In
my presentation, I spoke of the intertwining missions of
research, teaching, and social growth of the research university, and
of some
of the dangers that entails. I discussed
five aspects of the evolving environment for higher education that I
believed
presented great opportunity to the for-profit sector to advance through
disruptive innovation. They were 1) a “winner-take all” competition
among
research universities; 2) changing societal expectations; 3)increasing
globalization; 4)changing access to information; and 5) changing
demographics
and the knowledge economy. I closed by
noting that much innovation comes from competitors who are entering an
established industry by "working at the fringes", and that we would be
wise to observe, and in some cases work with,
leaders on the for-profit sector in order to capture some of the
innovation that they bring.
In his presentation, Becker began by describing Laureate Education,
which has created what is arguably the first truly international university
system. They own a variety of higher
education institutions ranging from a specialized hotel school, through full
universities encompassing such professional schools as law and medicine. Their goal, as stated by Becker, is to
provide “an optimal mix of quality and affordability, with preparation for a
successful career for each student as our central objective.” All of this is carried out within the context
of individual institutions that are firmly rooted in the local culture of their
society, but which nevertheless offer students with unusual exposure to the
rest of the world. He then went on to
compare Laureate and non-profit higher education in a number of dimensions. He argues that the two are closer than one
might first think in many areas, and that current market-state policies of
government are increasingly aligning the interests of non-profit and for-profit
higher education. However, Laureate
cannot undertake certain “public good” activities such as extensive research or
teaching in areas of limited student interest, since it must always focus on
areas that bring a good return on investment for both the students and
Laureate. He contends that the major difference between the two segments lies
in accountability and compensation practices and governance, areas where he
believes the for-profits are in a much stronger situation.
Becker is a great innovator in the world of for-profit
higher education. His comments are well
worth reading.
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The for-profits have little interest in academic freedom per se. The better ones are very interested in seeing that their students get a good education, and so focus more on the students needs rather than the faculty prerogatives. This sometimes has positive effects, sometimes negative. Check out Danial Levy's work, described in the post "More on private higher education globally". He addresses some aspects of the issue of academic freedom in his work.
Posted by: Lloyd Armstrong | January 22, 2007 at 03:47 PM
In searching your site for topics related to for-profit institutions of higher learning and what political impacts does it present to academic freedom? Or does it? thanks.
Posted by: Paulette Pardun | January 22, 2007 at 12:52 PM