Learning Resources

Abstract: There is a crisis in higher education. With skyrocketing tuition, shrinking budgets, and increasingly complex social problems, it is time to ask: What are public research universities doing—and what should they do—to fulfill their compact with the citizens of their states? Locating some of the major cultural and structural obstacles impeding academic engagement, this article argues that “intellectual entrepreneurship” provides academic institutions with both a philosophy and set of mechanisms to meet the ethical obligation of discovering and putting to work knowledge that makes a difference—to educate “citizen-scholars” who engage in service with rather than to society.

Abstract: In February 2008, the U.S. Army and Fayetteville State University established a partnership that has changed the process of healthcare education for active duty social workers. Before this time, the army relied on public universities to be solely responsible for recruiting, evaluating, and educating active duty social workers to serve the needs of service members and their families. However, to meet an immediate need for more social workers to deal with the wounds caused by the War on Terror and to help it get the best possible return on its educational investment, the army decided to partner with a university to establish a distance education Master of Social Work program at the Army Medical Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina was the university partner selected. This article outlines the background of the partnership and the issues other public universities should consider if they want to partner with the military or another federal agency. The article also highlights the benefits of such a partnership.

Abstract: This article explains the cost of education in public research universities. “Price,” meaning “tuition,” is often incorrectly substituted for “cost,” meaning expenditures by the university that make the education possible. University cost is disaggregated to enable readers to distinguish between the costs associated with providing education to students and the costs of other non-educational activities that tend to produce their own revenue. While tuition has increased rapidly, real cost per student for providing education has been roughly constant for nearly 20 years. Increased revenue from tuition has been almost precisely offset by reduced revenue from state appropriations.

Abstract: Until recently, there has been no credible, reliable source for instructional cost data on a national basis for two-year colleges in the United States. To fill this need, the Kansas Study of Community College Instructional Costs and Productivity was designed and implemented as a national data collection and reporting consortium. Based on the four-year college and university Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity, the Kansas Study collects and reports community college instructional costs and faculty workload at the academic discipline level of analysis. This article analyzes aggregate national data from the Kansas Study to determine the major instructional cost drivers for community colleges nationwide.

Abstract: This article reviews current planning efforts regarding the use of2009 federal stimulus dollars in higher education and focuses on identifying best practices.It takes the approach that“best practice” should be defined by criteria outside current planning efforts and suggests that desired outcome, process, and maintenance of key relationships are the appropriate criteria. The article also describes general current practice based on a survey of planning likelihoods and analyzes the planning practices reported against the identified external criteria.

Abstract: Financial planning is an increasingly critical function within higher education institutions. Its pivotal and multifaceted role is described in detail in this article. Based on many years of experience in higher education, the authors offer practical suggestions on how best to locate the function organizationally and perform it effectively. They discuss how environmental trends, both external and internal, are likely to impact future financial planning, the several ways in which financial planning can add value in the decision-making process, and how organizational context influences financial planning. The focus throughout is on organizational dynamics rather than analytic models.