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There is a lot of talk about decoupling universities, and their coming collapse. Let me take the contrary opinion, and defend why they will stay. (This is not

There is a lot of talk about decoupling universities, and their coming collapse. Let me take the contrary opinion, and defend why they will stay. (This is not a defense of their efficacy, only their economics) Private non-profit universities are essentially run by their tenures faculty. At prestigious universities the focus is primarily research. Everything they do should be in the eyes of this stakeholder group. The “undergraduate experience” exists as a profit center to fund the tenured faculty. Sports teams and fancy dorms (and binge drinking) are more important (and easier to quantify) to the buyers of education than educational quality so that’s where the investment goes. Buyers will choose “facilities and brand” over education enough to keep the schools looking elite. As long as admissions grades and test scores are high enough, the rest doesn’t matter. (The kids will succeed in life anyway) At “for profit” universities just replace the tenured faculty with shareholders. Same model just no pretense of research. For 2nd and 3rd tier universities it’s similar but with much less money to go around. (Less endowment and tuition) Layer onto this that the government is guaranteeing the bill and you have no incentive for the folks in charge to change their behavior. As a society we can say we are tired of being on the hook, but until that happens there is a lot of inertia to overcome. That’s why we didn’t see a mass collapse of universities in any of the last 4 recessions.

efficax 5y ago
> Private non-profit universities are essentially run by their tenures faculty Nonsense. They're run by their boards and by professional administrators. The faculty have been steadily losing real influence since the MBAs started getting involved in universities in the 1980s. (Universities at the big level are basically holding companies managing assets called an Endowment that just happen to hold classes)
i_am_proteus 5y ago
Whether undergraduates (really their parents and the government supplying their loans and grants) attend and pay for a school is based on the "brand" and more than the education, so the institution cares more about the brand than the education. Research, however, directly brings in money through grants, and "better" research faculty publish more and bring in more grant money. The incentives are very straightforward and the universities are responding to them. If NIH, DOD, etc., had a metric on grant applications asking what percentage of department faculty were in full-time professional teaching positions (not adjuncts, educators with no research expectation, often called "Professor of Practice") targeting ≥20%, this ship would right itself in a couple of years.

efficax 5y ago

> Private non-profit universities are essentially run by their tenures faculty Nonsense. They're run by their boards and by professional administrators. The faculty have been steadily losing real influence since the MBAs started getting involved in universities in the 1980s. (Universities at the big level are basically holding companies managing assets called an Endowment that just happen to hold classes)

i_am_proteus 5y ago

Whether undergraduates (really their parents and the government supplying their loans and grants) attend and pay for a school is based on the "brand" and more than the education, so the institution cares more about the brand than the education. Research, however, directly brings in money through grants, and "better" research faculty publish more and bring in more grant money. The incentives are very straightforward and the universities are responding to them. If NIH, DOD, etc., had a metric on grant applications asking what percentage of department faculty were in full-time professional teaching positions (not adjuncts, educators with no research expectation, often called "Professor of Practice") targeting ≥20%, this ship would right itself in a couple of years.