Page 28 - Crisis in Higher Education

The Higher Education Conundrum • 3

There were other factors that reinforced this “meet demand for higher
education” mindset. Many higher education leaders were and are today
faculty members with PhDs in subjects like history, medicine, and sci-
ence, so their inherent interest was investigating problems and providing
a quality education with small classes. In addition, investing in higher
education was an easy choice for politicians because they could boast to
their constituents about educational opportunities for their children, plus
it was thought to be a driver of jobs and economic growth. Furthermore,
recent high school graduates had little experience in buying goods and
services, and their parents often had no experience with higher education,
so students and their families did not push back as cost increased. In com-
bination, these factors help to explain why the cost of higher education
grew much faster than the rate of inflation.
In the global economy, the country with the best educated population
should have the best innovation, most entrepreneurs, strongest economy,
and highest standard of living. Combining brainpower with a support-
ive environment for transforming ideas into useful and innovative goods
and services creates a winning economy. The United States accomplishes
this in two ways. As technology increases in complexity, and new prod-
ucts require innovative design capabilities and production processes,
and organizations become larger and require sophisticated management,
higher education responds with comprehensive, in-depth programs of
study to meet these needs. In a knowledge-based economy, higher educa-
tion plays a key role in building wealth for society as it provides the edu-
cated actors who participate in the value creation process. This process
transforms inputs, including labor, materials, energy, and capital, into
outputs—goods and services—that are worth more to society than the
costs of these inputs. In the not-for-profit arena, higher education delivers
a high-quality workforce for organizations involved in healthcare, educa-
tion, and public service.
Second, building a highly educated and motivated workforce is facilitated
by an immigration policy that

1. Encourages scientist, engineers, and highly trained professionals
from other countries to immigrate to the United States in order to
meet this growing demand.
2. Draws high-quality students from other countries to U.S. graduate
programs and eventually entice them to work in the United States
and become U.S. citizens and permanent residents.