Higher education can be reformed on a reduced budget

Dear Editor,
Today, the fiscal crisis is taking its toll on many universities, particularly as governmental funding becomes scarce. And Ralf Dahrendorf pronounced correctly when he explained that “Stagnant universities are expensive and ineffectual monuments to status quo which is more likely to be a status quo ante, yesterday’s world preserved in aspic.” Dahrendorf, former Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a distinguished sociologist emphasized the view that the realities of some universities do not always equate with the more zealous descriptions of their role in the modern era.

The World Bank Report 1995, Higher Education: the Lessons of Experience noted that there is a worldwide crisis in higher education. The challenge is how to reform higher education with a reduced budget. Nonetheless, higher education reforms can still become a reality in the developing world through supporting both private and public institutions; diversifying funding sources; redefining government’s responsibility; and pressing on toward quality and equity. Higher education reforms have to do with reorganization.

I draw from Provost and Vice President Gary Olson of Idaho State University. He had some useful pieces on reorganization in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here are some examples of reorganization:

1. In 2009, Northeastern University separated out its college of arts and sciences into three smaller colleges; and the College of Criminal Justice was brought within the College of Social Sciences and Humanities. The university’s Provost believes that this reorganization would produce a strong research profile.

2. In 2009, Florida Atlantic University got rid of 170 faculty and staff positions, due to a US$17 million reduction in state funding.

3. In 2010, the University of Northern Iowa reduced its administrative divisions from four to three, doing away with a senior position, and reduced its number of colleges through merging the College of Natural Sciences with the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. The reorganization team got rid of Marketing and Advancement. The idea was to reduce administrative costs and reinforce academic offerings, according to the university’s Provost.

4. Eastern Washington University recently reduced its number of colleges from six to four, and reconfigured quite a few academic departments.

5. Reorganization also happens in finance and administration.

Provost Gary Olson also effected a reorganization at Idaho State University which wanted to achieve efficiency and to emerge from the fiscal challenge academically more robust. There was a merger between the College of Pharmacy and the College of Health Professions to produce the Division of Health Sciences. There was also a merger of science departments within the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering to produce a College of Science and Engineering. The other departments in the College of Arts and Sciences became the College of Arts and Letters. Provost Olson indicated that there were good savings from the reorganization.

And reorganization in the developing world must provide credence to the relationship between higher education and national development, especially with universities facing a paucity of resources.

Yours faithfully,
Prem Misir