Page 184 - Crisis in Higher Education

Becoming Student-Centered • 155

when universities create strong links with another of its customers,
potential employers. Finding employment is a critical outcome that
students want.
2. Rise of the ruling class: Administration (root cause 3): Becoming stu-
dent centered also means providing students with the best value,
so cutting administrative cost is important because it improves the
value proposition.
3. Limited productivity improvements for universities (root cause 4):
Changing the pedagogy to create an environment for student-cen-
tered learning offers a way to improve the productivity of faculty and
lower instructional costs.
4. Rapidly growing costs for books and supplies (root cause 5): Student-
centered universities must work with textbook publishers to create
new and innovative ways to learn while cutting costs. Universities
are in a better position to negotiate prices with publishers than
students.
5. Funding finesse—Mixing fees and tuition (root cause 6): Student-
centered learning means that students determine whether they pay
fees or not.
6. Eroding standards (root cause 8): Student-centered learning requires
universities to do what is best for students. To do this, universities
must maintain standards so students are qualified for good jobs with
organizations that hirer their graduates.
7. Lack of student preparation (root cause 9): An intense focus on sat-
isfying students and declining enrollment creates an environment
that covers up the lack of preparation. It is important to expose
this problem and create a solution.

7.7 SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Following is a list of the key recommendations that comprise this element
of the solution.

1. Being student centered means that students get more respect, better
treatment, and services that are courteous, responsive, effective, and
efficient.