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Fiscal conservatives who typically extol competition see its insane effects in higher education. John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, wonders why all public universities in his state have to offer every major. “It’s not just inefficiencies,” he says. “It’s, ‘I want to be the best in this.’ It’s duplication of resources.”
Outsource Some Subjects
Some subjects can be outsourced; for example, let one college have a strong French department and another a strong German department. In other cases, costs can be shared by splitting a faculty member’s time between two or more institutions, physically and virtually. For the first half of the semester, what is taught at one college can be remotely transmitted to another, and for the second half of the term this process can be reversed. Faculty members would no longer be affiliated with a single college or university and would be required to become much more mobile.
To consolidate resources without jeopardizing the quality of research and teaching, universities should form consortiums to share faculty. The most effective organizational structure would be to have a core faculty of select members of the home department and from departments at participating institutions, which could be supplemented by colleagues in the undergraduate programs at related universities. Qualified faculty members would participate on a rotating basis, and courses would not be limited to offerings by resident professors but would include lectures and seminars conducted remotely. With more faculty members from different institutions involved, the quality of education would probably improve.
In every complex system — be it educational, economic, political, social or biological — competition and cooperation must be effectively balanced. When competition becomes excessive, it becomes counterproductive.
The recent announcement that Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are cooperating to offer free online courses is a promising development. Much more needs to be done. In coming articles, I will describe how overspecialization renders much undergraduate schooling irrelevant, and how globalization and online education provide opportunities for rethinking higher education.
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dave mazella on May 21, 2012 12:26 PM:
No need for new schools or programs, since Columbia and Williams are admitting plenty of students from North Texas.