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What do some recent articles in the news tell us about the state and fate of higher education?
Despite $100 million in start-up funding and $20 million in annual investment, the future of Calbright -- California’s online community college -- is dicey, and opposition remains fierce. Instead of competing with the community college campuses, why doesn’t Calbright become their partner, acting as an online program manager, rather than a provider of nondegree certificates? Calbright has the opportunity to create an online marketplace for credentials offered by California’s community colleges. Given its resources, it could invest in and market community college courses and programs in ways that those institutions could never afford on their own.
“Think universities are making lots of money from inventions? Think again.”
A Washington Post article reveals that U.S. colleges and universities are producing a surprisingly small proportion of the nation’s patents and start-ups and making so little money from licensing inventions that, at many schools, this doesn’t cover the cost of managing them. One professor quoted in the article likens the heightened stress on applied research to college football: there are few winners, but most institutions feel forced to play the technology transfer, start-up and spin-off game out of inflated dreams of licensing revenue. Higher ed has an ongoing responsibility to carry out basic research, but it shouldn’t delude itself or others that this will successfully solve its financial challenges.
“New evidence shows: it’s time to rethink legacy admissions at elite colleges”
A Washington Post editorial underlines the outcome of Johns Hopkins’s decision to phase out legacy preferences in admissions: a more diverse, higher-achieving student body, featuring more first-generation students, without an alumni outcry or a decline in alumni giving. What, then, explains the resistance at other elite institutions to adopting a policy whose time has certainly come?
“Textbooks are pricey. So students are getting creative.”
This Washington Post article’s subtext is that students, not faculty, are taking the lead in trimming textbook costs by buying used copies, selecting courses based on book costs, scanning textbook pages, scouring the internet for free PDFs -- or forgoing textbooks altogether. Developing high-quality textbooks or digital courseware is an expensive, time-consuming endeavor. With few exceptions -- notably Carnegie Mellon, Rice University’s OpenStax and the University of Texas’s Dana Center -- institutions and faculty have not stepped up to the plate. As someone who has developed interactive courseware, let me encourage others to do the same.
“Google Releases New IT Certificate”
In most instances, the value of nondegree certificates is uncertain. But certain industry certifications do have genuine value, and it definitely makes sense for educational institutions to offer courses to help students become certified, especially if corporate or philanthropic partners will help pay the cost of the (very expensive) certification exams. Otherwise, the alternatives -- standalone academies and industry-delivered courses -- are likely to undercut existing higher ed providers, with fewer students benefiting.
The Gates Foundation’s new postsecondary success strategy -- funding intermediary organizations, like Achieving the Dream, Complete College America and the Gardner Institute, to serve as connectors, advisers, strategists and evaluators for multiple colleges and universities -- surely makes sense. But it also reflects a loss of faith that higher education institutions have the will, expertise and persistence needed to engage in the tough work of academic transformation.
Why One Online University Launched Two Edtech Investment Funds
To spur development of new educational tools and programs, Western Governors University has launched two investment funds, targeting ed-tech start-ups and more established companies. In addition to providing capital and taking an equity stake, WGU will take an active role in user research and business and product development among the startups. WGU is not alone. As EdSurge observes, other institutions, including Arizona State and Southern New Hampshire, have launched accelerators and venture investment funds.
“Mills College's plan to sell artifacts revives ethics debate”
EducationDive reports that the California women's institution intends to offload a handwritten Mozart score and leaves from a first folio to improve its financial footing. Other institutions have drawn ire for similar steps. Deaccessioning only makes sense if it is part of a realistic plan to restore an institution’s financial health. Otherwise, it simply eats away at a college’s economic foundations.
Here are a few takeaways:
- Centralized versus distributed approaches to online learning. Does it make sense for public university systems to run online programs through stand-alone institution, like Penn State Global, University of Maryland University College or Purdue Global? We're in a situation not wholly unlike the MOOC mania of 2011 and 2012. Many institutions view the success of the mega providers -- Southern New Hampshire and WGU -- with a mixture of envy and terror, while also being concerned that individual campuses lack the internal capacity to compete effectively.
- Funded research. Criticisms of university research run rampant: that too much is trivial and without economic or social value; that it distracts attention from institutions’ primary responsibility, teaching; that it disproportionately benefits already wealthy institutions. To that list, add another: that such research is often a money loser that contributes little to the number of start-ups or patents. I personally consider university’s research mission essential to distinguishing higher education from training. But institutions must be careful not to lose their mission focus in a bid for dollars that are rarely in the offing.
- Strategic philanthropy. Funders are becoming much more strategic in grants giving, and less likely to work with individual colleges and universities than in the past -- reflecting a belief that campus-based investments too often fail to pay off. Some funders are going further, making strategic investments in ed-tech companies in hopes that their innovations will be widely adopted and that the foundation will benefit when the firms’ stock prices rises.
- Alternative certification. Although the value of alternate certificates is nebulous, faith that short-term, skills-based certifications will pay off remains strong. A growing number of colleges and universities are debating whether to promote industry-aligned certificate programs. Let’s not hold out false promises to students that alternative certification will pay off until we actually know whether that’s the case.
- Colleges facing financial stress. The college debt crisis is not limited to students or parents. Many smaller colleges, mainly in the East and Midwest, face serious financial challenges, as the number of high school graduates stagnates or drops, costs rise and demand for a career-ready degree increase. But financial stress is not limited to small institutions; many regional comprehensives and urban publics find it difficult to meet the ever-increasing needs of students for financial aid and support services. Meanwhile, the wealthiest and most selective institutions face an ethics test, and many, perhaps most, are failing. Under pressure to make the admissions process fairer and more inclusive, many balk at the steps that need to be taken: eliminating admissions practices that benefit the wealthy, the well connected and those who play elite sports.
Steven Mintz is senior adviser to the president of Hunter College for student success and strategic initiatives.
