Higher Education Finance

Can Public Research Universities Compete?

Steven G. Brint
2006

Many leaders of public research universities worry about falling behind private research universities at a time when private university finances have improved dramatically and state support for higher education has declined. In this paper, I provide grounds for a more optimistic view of the competitive position of public research universities. I develop two "business models" for higher education: the public research university model is based on high volume of enrollments and low cost per student, while the private university model is based on low volume and high cost. I show that the...

Industry, Philanthropy, and Universities:The Roles and Influences of the Private Sectorin Higher Education

Charles M. Vest
2006

Charles Vest gave the third of three Clark Kerr Lectures on the Role of Higher Education in Society on September 13, 2005 on the Berkeley campus. In public as well as private universities, resources provided by philanthropic individuals and foundations and by corporate research sponsors increasingly support the margin of university excellence, and increase the access of students to that excellence. The congruence of interests, goals, and expectations of philanthropists and corporate sponsors with those of universities must be carefully considered. The values of excellence and access...

A New System of Top-Up Fees: A Brief on the Market Response of English Universities and Colleges

John Aubrey Douglass
2005

Fees will become an increasingly important funding source for public universities in the UK and throughout the OECD, caused in part by declining government subsidization and rising costs, as well as by an increasingly entrepreneurial drive by institutions themselves to increase revenues. Beginning in September 2006, universities and Further Education colleges in England and Wales will charge variable fees within limits set by a defined cap and by ministry demands for increases in institutional aid for lower income students. This essay chronicles the response of England’s universities...

A New Cycle of UK Higher Education Reforms: New Labour and New Fees May Foster Mission Differentiation

John Aubrey Douglass
2004

A White Paper issued by the Labour government--under Prime Minister Tony Blair--in January 2003 outlines potentially sweeping changes in how British universities might be funded and regulated. These changes would build on three major paradigm shifts and experiments in system building in higher education in the United Kingdom since World War II: the creation and subsequent collapse of a binary system of higher education that included both universities and polytechnics; a decrease in governmental funding and an increase in regulations; and the introduction of student fees into the...

The Roles And Experience Of Inventors And Start-Ups In Commercializing University Research: Case Studies At The University Of California

Robert A. Lowe
2002

This chapter from the author's dissertation summarizes findings from case studies of university-based start-up firms. The case studies contribute descriptive accounts to support and illuminate emerging empirical research on this specialized set of start-ups. The case studies highlight several interesting findings related to the special role of inventors and the university in developing the technology as well as how the operating experience of these firms compares and contrasts with standard beliefs about start-ups. For example, the case studies document the stark contrasts among...

Approaching a Tipping Point? A History and Prospectus of Funding for the University of California by John Aubrey Douglass and Zachary Bleemer

John Aubrey Douglass
Zachary Bleemer
2018
This year marks the University of California’s (UC) 150th anniversary. In part to reflect on that history, and to provide a basis to peer into the future, the following report provides a history of the University of California’s revenue sources and expenditures. The purpose is to provide the University’s academic community, state policymakers, and Californians with a greater understanding of the University’s financial history, focusing in particular on the essential role of public funding.

Higher Education In The Digital Age: A U.S. Perspective On Why Accurate Predictions May Be Difficult

Diane Harley
2001

This paper analyzes some of the ways in which Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are being employed as possible solutions to the triad of pressures facing US research universities: (a) holding down costs, (b) providing access to an increasingly diverse demographic, and (c) maintaining quality. It presents the preliminary results of a large research project investigating the economic and pedagogical impacts of technology enhancements in a large lecture course at the University of California, Berkeley. Findings from this study, as well as a review of activities taking...

Straight Talk on Student Loans, by Robert Shireman

Robert Shireman
2004

The federal government provides student loans for college and graduate school in two ways: by guaranteeing bank loans, and by lending directly to students. In the guaranteed loan program, banks lend students money and profit from the interest payments while the government guarantees the loans against default and makes subsidy payments to the banks. In the direct loan system, the government provides low-interest loans directly to students, using borrower interest payments to help cover the costs of the program. There have been numerous audits and investigations of both the direct and...

UC Berkeley's Adaptations to the Crisis of Public Higher Education in the US: Privatization? Commercialization? Or Hybridization? by George W. Breslauer

George W. Breslauer
2013

The University of California at Berkeley now delivers more to the public of California than it ever has, and it does this on the basis of proportionally less funding by the State government than it has ever received. This claim may come as a surprise, since it is often said that Berkeley is in the process of privatizing, becoming less of a public university and more in the service of private interests. To the contrary, as the State’s commitment to higher education and social-welfare programs has declined, UC Berkeley has struggled to preserve and even expand its public role, while...

John Aubrey Douglass

Senior Research Fellow

John Aubrey Douglass is Senior Research Fellow -- Public Policy and Higher Education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of California - Berkeley. He is the author of Neo-Nationalism and Universities (Johns Hopkins Univeristy Press 2021), Envisioning the Asian...