The U.S. Ministry of Higher Education | From the Bell Tower

Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA -- Library Journal, 10/08/2009

I previously wrote about the value of academic librarians meeting and learning from their counterparts in other countries. Not only can we learn how they approach the delivery of important services, but it’s also fascinating to learn how their systems of higher education operate.

The American higher education industry is incredibly diverse and unique. We have an amazing range of institutions, and the federal government has virtually no role in running any part of the operation. That’s one big reason why there’s no NCLB (No Child Left Behind) program for colleges and universities. When I meet academic librarians from other countries I always make a point to learn how their higher education system operates, what role the national government plays, and to what extent, if any, that impacts on the delivery of library services.

Time to consider a change?
In most other countries the national government plays a much larger role in the higher education system. A government department or ministry may run certain institutions or could otherwise control funding or enrollment. Certainly, the degree to which that control impacts daily operations differs; the German and Japanese systems are quite different but each demonstrates a higher level of national government involvement than the American system.

But one that thing that truly differentiates our system from those in other countries is funding. Here, the federal government funds research and offers direct grants to students but otherwise provides no direct funding to support higher education.

Here, a patchwork of funding mechanisms has arisen that includes state funding, local funding, tuition (yes, in some countries where the federal government runs things there is no tuition), and of course, private donations. Given the precarious economic state of American higher education, particularly at public institutions, perhaps this is a good time to question if our system, as much as it is admired by the rest of the world, is in need of some radical change.

Role of the federal government
This exact question about the federal government’s role in higher education was thoughtfully raised in an op-ed  by Robert J. Birgeneau and Frank D. Yeary, high level administrators at the University of California Berkeley, in the Washington Post. In the aptly named “Rescuing our Public Universities,” Birgeneau and Yeary argue that public higher education institutions make an enormous contribution to American society and the economy. I did not realize that the eight Ivy League institutions educate less than one-sixth of the students that attend the nation’s top ten public universities. They also point out that our public higher education system is at great risk in the current economic crisis, and they question the long-term sustainability of the funding system.

The authors are not proposing to privatize the top universities, but rather list why the schools should remain public, which may only be possible with more stable funding. In doing so, the authors make a bold suggestion:

Specifically, the federal government should create a hybrid model in which a limited number of our great public research and teaching universities receive basic operating support from the federal government and their respective state governments. Washington might initially choose a representative set of schools, perhaps based on their research achievements, their success in graduating students, commitment to public service and their record in having a student body that is broadly representative of society.

This would create a drastic revolution in our higher education system, not unlike those historic shockwaves like the Morrill Land Grant Act, the GI Bill, or Sputnik.

Government higher education has strings
The authors are savvy and acknowledge that such a proposal invites a number of complexities. For one thing, if the federal government provides operating support, how much control is it going to expect? When Margaret Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education simply proposed some greater oversight of higher education by the federal government it created enormous backlash. University presidents much prefer the current system of accreditation, so both academic leaders and faculty would likely argue against any level of federal government intervention in their business.

Balancing government funding with government control would present a considerable challenge to the hybrid model proposed by Birgeneau and Yeary. Also keep in mind that federal government-supported higher education could lower tuition, but even in tuition-free countries there’s a price to be paid. In the Scandinavian countries that offer free tuition, gas is far more expensive owing to taxes that help support higher education. Are Americans ready for $5 a gallon gas even if it means better support for academic institutions?

A mess with few great options
The University of California higher education system is looking to increase tuition by thousands of dollars. Even at ten or 11 thousand a year it is a bargain compared to many private institutions. But for some those few thousands could make the difference between attending UC or going elsewhere—or perhaps not at all. Community colleges are bursting at the seams, and unable to take all the refugees from public universities. Something will have to give if the federal government refuses a more direct role in funding publics.

After all the bailouts and the response to health care reform proposals, realistically, what is the likelihood of the American public supporting federally funded higher education, even if it is just the top 25 public universities? Perhaps health care reform is the key to change. If our nation can achieve some reform to our health system it may demonstrate that the type of federally supported systems that work in other countries, even in a limited way, may work here. If not, students who are highly deserving of a first-rate college education may never get their chance to experience the wonders of a great academic library.

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