This commentary was authored by Lucie Lapovsky, Principal, Lapovsky Consulting, former President of Mercy College in New York, and a board member of the White House Project.
Q: How would you assess the leadership of college presidents in embracing new technology and innovative teaching techniques aimed at reducing costs, improving quality and reengineering higher education? What leadership steps would you recommend for them?
Much of higher education has been very slow to embrace new business models and new technologies. Some university leaders have buried their heads in the sand along with their faculty and are assuming that this recession will pass and things will return to the way they were before.
I do not think that will happen and beyond that, I think it is imperative that we develop new, more effective and efficient ways of delivering college degrees. We need to produce more college graduates if we are to maintain our global leadership and if we are to have the workforce we need for the future. Our production of college graduates relative to our population has not increased in more than 10 years while our economy has grown more sophisticated; we need to improve on these results. Further, as the demographics of our country change, the imperative to produce college degrees at lower cost for many students is an imperative.
Leaders must look at their core mission and values and assess how to prioritize their use of resources. There needs to be a very strategic look at the curriculum, which has grown beyond all reason at many institutions as seen by the number of majors and the number of courses required for graduation to name just two metrics.
The method of delivery of the curriculum needs to be examined in terms of the effective use of technology in the classroom as well as the mix of full and part time faculty and the definition of faculty roles. Further, we need to look at all the co-curricular activities and other accoutrements we provide along with teaching and learning and assess their relevance to the core mission versus the cost of providing them as we work to expand access to higher education.
We are fortunate to have a system of higher education which offers a great deal of diversity. We are seeing a new model provided by the regionally accredited for profit colleges and universities as they gain in students and influence. This model is providing an alternative, no-frills, convenient approach to the college experience which is especially attractive to many older students.
We are seeing some "traditional" colleges and universities experimenting with no-frills models and offering then at lower price, with three-year bachelor's degrees, with combining some of high school with the first two years of college and with the extensive use of technology to aid in learning as well as with models of all on-line programs.
Many of these experiments are showing potential in leading us to more cost effective models with increased student success. We must embrace this experimentation and motivate more of it if we are to meet the manpower needs of the future and if we are to provide access to a higher education to all who need it in this country.
