The role of the research university in higher education

 

The extent of massification will continue to increase. In the next 30 years, the key countries that will make up half the global enrolment in higher education will be China, followed by India. The U.S. pool is already almost saturated with about 75-80% of every of-age cohort entering the system for higher education.

 

There are a few implications of massification. First, there is now a diversification of higher education institutions; not all institutions of higher education can be universities. For example, in Germany, all universities are deemed to be research universities, but this is not the case elsewhere. Second, the is a greater diversity in the student population. Other than elites from high-income families, it is not uncommon for students entering institutions of higher education today to be the first in their families to do so. Most universities need to learn how to adapt to this.

 

Thirdly, the dropout or non-completion rates for higher education are more significant than ever. The new norm is that a four-year degree takes five to six years to complete. Fourth, massification has resulted in a lower quality of higher education in all countries where it has occurred. Although the standard of elite institutions has improved over the years, many higher education institutions face challenges with regard to financial constraints, student diversity, faculty quality and shortages.

 

“In a drive to ramp up management education, a significant number of countries are moving towards increasing the number of doctorate programmes at their universities,” says Philip Altbach of Boston College at a talk organised by the Head Foundation[1] at the Singapore Management University on the future of higher education in Boston and Singapore. “However, in a survey of 28 countries’ academic salaries that I have conducted, many academics in higher education are not paid at the same level of similarly qualified professionals working in industry.”

 

Lastly, the growth of the private education sector has meant that the majority of students in higher education study in private institutions that are of majority poor quality, profit-oriented and not properly established to provide quality education services. Altbach observes: “In many universities in the developing world, lecturers are often holders of only a Bachelor’s degree, who have only just recently graduated from the university system themselves.” Good government policy would require quality control, quality assurance, and putting limits on the for-profit sector in education.

 

The second revolution in education is the arrival of the global knowledge economy, which means universities now compete globally in any given field of study. The forces in the global knowledge economy act in contradiction to massification. All countries need to have top universities that can compete and cooperate at the highest levels in the broader society and the economy. More specifically, this role can be played by the research universities. Research universities are a very small part of any country’s academic system, and because they are expensive to fund, countries need to think about how many research universities they need to maintain. In the US, about 200 of the 2300 state-funded universities are research universities. These 200 are of central importance in the pyramid of the higher education system.

 

Take Myanmar for example. In order to have research universities that can talk to the top universities in the world, these universities need to be given the adequate support to enable them to partake in the global knowledge economy at the same level as other universities. Interaction among world class universities entails international student mobility, faculty exchange, research and teaching programmes that require a globally mobile academic labour force. There have been many universities around the world that have had to deal with the challenge of ‘global English’. “In Russia, schools are contemplating what the role of English in research universities is; there is pressure for faculty to publish journals in English,” Altbach explained. The use of English as a medium of instruction is also linked to university rankings, which are also a large consideration in the global knowledge economy.

 

Intellectual property development is also an important part of the global knowledge economy, and research universities buy and sell intellectual property. This needs to be thought about carefully.

 

 

The realities of the context of higher education mean three things for research universities and their role in the academic system. First, contemporary higher education needs differentiated academic systems. Not all higher education institutions are research universities; not all postgraduate institutions need to be universities. Second, there only needs to be a small number of research universities, but they are important in the system. Research universities play a number of complex roles, and at the top of the list is research. Said Altbach: “Often, research universities are asked to do many things, but they are not social service agencies. They do not earn from applied research or consulting, but focus on research and teaching.

 

“Universities have been the source of research for more than 200 years, and need to continue as such. They are the only societal institutions that will carry out basic research, and they need to be supported by the government accordingly.”

 

He added: “A balance between basic and applied research is important. The former is what will win Nobel prizes, which in the long run will contribute to applied research. For example, it is only recently that Einstein’s theory of relativity was proven [through basic research by the universities].”

 

Third, universities, especially research universities, are in the education business. They educate people with the end-goal of helping them to attain the skills and knowledge required to land jobs. The evidence of universities fulfilling this role is when those that are well-educated find jobs, especially the kind of jobs created in the rapidly changing 21st century.

 

So what kind of education should research universities provide? Research universities need to teach people how to think, communicate and write in the vein of American colleges’ idea of a ‘liberal’. This is especially important because training for just one type of job or career in a person’s lifetime is becoming less and less applicable.

 

 

 

 

[1] The HEAD Foundation (THF) is a Singapore-based think tank devoted to the research, policy influence, and effective implementation of education for development in Asia.