Page 222 - Crisis in Higher Education

Government’s Role in Higher Education • 193

stewards of government funds as well as the tuition and fees paid by stu-
dents and third-party payers. The focus would be on outcomes that are
linked to the effective use of resources, including graduation rates, comple-
tion times, and job placements rates. Governments can use funding as a
means to control institutional behavior and achieve the outputs that it feels
are important. Government would spend much less effort on regulating
the inputs and processes that institutions use to achieve their outcomes.
Guidelines and suggested behavior would be the preferred way to affect
inputs and processes, so universities could diverge from standard practice
when it made sense without fear of reprisal. Substandard outputs would
trigger actions by government to request additional information and would
require institutions to find the root cause of the problem and fix it.

9.4.2 Accreditation Agencies and Potential
Employers: Enhancing Quality

Accreditation is a useful tool to ensure that universities are high perform-
ers. As shown in Figure 9.2, accreditation should focus on the quality of
outputs and offer guidelines about how to build inputs and processes to
achieve those outcomes. Outcome assessment should take into account
the mission of the institution, which includes its strategies, goals, and
key policies. Beyond graduation rate and completion time, output mea-
sures should include improving knowledge creation through research,
performance of graduates on standardized tests, and the quality of job
placements. Accreditation agencies get compliance from university pro-
grams because they decide to accredit or not. As a way to control behavior,
they put programs on continuing review, giving them an opportunity to
address deficiencies.
A focus on job placement includes potential employers. As shown in
Figure 9.2, this is the third part of the scheme to ensure quality outputs.
Recall that potential employers work with tenured and professional faculty
to determine curricular content and academic rigor. When done prop-
erly, inputs from employers are fed back into universities. This is symbol-
ized by the two-headed arrow between potential employers and outputs.
Ultimately, the potential employer choses to hire or not to hire based on the
quality of the graduates. This should incentivize students to work harder
and institutions to enhance quality. These three factors—government,
accreditation agencies, and potential employers—help students receive a
high-quality education while keeping regulatory costs low.