States’ Efforts to Privatize Higher Education and Respond to Market Trends Threaten a New Crisis for Public Higher Education

The Futures Project Suggests New Strategies to Cut through Controversies Over Tuition Hikes, Integrity of Research, Accountability for Student Performance

Full Press Release

While recent headlines about public higher education have highlighted budget cuts and tuition increases, a new report warns these issues are only painful symptoms of a far deeper crisis that threatens to damage the ability of America’s public colleges and universities to serve students and the public effectively.

The response of America’s public campuses to market forces is moving at a rapid pace, even among the country’s most celebrated colleges and universities, warns a new report, Correcting Course: How We Can
Restore the Ideals of Public Higher Education in a Market-Driven Era, written by Lara Couturier and Jamie Scurry at the Futures Project at Brown University.

Last week, the Virginia General Assembly approved legislation that offers the state’s 16 public colleges—including the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary, two of the nation’s oldest public institutions of higher education--a level of autonomy traditionally reserved for private
institutions.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg. In Colorado, new legislation funnels the state appropriation to students instead of directly to the institutions, and institutions can establish “fee-for-service” contracts with the state to enable them to carry out mission-specific functions. Texas and Oklahoma recently
deregulated tuition-setting authority. Meanwhile, other states – including Florida, Oregon, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Washington – have been involved in similar conversations, throwing about terms such as public corporations, charters, contracts, and privatization.

To read the full press release in PDF click here.

To read the report in PDF click here.

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The Future of Higher Education: Rhetoric, Reality, and the Risks of the Market
Frank Newman, Lara Couturier , Jamie Scurry

To read excerpts from the book click here . To read press release click here.

"A powerful look at the risks inherent in the trend toward making higher education a market rather than a regulated public sector, The Future of Higher Education reveals the findings of an extensive four-year investigation into the major forces that are transforming our American system of higher education. The book explores the challenges of intensified competition among institutions, globalization of colleges and universities, the expansion of the new for-profit and virtual institutions, and the influence of technology on learning. This important resource offers college and university leaders and policy makers an analysis of the impact of these forces of change and includes suggestions for creating an effective higher education market as well as a call for a renewed focus on the public purposes of higher education."

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