ROPS 2011

ROPS 2011

Globalization and Dual Modes of Higher Education Policymaking in France: Je t’aime moi non plus, by Cécile Hoareau

Cécile Hoareau
2011

The French Government has had a paradoxical relationship with globalization. Globalization is perceived as both a threat to react against and a cradle for new policy ideas. French policymakers have a love-hate relationship with the European higher education reforms that started in the 1990s, a mixed sentiment that French singer Serge Gainsbourg spoke of in his popular song, ‘Je t’aime moi non plus’. At the outset, most of higher education reforms, such as the Bologna declaration, were framed as a way to build Europe and fight against international competition. Yet, the mode of governance...

WHAT MADE BERKELEY GREAT? The Sources of Berkeley's Sustained Academic Excellence

George W. Breslauer
2011

UC Berkeley’s chief academic officer explores the historical sources of Berkeley’s academic excellence. He identifies five key factors: (1) wealth from many sources; (2) supportive and skilled governors; (3) leadership from key UC presidents; (4) the pioneering ethos within the State of California; and (5) a process of continuous devolution of authority within the State and the University. He then addresses the extent to which these factors continue as causal drivers today. He concludes by identifying optimistic and pessimistic scenarios, based on contrasting assumptions about the...

One University: The Evolution of an Idea, by Patricia A. Pelfrey

Patricia A. Pelfrey
2011

The one-university idea—that the University of California is a single institution whose campuses are united in the pursuit of a common mission and common standards of quality—has been a guiding organizational principle since UC President Robert Gordon Sproul first articulated it in the 1930s. This paper examines the origins of the one-university idea in the Sproul era, the role it has played in UC’s institutional development through waves of decentralization and campus expansion, and whether it remains relevant today.

ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES AND THE UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE: Rethinking Bok’s “Underachieving Colleges” Thesis

Steven G. Brint
Allison M. Cantwell
2011

Using data from the 2008 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey, we show that study time and academic conscientiousness were lower among students in humanities and social science majors than among students in science and engineering majors. Analytical and critical thinking experiences were no more evident among humanities and social sciences majors than among science and engineering majors. All three academically beneficial experiences were, however, strongly related to participation in class and interaction with instructors, and participation was more common among...

Policy Options for University of California Budgeting, by Charles E. Young

Charles E. Young
2011

Within a quarter century after the end of World War II (1945-1970), largely because of the support and investment it received from the State, the University of California had changed from two modest-size general campuses (Berkeley and Los Angeles) and the medical campus in San Francisco (UCSF), to a system of eight general campuses. California was at the pinnacle of its success-its economy strong and growing. Since then, however, the fiscal and political problems facing California have led to a steady erosion in funding support for the University of California, and now are leading to...

Peer Review in Academic Promotion and Publishing: Its Meaning, Locus, and Future

Diane Harley
Sophia Krzys Acord
2011

Since 2005, and with generous support from the A.W. Mellon Foundation, The Future of Scholarly Communication Project at UC Berkeley's Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) has been exploring how academic values—including those related to peer review, publishing, sharing, and collaboration—influence scholarly communication practices and engagement with new technological affordances, open access publishing, and the public good. The current phase of the project focuses on peer review in the Academy; this deeper look at peer review is a natural extension of our findings in Assessing...

AFTER BROWNE: The New Competitive Regime for English Higher Education

Roger Brown
2011

From 2012 English universities and colleges will be operating in a more demanding market environment. There will be competition on tuition fees for undergraduate (Baccalaureate) programs for the first time. New private, including “for profit”, providers will be entering the market. There will be much more information about what institutions will be offering to existing and potential students. The Government believes that this will raise quality as well as providing a sustainable basis for the future. However there is little evidence to support these beliefs and considerable grounds for...

DIVERSITY MATTERS: New Directions for Institutional Research on Undergraduate Racial/Ethnic and Economic Diversity

Gregg Thomson
2011

This paper reviews the new directions in institutional research on undergraduate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity at the University of California, Berkeley. The use of SERU/UCUES and other web-based census surveys has made possible more detailed and extensive analysis of student diversity. Included is research on an expanded number of racial/ethnic groups and on multiracial students, the significance of the African American experience, implications of the new IPEDS racial/ethnic reporting requirements, and a closer examination of Pell Grant and first-generation college...

Internationalizing Brazil's Universities: Creating Coherent National Policies Must Be a Priority, by Marcelo Knobel

Marcelo Knobel
2011

It is estimated that approximately 3 million students are enrolled as international students, and it is possible to project that this number may reach more than 7 million by 2025. As global demand exceeds the supply, competition is building for the best of these students. Some countries (or regions) clearly envisage the opportunity this represents and have been strongly stimulating student mobility. There is a race for “brains”, be it for professors at the end of their careers looking for new professional opportunities and/or the opportunity to return to their native countries, or for...

SEEKING SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES: The Legacy of the Great Recession

Katharine Lyall
2011

The business models under which most public universities in the U.S. operate have become unsustainable. They were put in place when state economies were stronger and there were fewer programs making competing claims on state funds. The current Great Recession has made things worse, but the unsustainability of current business models derives from longer-term trends that will prevent state investment in higher education from rebounding to prior levels. States and universities are making both incremental and structural changes in response. Incremental changes work within existing...

Former University of California Chancellors Urge New Funding Models for UC

Fiat Lux
2011

In this era of massive budget cuts, the survival of the University of California as a greatinstitution of learninghas become the subject of increasingly urgent debate. Twenty-two of the twenty-nine living former UC chancellors met in San Francisco on June 26-28, 2011 to discuss the current threats facing the University and all of California public higher education. Although the chancellors were not unanimously agreed on every point, there was general consensus regarding the principal recommendations onfunding the University and protecting its quality.On August 4, 2011 they sent UC...

Wealth, Cost, and the Undergraduate Student Experience at Large Public Research Universities

Steve Chatman
2011

Relying primarily on the responses of a proportionally weighted sample of undergraduate students attending eighteen majorpublic research universities (N > 300K, responses from > 130K, n > 40K)that are part of the Student Experience in the Research University Consortium, this paper concludes that students from households at all income levels have been impacted by the increasing expense of higher education. The large majority of students from households at all income levels have changed behaviors to make college more affordable. However, the most remarkable result was that dependent...

Restructuring Engineering Education: Why, How and When? By C. Judson King

C. Judson King
2011

There is strong interest in broadening engineering education, bringing in more liberal arts content as well as additional subjects such as economics, business and law, with which engineers now haveto be familiar. There are also cogent arguments for balancing against what is now the almost exclusively quantitative nature of the curriculum, adding more elements that relate to the actual practice of engineering, and structuring engineering education so as to provide multiple and later entry points, which should enable more informed career choices and make engineering attractive to a more...

The Birth of a Research University: UC Merced, No Small Miracle

Lindsay Ann Desrochers
2011

In 1960, the State of California adopted a Master Plan for Higher Education which was a three tiered plan intended to channel students according to their ability to either the University of California, the California State University or the California community colleges and a plan which limited the doctoral and research missions to the University of California The Master Plan was adopted during the great post World War II growth period in California attendant to an overall optimistic future for the Golden State. In the immediate years following the adoption of the Plan, the University of...

Creating Choice in California Higher Education: A Proposed Voucher Program

Patrick Murphy
2011

The state of California currently has a monopoly on the provision of higher education that is directly subsidized by state taxpayers. This proposal suggests that California abandon the single provider approach and offers a choice or voucher program as a substitute. The purpose of proposing such a dramatic change is not necessarily intended to bring about a shift in policy.The paper, instead, uses the voucher proposal as a vehicle to ask: what is the state’s interest in supporting higher education with taxpayer dollars and how can it most efficiently pursue that interest?

A European Perspective on New Modes of University Governance and Actorhood, by Georg Krücken

Georg Krücken
2011

Higher education systems in Europe are currently undergoing profound transformations. At the macro-level,there is an increasein the number of students enrolled, subjects of study offered, and university missions that have gained legitimacy over time. At the second levelchanges are evident at the level of university governance. New Public Management reforms have put into question the traditional mode of governance that was based on the interplay of strong state regulation and academic self-governance. Under the current regime, new actors like accreditation and evaluation bodies or boards of...

A GLOBAL TALENT MAGNET: How a San Francisco/Bay Area Higher Education Hub Could Advance California's Comparative Advantage In Attracting International Talent and Further Build US Economic Competitiveness

John Aubrey Douglass
Richard Edelstein
Cécile Hoareau
2011

During the 2009-10 academic year international students generated more than $18.8 billion in net income into the US economy. California alone had nearly 100,000 international students with an economic impact of nearly $3.0 billion. In this paper, we outline a strategy for the San Francisco/Bay Area to double the number of international students enrolled in local colleges and universities in ten years or less, generating a total direct economic impact of an additional $1 billion a year into the regional economy. The US retains a huge market advantage for attracting foreign students....

RE-IMAGINING CALIFORNIA HIGHER EDUCATION

John Aubrey Douglass
2010

2010 marks the 50th anniversary of California’s famed Master Plan for Higher Education, arguably the single most influential effort to plan the future of a system of higher education in the annals of American higher education. This essay builds on the analysis offered in a previous CSHE research paper (“From Chaos to Order and Back”) by discussing the major challenges facing California’s higher education system, and offering a possibly pathway to reforms and institution-building essential for bolstering socioeconomic mobility and greater economic competitiveness. Most critics and...