Can a more productive model be attained?

By the mid 1990’s the salary and fringe benefits for a full time college instructor totaled about $6000 per class, but a part-time instructor would only cost about $2000 per class.  The rising costs for a full time professor had risen to about $15,000 for a research university, thus raising concerns about productivity and cost.  Legislators started advocating outsourcing as a means to save the university money and to help universities align costs similar to corporate America (Cohen & Kisker, 2010).

The question arises about how the university can become more productive with less cost.  Further, how will the university adapt to the state budget cuts and recent ten percent increases in student tuition?  It seems that increasing wages leads to rising costs with no increase in outputs, and together this translates to declines in productivity.

In a recent editorial in Inside Higher Education, there were ideas presented about the current problem that exists in higher education financing:

The thinking goes like this: 1) Higher education is getting more expensive; 2) Higher education is more necessary than ever; so 3) we should be able to get our colleges and universities to produce the same product at half the cost.  (Walters, 2011)

I believe that there needs to be more research on costs and productivity.  Reallocating resources away from costly policies and practices with negative track records toward those that show promise is another means that leads to enhanced productivity (National Center for Academic Transformation, 2011).  NCAT claims to be experts in improving learning and reducing costs in higher education.  Some of their programs involve changing the standard model, where students sit in a professor’s lecture for 3-4 hours per week and attend an hour-long discussion section to a redesigned course featuring computer-based interactive tutorials that periodically quiz students to gauge their mastery of concepts (Bartscherer, 2011).

I have found no easy answers to funding higher education.  The cost of hiring qualified teachers and administrators cannot be delegated by politicians and outside sources; likewise, the requirements for more manageable university costs cannot be overlooked.  In an era of budget cuts and mass enrollment, the path to raising attainment rates must start with colleges and universities themselves.  The debate continues to challenge those in higher education and those elected to assist in public funding for universities.  Many see no way out the “cost disease” while others believe colleges and universities can change to become more productive.  Higher education policy debates will continue to occupy the forefront of American life.

References

Cohen, A. M.  and  Kisker, C. B.  (2010). The Shaping of American higher education: Emergence and growth of the contemporary system.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bartscherer, P.   (2011). NCAT programs in course redesign. Retrieved October 27, 2011    from http://www.thencat.org/whoweare.html.

Kelly, A.   (June 27, 2011).  Are productivity gains in higher education  possible.  The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute.  Retrieved October 27, 2011 from http://www.american.com/archive/2011/june/are-productivity-gains-in-higher-education-possible

Walters, E.   (2011).  More degrees at the same cost.  Inside Higher Education. Retrieved  October 27, 2011 from http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/popup/views/2011/04/11/walters_more_degrees_at_same_cost_will_hurt_quality