Page 347 - Crisis in Higher Education

Framing and Implementing a Practical Solution • 317

It also means changing the process for and the use of student evaluations
of teaching, so instructional faculty feel less pressure from students to
reduce content and lower learning standards. Tenured and professional
faculty would become responsible for setting course content, preparing
tests, and determining grades.
Governments have roles as customer and overseer. State and local gov-
ernments fund public higher education and have important legislative
power over them, and federal government provides significant funding for
students to attend public and private universities and can use its power
to control behavior. Governments can reexamine how they allocate funds
and use future funding as incentives for making improvements. Potential
employers, graduate schools, and licensure and certification agencies, and
not students, should have the role of defining curriculum content and
setting performance standards.
As shown in Figure 15.5, the pivotal issue that connects customers to
resources is curriculum and pedagogy. Content and standards are set by
tenured and professional faculty, working closely with potential employ-
ers and others. Curriculum must be redesigned, so full-time students can
graduate with a bachelor’s degree in four years, so no student faces closed
classes because course offerings are limited, and all students have a pro-
fessional development course to prepare them for finding a job. Designing
pedagogy is developing multiple teaching methods that meet the learning
needs of individual students, and creating online courses and programs
that are rigorous, secure, and well-staffed.
Universities must acquire and use their resources to achieve the most
benefit for their trifurcated customer. Growth in the number of and
compensation for administration has been a primary driver of costs in
higher education. Actions are necessary to reverse this trend, includ-
ing administrative budget declines that take place over several years.
In addition, faculty must be willing to rethink their roles and responsi-
bilities in ways that use their skills most effectively and enable improve-
ments in productivity. Technology must be brought to the classroom in
various forms, especially in the form of high-tech reading materials and
high-tech videos that enhance student learning and lower costs. Finally,
the relationships among high schools, community and technical col-
leges, and universities must improve, eliminating curriculum overlap
and filling gaps. Too much time and money are wasted because the tran-
sition among these parts of the educational system is fraught with errors
and inefficiencies.