Higher Education Finance

FROM THE GOLDEN AGE TO THE AGE OF AUSTERITY: Planning at the University of California, 1968-1983 by Patricia A. Pelfrey, UC Berkeley, CSHE 8.17 (July 2017)

Patricia A. Pelfrey
2017

A 1966 University of California academic plan estimated that future enrollments would soar to well over 200,000 before leveling off, and that by 1975 student demand would require two more UC campuses in addition to the ones opened a few years earlier at Santa Cruz, Irvine, and San Diego. The 1970 US census brought these stratospheric assumptions down to earth. Its projections of declining numbers of college-age students into the next decade and beyond, combined with the shock of unfavorable academic market and budgetary trends, became the starting point for an ambitious new UC planning...

CHANGING MISSIONS AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK: Application of a Concentration Equality Index by Satoshi P. Watanabe & Yasumi Abe, Hiroshima University CSHE 14.17 (November 2017)

Satoshi P. Watanabe
Yasumi Abe
2017

Capitalizing on the findings in our preceding study of a purely theoretical model, this paper aims to empirically examine whether and to what extent public universities’ institutional missions have transformed in recent years in the States of California and New York by quantifying a degree of functional diversification of universities. We focus on research funding and productivity, and public service activities, and have developed a Concentration Equality Index (CEI) to help in this analysis. We then apply the CEI over time to a selected group of public university-system campuses within...

TO GROW OR NOT TO GROW? A Post-Great Recession Synopsis of the Political, Financial, and Social Contract Challenges Facing the University of California

John Aubrey Douglass
2013

After more than two decades of state disinvestment, the University of California faces significant challenges and misunderstandings regarding its operating costs, its wide array of activities, and its mission. Reduced funding from the state for public higher education, including UC, has essentially severed the historic link between state allocations and enrollment, altering the incentive and ability for UC to expand academic programs and enrollment in pace with California’s growing population. “To grow or not to grow?,” that is the question. This macro management and major...

Entrepreneurial President: Richard Atkinson and the University of California, 1995-2003 by Patricia A. Pelfrey (2012)

Patricia A. Pelfrey
2012

Richard C. Atkinson was named president of the University of California in August 1995, barely four weeks after the UC Regents voted to end affirmative action. How he dealt with the admissions wars—the political, legal, and academic consequences of that historic and controversial decision, as well as the issue of governance—is discussed in this book. Another focus is the entrepreneurial university—the expansion of the University’s research enterprise into new forms of scientific research with industry during Atkinson’s presidency. The final crisis of his administration was the...

Tuition as a Path for Affordability? The Pursuit of a Progressive Tuition Model at the University of California

John Aubrey Douglass
Patrick A. Lapid
2018

In an environment of declining public funding and rising tuition rates, many public universities in the US 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 rising tuition and keep college affordable. But is this model as currently formulated working? Utilizing data from the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Survey of undergraduates and other data sources, this study explores these issues by...

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...

AFTER BROWNE: The New Competitive Regime for English Higher Education

Roger Brown
2011

rom 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...

HIGHER EDUCATION’S NEW GLOBAL ORDER: How and Why Governments are Creating Structured Opportunity Markets

John Aubrey Douglass
2009

In the United States, developing human capital for both economic and social benefit is an idea as old as the nation itself and led to the emergence of world’s first mass higher education system. Now most other nations are racing to expand access to universities and colleges and to expand their role in society. Higher education is growing markedly in its importance for building a culture of aspiration and, in turn, the formation of human capital, the promotion of socioeconomic mobility, and the determination of national economic competitiveness. This paper outlines a convergence of...

College vs. Unemployment: Expanding Access to Higher Education Is the Smart Investment During Economic Downturns

John Aubrey Douglass
2008

In forming a strategy to deal with the severe economic downturn, President-elect Obama and his evolving brain trust of economic advisers should recall the largely successful and innovative efforts by the federal and state governments to avoid a projected steep post–World War II recession – in particular, the key role of higher education. Demand for higher education generally goes up during economic downturns. Expanding higher education funding and enrollment capacity may be as important as any other policy lever to cope with an economic downturn, including funding for infrastructure...