By Cara Morton
Using a business model to run a university has merit despite its critics. The problem with the simplistic methods that were used at The University of Texas in Dallas1 that raised so much attention is that much of their job responsibilities were left out of the equation. It makes sense to make education more affordable for students, to give them options as you would a client and it makes sense to reward instructors for their teaching abilities resulting in a better learning experience. Instructors taking on large teaching loads should get the high levels of respect and salary that their tenure coworkers have. The following examples are just but a few that illustrate how fully embracing a business model for the university system could improve our current system.
(1) Instructors Getting the Credit they Deserve:
What kind of effects would we see if the highest paying salaries in the university went to the instructors who focus on teaching? We would see professors who have the passion for teaching be rewarded for it and more importantly be respected for it and have an influence in their departments. There is a disconnect in research focused universities: students have the greatest appreciation for the instructors who take the time to answer questions and develop a mentoring relationship yet they are getting half of the pay and respect of the tenure track staff. Despite the students’ respect for these instructors, tenure track faculty look at the departments’ instructors as second tier staff. The students make it clear who they prefer in the classroom by dropping the out-of-touch (research) and the less competent (adjunct) classes and creating waiting lists for the full time instructors’ classes.
Students bawl at the idea of paying the tenure staff twice the rate of instructors on the merit of teaching alone. The measurement tools to determine if a professor is worthy of his salary should include “faculty work that supports university missions, creates breakthroughs in scholarly disciplines, or ensuring student success.”2 It just doesn’t make sense to hire and promote to tenure a professor for their “15 scholarly recommendations outside of MIT and publication record”3 and then revert to teaching skills and efficiency for performance evaluations. According to June Audrey writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, the professors “don’t mind the measuring of faculty work. What they’re against is that so much of what they do is being left out of the equation.” 2
A solution so that our intellectual genius’ aren’t on the street: just as businesses don’t evaluate non-revenue generating positions on profit margin (think human resources), universities should follow suit with those aspects of a professors’ position that are not revenue generating. The number of breakthroughs is easily quantified (patents, peer attention) so is a professors job placement or graduate admissions for their students. These are selling points that bring students to the college and should be considered in the cost analysis approach.
(2) Higher Education Costs Curbed and Choices for Students :
The students should decide what suits them as far as student to professor ratio. Yes, it might “tempt universities to increase productivity by ramping up the number of courses and credit-hours taught and reducing the number of faculty doing the teaching”1 but student to professor ratios are a huge component in both recruiting students and in ranking and would keep this temptation at bay.
A solution for students’ individual preferences: a lecture hall discount for self motivated students who prefer self-study environment to an interactive learning environment. This could help curb higher education costs without over-providing for students who prefer a content based education.
(3) An Improvement to the Current Trend:
The current state of university funding has to be faced, funds are being pulled and the universities are getting top and bottom heavy with fewer middle class positions . This growing drift marginalizes those in the middle, who, ironically are the life of the organization. Students have been shown to avoid classes taught by part-timers and six digit salary earners.5 It would be an improvement for the majority of cases, especially if the universities continue the trend of using adjuncts. Currently, an adjunct at USF teaching a bridge design course with 40 graduate students in it has an approximate income of $40,000 over the semester while the adjunct takes home $2,500. Under a business model, the market value for the labor portion of a job is closer to 20%, in this case $8,000. Quadruple the pay for the instructor would mean a better class for the students. This particular instructor felt like he was doing pro-bono services compared to his day job as an engineer. He had the passive attitude of “they’re only paying me for three hours a week” mentality. Therefore students were to do fewer assignments in larger groups and there was no individual assessment because it was simply too time consuming.
A solution is to let qualified instructors offer courses as needed and the adjunct gets a percentage instead of a flat fee. After all, 40 papers to grade, emails to handle is much more than 12 week after week. Plus, it would give the workforce an opportunity to offer courses to teach the specific skills they need and build business partnerships to incorporate them into the degree the students are earning. This would probably open up a new curriculum continuity position to assure quality and consistency.
It is unfortunate that the subsidies are being pulled from universities5 (public Florida universities subsidize 59% of the student’s costs) and that a better educated America just for the sake of it no longer cuts it. So as time after time has shown, the university will need to be flexible and work with the constraints we have.4 The business model should be given a chance to succeed at public universities for at least three reasons (1) a better, more affordable learning experience for the students (2) more middle class jobs for instructors compared to the trend towards adjuncts (3) research institutions refocusing thier efforts to be student centered. This last benefit will only occur when research professors are truely on equal ground with teaching professors. In the end, public universities should keep an open mind to not only the disadvantages but the advantages that a business model would bring to campus.
REFERENCES:
1. Middaugh, Michael (August 2011) Measuring Faculty Productivity: Let’s Get It Right. Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/Measuring-Faculty/128802/
2. Audrey, June (July 2011) Efforts to Measure Faculty Workload Don’t Add Up. Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/Efforts-to-Measure-Faculty/128163/
3. Hermes, JJ (October 2007) House Panel Hears Ideas on Increasing Number of Women on Science and Engineering Faculties. Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/article/House-Panel-Hears-Ideas-on/123287/
4. Schrecker, Ellen (2010) The Lost Soul of Higher Education. The New Press
5. Wellman, Jane; DesrochersDonna; Lenihan, Colleen (2005) The Delta Cost Project. American Institutes for Reasearch. http://www.deltacostproject.org/resources/pdf/trends_in_spending-report.pdf
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