in non-defense R&D.

Japan has accomplished major systematic change in the organization and funding of its public universities. China has announced an ambitious plan for the creation of twenty world-class research universities on a par with MIT. Singapore and Taiwan likewise have each undertaken a major upgrading of their premier universities.

In the United States, reforms are focused largely on ways to cope with declining rates of public investment in public higher education and rising fees and rising operating costs, while maintaining access. There is interest also in incorporating new accountability schemes.

Businesses are becoming more international in their activities and are thereby altering their traditional patterns of investing in research, including corporate funding of basic and applied university-based research. Many large high technology firms are shifting portions of their R&D investment to new research centers in China, India, and other countries--regions where research expertise and talent are being aggressively nurtured.

As visible as these changes are, little systematic analysis exists about how the sources of change and the reforms adopted or advanced in one country derive from or impact on other countries, let alone how they might inform U.S. higher education. American higher education and American political culture have tended to be insular in their approaches to policy-making and ideas on reform. Changes in other countries have followed careful observation of what has made the U.S. successful, but the U.S. has not examined closely what has been done overseas in the context of the situations of individual countries.

While recognizing that there are many reform efforts that relate to the peculiar political cultures and needs of individual nations, it is our assertion that there is significant commonality in the challenges facing public universities internationally, including:

• The need to expand or maintain access and improve graduation rates
• Increasing expectations by governments and the public to serve the broad social needs of society
• Disinvestment by state governments and the need for new financial models
• Avenues for increasing efficiencies in teaching and university management
• Increased reliance on research universities as drivers of economic development
• Growing emphasis on professionalism and scientific and technological prowess
• Relatively new global markets for academics and research excellence
• The rise of relatively new and for-profit competitors in much of the world
• Increased global collaborations with other universities and businesses in research and teaching programs

The U.S. led the world in the development of a cadre of highly productive public research universities and state systems of higher education. Public universities remain a large social and economic force in the nation, but there are many signs that the international leadership of the U.S. in higher education is eroding.

Many nations have sought to adopt elements of the U.S. model on their own political and social terms. Their systems are maturing and they are making great progress (although still too slowly for many critics). New and productive centers of research are emerging in both developed and developing economies; international collaborations among universities are growing; and many OECD countries now exceed the U.S. in higher education participation and degree attainment rates for young adults.

There is much that can be learned from a systematic and comparative analysis of how nations/states and research universities are approaching this new policy environment. Indeed, for the benefit of the U.S., there may be some common or transferable approaches to issues such as mission, funding, and access; there are also national or regional political, cultural, and economic specific examples that must be considered for public universities to adapt and change successfully. Defining commonalities and differences is vital for investigating a broad range of policy options and their viabilities.

Among the major policy issues which can be informed by comparative analysis include: (research areas that are not mutually exclusive):

• Financing Public Higher Education, with a focus on emerging policies regarding fees and financial aid
• Science and Technology, with a focus on the development and retention of scientists and engineers, emerging funding mechanisms for R&D, and institutional, regional, national, and supranational efforts to bolster innovation
• Bachelors and Graduate Degree Production, with a focus on emerging national and institutional policies both to expand access and to surpass U.S. completion rates
• Workforce and cultural education suitable for the postmodern and globalizing economy
• Policies on concentrating or distributing research and PhD programs, by institutions and geopolitical regions
• Governance, with a focus on the distribution of authority among national and regional governments, faculty, and other affected parties
• Economic Development, with a focus on new patterns of university-business collaborations
• Quality of Undergraduate Education, focused on efforts to improve the educational experience and employability of graduates
• Adapting to Market Changes, with a focus on how public universities are being affected by the rise of private and for-profit tertiary education including efforts to draw students from other countries.
• Politics of Higher Education, with a focus on how universities are responding successfully to government initiatives, or reshaping policies and creating support for public higher education

Methodology – The Symposium as a First Step:

To frame the larger research agenda requires an intimate blending of knowledge of the situations of foreign research universities and those of public research universities in the United States. Several means will be used to accomplish that.

A first step in the project will be to bring together for a two-day symposium a group of approximately 28 scholars and practitioners, some with deep and varied knowledge of United States public research universities and others with specific knowledge of the university systems and recent changes in pertinent foreign countries. The purpose of this symposium will be to identify the most promising avenues of investigation. A select subgroup will be asked to provide formal presentations.

The goals of the symposium are three-fold:

a) To initiate a discussion and preliminary analysis of higher education reforms and innovations within select OECD countries and possibly some other nations in key policy areas.

b) To discuss possible new international collaboration between U.S. and international systems and institutions of higher education.

c) To help frame a future international comparative research project that will assess these reforms and innovations for possible implications for public universities in the United States, and assess potential international collaborations.

The meeting will result in a published report on higher education reform trends, and how they might inform U.S. higher education.

While the purpose of the March 26-27 Crisis of the Publics symposium is to encourage a wide-ranging discussion of issues, we intend to have presentations structured around 4 major policy areas, and a group of economically developed countries/regions that are important exemplars or locales for consideration of reform or alternative systems from the U.S.

The 4 Major Reform Policy Areas:

• Fees and Finance
• Access, Quality and Accountability
• Science and Technology
• Organization and Governance

Preliminary List of Countries/Regions:

• UK/England
• Germany
• France
• Scandinavia
• Netherlands
• Japan
• Singapore/Hong Kong
• Australia

Our plan is to have one or two participants provide brief background papers and short presentations on each of these countries or regions, and focused on one or more of the major policy areas.