Page 52 - Crisis in Higher Education

26 • Crisis in Higher Education

revenue stream, such as janitorial and campus security. Outsourcing is
discussed in Chapter 11.

1.9 FOCUS OF THE BOOK

So far, the discussion provides basic information about institutions
of higher learning and attempts to describe the different participants.
Higher education is vast and complex with many different factors to
consider. To stay on track, this book focuses on state-supported, public
universities that have undergraduate and graduate programs. Public uni-
versities have the largest portion of the enrollment in higher education
at 37.7%, according to Table 1.2. In addition to being the largest part of
higher education, it is likely that more information is available because
these are public entities. Public, two-year colleges also have large enroll-
ments, 34.8% of the total. These institutions tend to have different cost
structures and much lower tuition than four-year, public universities. It is
likely that many of the ideas discussed and the solution proposed can be
applied to these institutions.
Large, private, not-for-profit universities are often insulated from the
problems faced by public universities because they have large endow-
ments, which provide hundreds of millions or even a billion dollars in
earnings that can absorb unexpected expenses. These institutions are
less transparent than public universities and often have very support-
ive and wealthy alumni who want their children to attend the same
school. So enrollment management is a process of picking the students
they want from a long list of applicants. Because demand exceeds sup-
ply, these institutions can increase tuition and fees with little resistance.
Small private colleges have a different set of problems because they
often lack the economies of scale necessary to offer all of the programs
and services students want, so they offer small classes but charge much
higher tuition than public universities. Private, for-profit universities
typically offer programs online, and this presents another set of prob-
lems. These differences do not mean that the solutions described in this
book will not work for private colleges and universities; in fact, it is likely
that many of them will.
There will be times when the discussion expands to include two-year
community and technical colleges and not-for profit and for-profit