With Money Tight, Report Says States and Colleges Should Focus on Productivity

May 24, 2011, 12:50 pm

The University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs convened a panel of elected officials, higher-education leaders, and policy experts in December to discuss how colleges can better contribute to economic growth. The bottom line, concludes a report on final recommendations from the conference, is that at a time of budgetary stresses, colleges must be rewarded by both state and federal governments for producing more graduates. The report, released on Monday, also calls for reconsidering the federal role in higher education.

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dale1

State governments and their higher education organizations (commissions, boards of regents, etc.) are already focusing on productivity. There are several states with performance or incentive based budgeting models in place, that reward the production of undergraduate and graduate degrees. What will this do? Well, I believe it will cause the inexorable march to lower standards and lower quality, lower credentials and qualifications for faculty, and an overall impoverishment of true educational outcomes.

The government wants more sausages, but they tend not to care so much about the quality of the ingredients. At least, until the sausages are consumed and the quality is poor. Then what happens? State governments go back to the cutting board, trying to get rid of more “fat” in the system. This results in further declines.

You cannot cut your way to prosperity in higher education. Faculty and staff need the time and space to do quality work. Without that, you’re just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
badger74

Given the highly questionable value of and need for even the current numbers of college grads except in a few very select areas why on earth is it assumed that we need even MORE of them?? Instead of “increasing productivity” (AKA lowering quality) maybe the correct response is fewer and better educated graduates. Instead of taking in 5000 students per year the public colleges could take in the best 4000 and thereby both improve the graduation rate and graduate quality as well as better fit the number of grads to the level of market demand. You could have smaller classes and less stressed professors who could spend a bit more time with their students. There would be less pressure on classroom spaces and all other services within the university.
Growth for growth’s sake has been a mistake and we have reached the point of rapidly diminishing returns on higher education. Especially for the marginal students at marginal schools where the degrees today are virtually economically worthless.
pjkobulnicky

I hate to pile on with the other comments but isn’t this why the for profits are being investigated … graduates with no marketable skills and big debts?
jffoster

Indeed. This is a recipe for getting the worst of the Wurst.
davi2665

You are right on target with the idea of reducing the number of students, increasing the quality of both the incoming students and faculty, and focusing on strategic components of the university’s mission. Unfortunately, this is almost the opposite of the usual thinking of many presidents and boards, who want to impress the “community” with the totaly number of students they are cranking out, and then will use these figures to beg for more money. Unfortunately, by lowering the quality of incoming students, the university increases its costs of tutoring, retention, classroom instruction, infrastructure costs, and other components that will result in even worse financial problems. It is time for the knee jerk response of “more” to be replaced with “higher quality.”
iduhpres

The reality is that it is not the role of colleges and universities to recruit the best students. It is to make the students the colleges and universities have recruited their best. We have an elitist attitude about students and who should go to college and it is time to get over it and realize that education is the key to e better life so who are we to withhold the key that could unlock the doors for the society? Yes some students should not go to all schools and there is nobility in the community college mission but everyone should be able to go to college. No one is asking that schools admit more students just graduate more of the ones we have admitted.And we do have an ethical obligation to graduate more of the students we choose to take in. When a school admits a student it is saying it believes the student should be able to succeed so we have an obligation to do ALL we can to help the students do just that – succeed and graduate.
mam5mc

So I assume that all those who argue for quality over quantity take the assessment of student learning seriously; are more demanding of themselves and students than seems to be the case on average (see Academically Adrift and the results for college graduates on the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy); and demonstrably produce graduates who can write, think, and solve problems–right?
michener1

Whether or not a student graduates is ENTIRELY up to them. Not the school, their professors, parental pressure et al. I used to believe that anyone should be able to go that wants to. Then at middle-age and after completing a career in the military, I went to college myself (starting out as a first time freshman) to see what all the hub-bub was about. My opinion after nearly 10 years in school (and soon to be 4 degrees) is that we do in fact have too many people going to college. Statistically, only 42% of those that started with me in four-year colleges around the country were with those of us that graduated four years later (or less in some cases). Many didn’t graduate because of financial issues. Admittedly I had help from the pre-911 version of the G.I. Bill, and I had a modest but sure pension. I also had a family to support so loans were still needed to fill in the financial gaps in the undergrad costs. More so than money issues, many left because the realized the simply didn’t have the intellectual acumen, desire or the drive to finish at a particular school; none of which should be considered failures in my opinion. Rather they were good decisions made by the former students and should be applauded. The real villains in the Collegiate Industrial Complex are American business that lazily use colleges as their HR departs and politicians (are current president included) that keep pushing the idea that everyone should go to college.
mrmars

There is a difference between recruiting the best students, which might be considered elitist in some circumstances, and recruiting good students which, I would define as those who are motivated to learn and willing to put in the required effort. The main reason graduation percentages are so low is that larger numbers of otherwise bright kids are coming to college with the attitude that they can be educated passively – that their level of accomplishment is solely the result of what is done to to them by the professor rather than what they are willing to do for themselves. The system allows for those with a broad spectrum of abilities to succeed, but those who are a bit slower on the pick-up (for lack of a gentler term) simply have to compensate by working harder. Some figure this out, adjust their efforts accordingly, and go on to graduate, even with distinction. Far too many get discouraged, are unwilling to put in more effort, and drop out. Many in this latter category, I suspect, could have succeeded as well if their attitude would have allowed.