ROPS 2003

ROPS 2003

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Call for ROPS papers: Opportunities and Challenges for California Higher Education

The Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) seeks submissions for a Special Issue on Opportunities and Challenges for California Higher Education to be published in the Center’s Research and Occasional Papers Series (ROPS).

Across the nation, public higher education faces new challenges, with the increasing politicization of governing boards (Rall et al., 2022; Taylor et al., 2020), declining domestic and international enrollments (National Student Clearinghouse, 2022; Song & Li, 2022), continued erosion of tenure and academic freedom (Brint, 2021; Christopher et al.,...

Inequality, Student Achievement, and College Admissions: A Remedy for Underrepresentation, by Roger E. Studley

Roger E. Studley
2003

Large socioeconomic and ethnic disparities exist in college admissions. This paper demonstrates that by systematically accounting for the effect of socioeconomic circumstance on pre-college achievement, colleges can substantially reduce these disparities. A conceptual model distinguishes students' realized achievement from their underlying ability (inclusive of effort and motivation) and relates achievement differences to both ability and socioeconomic circumstance. The model shows that an admissions policy that systematically accounts for the relationship between circumstance and...

In Praise of Weakness: Chartering, the University of the United States, and Dartmouth College, by Martin Trow

Martin Trow
2003

This paper explores the proposition that if American higher education has been broadly successful in serving its society, it is in large part because American colleges and universities, and the system of which they are part, were created under conditions of weakness, both academic and financial.

Costs, Culture, and Complexity: An Analysis of Technology Enhancements in a Large Lecture Course at UC Berkeley

Diane Harley
Jonathan Henke
Shannon Lawrence
Flora McMartin
Michael Maher
Marytza Gawlik
Parisa Muller
2003

As colleges and universities nationwide anticipate enrolling more than two million new students over the next decade, UC Berkeley is exploring options for serving more students, more cost effectively, in large lecture courses. This research project analyzes economic and pedagogical questions related to the use of on-line lecture and laboratory material in a large introductory chemistry course at UC Berkeley. We undertook a quasi-experimental two-year study to determine if the utilization of on-line teaching materials results in significant restructuring of staff time in laboratories...

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Evolution of the UC Conflict of Commitment Policy

William J. Drummond
2003

On July 1, 2001, the University of California Office of the President instituted a new set of rules designed to curb excessive moonlighting, or in academic parlance, "conflict of commitment" in terms of the time and effort professors devoted to their jobs. This paper examines the background and development of this policy.

The Community Colleges and the Path to the Baccalaureate, by Arthur M. Cohen

Arthur M. Cohen
2003

This paper discusses several aspects of the community college role in providing access to further studies: ways of calculating transfer rates and estimates of the number of students making the transition, incentives for and inhibitors to student transfer as reflected in state policy and institutional practice, and a look to the future of transfer. It emphasizes California, which boasts by far the greatest community college and public university enrollment figures.

The Corporation of Learning: Nonprofit Higher Education Takes Lessons from Business, by David L. Kirp

David L. Kirp
2019

This essay examines the ways in which nonprofit universities increasingly emulate businesses, focusing on two of the most direct forms of emulation: the creation of internal university markets at the University of Southern California through adoption of variants of resource center management (RCM) and the privatization of public higher education at the University of Virginia.

Virtualization of Research Universities: Raising the Right Questions to Address Key Functions of the Institution

Thomas Pfeffer
2003

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the variety of information and communication technology (ICT) applications at traditional universities and to integrate them into a holistic picture of the institution. Using the distinction of three key elements of scholarly activity (research, publication, education), it suggests a functional perspective of the organization as a way to raise questions for the assessment of ICT applications in universities. This may lead to a better understanding of the different rationales in research, publication, and education. Acknowledging these...

University-Industry Relations in the Market for Online Courses and Degrees

Steven Brint
Katrina Paxton-Jorgenson
Eric Vega
2003

The market for online courses and degrees has continued to grow in recent years in spite of an overall slowdown in the growth of Internet-related industries. Who will control the new market for online courses and degrees - universities or corporations, or will a division of labor emerge between the two? What are the advantages of universities and corporations in this new market, and what are their liabilities? Will widely-endorsed models of "blended" online learning, which require some face-to-face interaction, become the norm, or will most courses substitute chat rooms and bulletin boards...

Paradoxes and Dilemmas in Managing E-Learning in Higher Education

Sarah Guri-Rosenblit
2003

The new information and communication technologies (ICT) affect currently most spheres of life, including all educational levels. Their effects are most likely to grow in the future. However, many predictions in the last few years as to the sweeping impact of the ICT on restructuring the teaching/learning practices at universities and their high profit prospects have not been materialized; and several large ventures of e-learning undertaken by the corporate world, new for-profit organizations and some leading universities failed to yield the expected results. This paper examines eight...