Page 108 - Crisis in Higher Education

80 • Crisis in Higher Education

4.6 HOW LIMITED PRODUCTIVITY
IMPROVEMENTS (ROOT CAUSE 4)
AFFECT THE UNDERLYING PROBLEMS

The idea of improving productivity is not foremost in the minds of admin-
istrators and tenured faculty because they focus on creating new ideas and
improving teaching and learning. But increasing productivity and keep-
ing costs low is consistent with these goals. Productivity is the outputs of
a company, department, or person divided by the related inputs. So an
increase in productivity means generating more outputs with the same or
lesser input/resources. Thus, increasing productivity leads to lower costs.
Prior discussion clearly illustrates that the efficiency and productivity
of administration have declined substantially as growth in administrators
has outpaced enrollment increases. To illustrate this point, recall that the
number of administrative positions increased by 369% from 1978 to 2014,
8
while undergraduate enrollment grew by only 73%. This means it takes
9
more administrative time to cope with the needs of one student in 2014
than it did in 1978. There should be little doubt that the growth in admin-
istration must be reversed and replaced by a decline. This can be achieved
by applying appropriate tools and systems that leverage administrators’
time and substantially increase their productivity.
Although it can be effectively argued that the primary drivers of high
costs are lack of knowledge about customers and the rise of administra-
tion, the faculty is culpable as well. Faculty should not be immune from
improving their productivity, that is, (1) increasing the number of stu-
dents they educate, (2) improving the quality and quantity of what gradu-
ates learn, and (3) improving research and service outcomes.
For teaching, the heart of the problem is to make the process easier for
faculty so they can teach more students and make learning more effective
and enjoyable, while using the same time and effort. All companies attempt
to do this. Automakers and software developers provide tools and training
so their workers can produce more and better cars and computer systems.
It is time to design and implement innovative teaching and learning systems
that improve outcomes and reduce costs. There are islands of improvements
such as cooperative education and internship programs for engineering and
business students, which place students in actual job settings. Here they
begin to understand the value of what they are learning and are motivated
to learn more. Other ideas are emerging that use computer and information