The increasing financially-based tensions between research and education in American universities.

Financing higher education

Suggests that institutions of higher education in the USA encounter problems that are unique to the market environment. These problems include competition for resources, escalating costs, and resource constraints. In response to these problems, higher education systems within this kind of environment tend to borrow strategies from organizations operating under the most competitive environment ‐ the business sector. Discusses specific strategies adopted by institutions of higher education in North America. Examines how these strategies have affected the culture of higher education. Discusses the shift occurring between the consumerism‐ professorialism continuum. Calls for the need to understand the dual nature of higher education so that strategies can be selectively adapted.

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American higher education system: consumerism versus professorialism

Focuses on Moldavia, and its task of nation building – a task that depends, in part, on the effectiveness of the nation's educational system– following the demise of the Soviet Union. Provides a brief discussion of the growing importance of higher education, examines the evolution of higher education and management responses to the changing environment, and identifies current management practices in higher education. Concludes with a set of universal principles or characteristics of effective higher education and with an injunction to countries in transition and developing countries to reorient their educational policies in light of these principles.

In search of universal principles of higher education management and applicability to Moldavian higher education system

The importance of program review and discontinuation in a
 dynamic, growth-oriented higher education system like that in the
 United States cannot be overemphasized. This paper provides
 models helpful to the policy makers and scholars who are
 interested in program discontinuation. The paper also provides
 levels of policy decisions for program discontinuation and examines
 models that may be found appropriate and effective at each level.
 The paper concludes with a set of program-discontinuation related
 recommendations.

Restructuring U.S. Higher Education: Analyzing Models for Academic Program Review and Discontinuation

To date, there has yet to be a comprehensive national study of university corporatization in Canada. This study addresses this gap by reviewing the empirical basis, history, root causes and evolution of the transformation of higher education in Canada that has taken place over the past four decades. In this research, “corporatization” is used to refer to the process and resulting outcomes of the ascendance of business interests, values and models in the university system. Throughout the study, my two primary questions of interest are: (i) how has the corporatization of Canadian universities
taken shape?; and (ii) what are the consequences of this restructuring both for higher education and society at large? The study begins with a brief historical review of the relationship between education and various sources of power, as well as some of the competing perspectives that have been used to explain university restructuring. I then review the main manifestations of the corporatization process, beginning with a detailed analysis of the casualization of academic labour. Drawing on a new and unique dataset collected through access to information requests, I provide a detailed account
of the rise in the number of part-time and full-time contractually limited appointments in a number of Ontario institutions and discuss some of the impacts of this change. Subsequent chapters focus on the changing role of students (as consumers) in corporatized university spaces as well as changes in tuition and debt rates in Canada; how corporate management styles and practices have infiltrated university governance and programmatic and curriculum decisions; and the impact of corporate and commercial influences on academic research. Taken together, this evidence demonstrates that many of the
defining characteristics of the public university are currently under threat, particularly its systems of governance, academic freedom, and its approach to teaching and research. Moreover, I argue that there are irreconcilable differences between university and corporate institutions. The study concludes with a discussion of the fact that acts of resistance need to go beyond calling for new regulations within the current environment and seek more radical measures, given the fundamental incompatibility between these types of institutions.

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Irreconcilable Differences: The Corporatization of Canadian Universities

Postsecondary education in western countries has experienced four major phases in this century. An elite phase persisted until about 1945 when a recon- structionist phase emerged, reflecting a more democratic approach. The third phase of reductions in funding and support characterized the 1980s. Inadequate revenues to meet rising costs, government measures, and institutional efforts to become more market-oriented can be viewed as complementary developments which were largely responsible for the current entrepreneurial phase. Entrepreneurial aspects of postsecondary education include the extent to which users should pay, the balance between market-related and purely acade- mic activities, the relative emphases upon basic and applied research, fund- raising, and greater involvement of institutions and individuals in obtaining patents, licences, and cooperating with sizeable companies. A more entrepre- neurial emphasis has implications for postsecondary administrators, especially in the matters of budget allocations, the need for more training of administra- tors, and increased attention to student needs. While a greater market orienta- tion is warranted, care must be exercised to ensure that the academic mandate remains paramount.

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Steven O. Michael

Papers

Entrepreneurial Activities in Postsecondary Education