Economic Changes for Higher Ed

Over at Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen discusses 10 things that university presidents and provosts should know about how the economics of higher ed is changing.

Excerpt:

3. Community colleges are in many cases turning out to be stronger competitors than are for-profits.

4. The higher education bubble has burst. The expiration of stimulus funds in 2011 will be a crushing event for many public sector universities.

5. Faculty governance is essential for tenure and curriculum decisions. But faculty governance for setting university priorities is a big mistake.

6. The value of face-to-face classroom time (discussed in Create Your Own Economy, by the way) will prove robust. But the very best teachers of the future will take on an increasing role as editors, collage creators, and DJs. A brilliant scientist who doesn't understand YouTube will be crippled as a teacher. Adjuncts may lead the wave of innovation here.

7. The way to be fiscally responsible is to refuse luxury projects in good times. If bad times have come it is already too late.

8. Current administrators are using stimulus funds to buy off the old interest groups, under the view that these are temporary bad times. Relative to what will come, these are "good times," and much of that surplus ought to be put in reserve funds. That is not happening.

Click over to read the whole list.

While you're at it - click here to read my report that predicted the higher ed bubble in April of 2008!