Crisis of the Publics: Noted Scholars and Leaders Say the US has Much to Learn from Higher Education Reforms in Other Parts of the World

CSHE > News > Crisis of the Publics: Noted Scholars and Leaders Say the US has Much to Learn from Higher Education Reforms in Other Parts of the World

“The U.S.’s development of highly productive public research universities and state systems of higher education has made it a world leader in research and education,” notes a new report generated by a host of noted scholars and university leaders. “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,” they note.
“Many nations have sought to adopt elements of the U.S. model on their own political and social terms,” explains the report’s editors, C. Judson King, John Aubrey Douglass, and Irwin Feller. “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 United States in higher education participation and degree attainment rates for young adults. “
The report is the result of a symposium held on the Berkeley campus, and organized by the Center for Studies in Higher Education with funding support provided by the Spencer Foundation. For too long, international competitors have looked at the US and borrowed models and ideas, and translated them into policies and practices. But now the US, still mired in an overly confident sense of isolation, must at least take notice of the significant progress in higher education access and quality of other nations and regions, and seek ideas from abroad. The symposium and subsequent report were intended to turn the tables a bit and help enlighten US policymakers.
Participants included experts from Europe, Australia, Asia, and the US. They conclude that much 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 United States, there may be some common or transferable approaches to issues such as mission, funding, and access although 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 the viability of a broad range of policy options.
“The Crisis of the Publics” offers a view on the vital role of pubic higher education to developing and developed economies and suggests that the US should explore after-graduation fee systems such as in Australia and the UK, the benefits and costs of emerging accountability systems, the proper level of autonomy of universities, the possibly impact of supranational agreements, such as GATS, and other cutting edge issues.

C. Judson King is the CSHE Director and former Vice President and Provost at the University of California Office of the President; John Aubrey Douglass is Senior Research Fellow at CSHE; Irwin Feller is on the faculty at Penn State University and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.

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