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Competition in Post Secondary Education: A Summary

by Sloan-C

A series of exchanges on competition in "The Academy" occurred between Tom Abeles and Murray Turoff. In order to broaden participation in this critical subject, Olin Campbell suggested that a more extensive airing of the issues could occur if the discussion took place in a virtual forum offered on the ALN Web. A public forum, "Competition in Post Secondary Education," was established and is accessible by visiting ALNTalk.

One of the participants remarked that they had not expected to see such a dramatic change in such a short period of time, particularly in regards to the position of "the Academy" in the global market place. It is with this in mind that I hope that others will explore this discussion and contribute their thoughts and ideas. Perhaps the discussion can transcend an intellectual exchange and support those who must confront this transformation directly.

Five main topics served as a focus:

Effects of Global Competition. This is the most active arena and has the most varied set of responses. A major sub-focus here is the role of the humanities in the post-secondary arena. Bill Readings' book, "The University in Ruins," provides a starting point for a number of these ideas. First is the changing role of the University in relation to the State and society. The second issue in the Readings discussion is the role of the humanities, broadly defined, within The Academy and in the larger social milieu.

Noted by its absence up to this point is a discussion of the increasing globalization of post-secondary offerings. Institutions of one country can compete directly with institutions in a second country, due to the development of both a virtual campus and the establishment of bricks and mortar programs in foreign "soil."

Competition in Post Secondary Education. From the exchanges, it seems that the larger community of scholars do not have a firm grasp of the growing number of alternatives, globally. We can hope that this forum can start to open up the discussion as to what this competition is and where traditional institutions may choose to position themselves for the future.

Production Values and Partnerships. This section opens up discussion on the increasing presence of the publishing sector producing not just texts and supplemental materials, but entire programs, usually in conjunction with one or more institutions or faculty. The level of interest or concern on these issues is not high as evidenced by the number of exchanges. Yet it is an arena that is growing in importance as more institutions seem interested in capitalizing on the distribution of the materials produced by their departments and faculty.

Emphasis on Outcomes in the Market. The issue of concern is the "shift to competency." Two issues have been raised. The first is measuring learner outcomes and the ability to validate the skill sets. The second is the institutional competency and the quality that it can deliver. The slim discussion of these points has just opened up the issues, and the entire domain has yet to be defined.

Roles of Two-year Vocational Institutions and Community Colleges. A post from Dick Benson raised the question as to whether the two-year and four-year institutions could find grounds for mutual cooperation. Tom Abeles raised the point that the freshman and sophomore courses in the four-year institutions are responsible for a large portion of the university's income. Many students seem to want to save money by taking the equivalent courses at the heavily subsidized community colleges.

There are a host of exchanges on distance education, virtual institutions, and alternatives in the post secondary marketplace. Few of these are focused on the serious issues of competition between existing traditional providers, and new entrants into the arena. This discussion provides a venue where the Academy has a public forum for debate all aspects, including "evolutionary" pressures. I hope that the discussions to date provide a foundation for further exchange from all interested parties.