ROPS 2016

ROPS 2016

THE EVOLUTION OF FLAGSHIP UNIVERSITIES: From the Traditional to the New by John Aubrey Douglass, UC Berkeley CSHE 11.16 (December 2016)

John Aubrey Douglass
2016

In the face of the dominant World Class University rhetoric and ranking paradigm, most academic leaders and their academic communities have had difficulty conceptualizing and articulating their grander purpose and multiple engagements with society. Some seem to wait for the next ministerial edict to help or push them toward greater societal relevancy – often limited to improved global rankings. This essay discusses the evolving idea of the Flagship University, its past and future, and the need to develop and articulate a more holistic and modern narrative regarding the role of these...

ROLE MODEL EFFECTS OF FEMALE STEM TEACHERS AND DOCTORS ON EARLY 20TH CENTURY UNIVERSITY ENROLLMENT IN CALIFORNIA by Zachary Bleemer CSHE 10.16 (December 2016)

Zachary Bleemer
2016

What was the role of imperfect local information in the growth, gender gap, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) major selection of early 20th century American universities? In order to examine pre-1950 American higher education, this study constructs four rich panel datasets covering most students, high school teachers, and doctors in the state of California between 1893 and 1946 using recently-digitized administrative and commercial directories. Students attending large California universities came from more than 600 California towns by 1910, with substantial...

Knowledge Based Economic Areas and Flagship Universities: A Look at the New Growth Ecosystems in the US and California by John Aubrey Douglass

John Aubrey Douglass
2016

The acceptance of new growth theory relates, in part, to a number of highly touted regional success stories – or what I term “Knowledge Based Economic Areas” (KBEAs) in this and past essays. The United States, and California in particular, is viewed as perhaps the most robust creators of KBEAs, providing an influential model that is visited and revisited by business and government leaders, and other Flagship (or leading national) universities, that wish to replicate their strengths within their own cultural and political terms. While California has a number of unique characteristics...

Quantifying Faculty Productivity in Japan: Development and Application of the Achievement-Motivated Key Performance Indicator by Misako Aida and Satoshi P. Watanabe

Misako Aida
Satoshi P. Watanabe
2016

Universities throughout the world are trending toward more performance based methods to capture their strengths, weaknesses and productivity. Hiroshima University has developed an integrated objective measure for quantifying multifaceted faculty activities, namely the “Achievement-Motivated Key Performance Indicator” (A-KPI), in order to visualize the strengths and weaknesses of the university, while balancing versatile faculty activities university-wide. We believe any reform efforts should be based on accurate understanding of the status quo through rigorous self-assessment. This...

College Affordability and the Emergence of Progressive Tuition Models: Are New Financial Aid Policies at Major Public Universities Working? by Patrick A. Lapid and John Aubrey Douglass

Patrick A. Lapid
John Aubrey Douglass
2016

In an era of significant disinvestment in public higher education by state governments, many public universities are moving toward a “progressive tuition model” that attempts to invest approximately one-third of tuition income into institutional financial aid for lower-income and middle-class students. The objective is to mitigate the cost of tuition and keep college affordable. But is this model as currently formulated working? What levels of financial stress are students of all income groups experiencing? And are they changing their behaviors? Utilizing data...

The One University Idea and its Futures by Patricia A. Pelfrey

Patricia A. Pelfrey
2016

The University of California, the nation’s first multicampus system, is unique in its central organizing principle, known as the one-university idea. Its premise is simple: that a large and decentralized system of campuses, which share the same mission but differ in size, interests, aspirations, and stage of development, can nevertheless be governed as a single university. Long regarded as a major structural reason for the UC system’s rise to pre-eminence among public research universities, the one-university model has been a unifying administrative and cultural ethos within UC for...

How Global Competition is Changing Universities: Three Theoretical Perspectives by Igor Chirikov

Igor Chirikov
2016

This essay provides an outline of three theoretical perspectives to study the impact of global competition on organizational change at universities. The perspective of neoliberal economics portrays global competition as competition of universities in the global higher education market. Universities transform towards greater efficiency with the goal of having a larger market share. The political economy perspective suggests that global competition in higher education is an emergent property of competitive relations among nation states. Universities change in the direction of increased...

A Proposal to Eliminate the SAT in Berkeley Admissions, by Saul Geiser

Saul Geiser
2016

The SAT is used for two purposes at the University of California. First is eligibility: Determining whether applicants meet the minimum requirements for admission to the UC system. Second is admissions selection: At high-demand campuses such as Berkeley, with many more eligible applicants than places available, test scores are used to select from among them. UC policy delegates authority to the faculty at each campus to establish local admissions procedures that reflect “campus values and academic priorities.” Under the proposal outlined...

DEMOCRATIZATION AND MASSIFICATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN TURKEY AND CHALLENGES AHEAD

Bekir S. Gur
2016

The imbalance between supply and demand of higher education has always been the greatest challenge for Turkey. To overcome this challenge, Turkey beginning in 2006 established new public universities, mostly in less developed provinces. Now one in two fresh high school graduates is being admitted to a higher education program. Yet, the rapid growth of higher education triggered debates about the quality of education. Based on an analysis of available statistics and reports, this essay analyzes this process of massification in Turkey, including a brief synopsis of its higher education...

Small Liberal Arts Colleges and Enrollment Capacity at Public Universities: Imagining a Consortium Approach by Carol T. Christ

Carol Christ
2016

Many small private liberal arts colleges struggle to make their enrollment targets, while many public universities cannot meet enrollment demand. Thinking creatively about collaboration between these kinds of institutions might increase the capacity of our higher education system. This essay explores models by which we might do so.

China: A Follower or Leader in Global Higher Education? By Marijk van der Wende and Jiabin Zhu

Marijk van der Wende
Jiabin Zhu
2016

This paper focuses on China both as an object and a subject in the globalization of higher education and the sometimes paradoxical nature of the country’s policies in this respect. How is the Chinese perspective on globalization shaping its agenda for higher education, the development of world-class universities, and cooperation with Europe and the West? What is China’s role in the globalization of higher education, its global agency in higher education, and the impact of its diaspora, soft power, and its new Silk Routes policies? What is its capacity to become a global leader in...