I highly recommend
a very interesting recent paper by John Aubrey Douglass of UC Berkeley, entitled
Higher Education Budgets and the Global Recession: Tracking Varied National
Responses and Their Consequences. He
looks at the impacts of the current recession on education funding and policy
in a number of OECD and other countries, including the US. His conclusion, as captured in his abstract,
is rather disheartening, to say the least:
Preliminary indicators show that most
nations have not thus far resorted to uncoordinated cutting of funding for
higher education that we generally see in US state systems. Their political
leaders see higher education as a key to short-term economic recovery,
long-term competitiveness, and often their own political viability –particularly
in nations with upcoming elections. Further, although this is speculative, it
appears that many nations are using the economic downturn to actually
accelerate reform policies, some intended to promote efficiencies, but most
focused on improving the quality of their university sector and promoting
innovation in their economies. One might postulate that the decisions made today
and in reaction to the “Great Recession” by nations will likely speed up global
shifts in the race to develop human capital, with the US probably losing some
ground.
One of the special difficulties in the US, as Douglas
sees it, relates to the fact that 75% of all post-secondary students here attend state-controlled
public institutions:
In short, how state budgets go, so goes US higher
education; whereas most national systems of higher education financing are tied
to national budgets with the ability to borrow and leading to different policy
responses – with most OECD nations delaying budget cuts to higher education or,
in some instances, actually increasing their investment and enrollment rates.
Although there is considerable focus in this paper on the
US in general and California in particular, it presents very informative and
useful snapshots of the impact of the recession on higher education in a number
of countries around the globe.
While this report paints a very depressing picture,
the OECD report Education at a Glance 2009 shows that 2006 tertiary educational
expenditures per student in the US were the highest in the OECD, and a bit over
twice the average for OECD countries.
Although it is increasingly clear that global higher education funding trends
are not in our favor, it is equally clear that we will remain for some period
the leader in expenditures per student. Thus, we have the resources to continue
to be highly competitive - if we use our resources more efficiently and
effectively. As noted by Douglas, many
of our competitor nations are using this downturn to accelerate needed educational
reform. We should do the same, instead of demanding
more resources to support the status quo (see the previous post, The canary in
the higher education coal mine).