The third draft of the report from the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education is out now, and news reports indicate that it is acceptable to most members of the Commission. Thus it is probably pretty close to the final report, and as such interesting to look at in some detail.
One of the more confusing aspects of the report is that it is really about just one part of higher education - undergraduate studies. There is nothing wrong with that focus, but it should have been made clear in the report. In addition, by leaving out graduate and professional training, and research, many of the discussions about cost containment miss the boat. More on that below.
At the outset let me say that I think the report hits most of the proper points about the current situation in higher education, and makes a number of suggestions that are in the right directions. One (especially a professor) can always argue about emphasis and detail, which is mostly what I shall do.
An underlying discomfort I have with the report is that it is only minimally focused on global changes and competition. There are numerous comparisons of how we compare today with other countries, but no analysis of where the competition is moving tomorrow. Similarly, there is no mention of the movement up the educational ladder of the offshoring of jobs (see Offshoring moves up the education ladder, March 7, 2006 ), and what that might mean for our educational system. The report is also focused on domestic students (understandably), and gives rather short shrift to the importance international students play in higher education and our economy generally. Other countries have recognized importance of international students to their global prestige and general welfare, and have created national strategies to attract the best and brightest (e.g Australia and Great Britain). No such overall strategy is called for here, although the relatively few recommendations made by the committee in this area have great merit.