Originally published in 2002, State Governments and Research Universities focuses on differences in unrestricted state appropriations for Carnegie Public Research I Universities during the 1990s. Through statistical analyses and case studies, a framework is developed that illuminates the impact of higher education governance, institutional characteristics, and economic, demographic, political, and cultural factors as critical elements determining levels of state appropriations for public research universities. The framework is strengthened through an application of organization theories from rational, political, and cultural perspectives. Among its most valuable contributions, the study places empirical evidence behind the assertion that future state support for research universities will be contingent on an institution's ability to demonstrate its service to the state.
Provides a study of differences in unrestricted state appropriations for Carnegie Public Research Universities during the 1990s, contending that funding is contingent on the institution's ability to demonstrate its service to the state.
Research Universities and the Future of America presents critically important strategies for ensuring that our nation's research universities contribute strongly to America's prosperity, security, and national goals. Widely considered the best in the world, our nation's research universities today confront significant financial pressures, important advances in technology, a changing demographic landscape, and increased international competition. This report provides a course of action for ensuring our universities continue to produce the knowledge, ideas, and talent the United States needs to be a global leader in the 21st century. Research Universities and the Future of America focuses on strengthening and expanding the partnership among universities and government, business, and philanthropy that has been central to American prosperity and security. The report focuses on the top 10 actions that Congress, the federal government, state governments, research universities, and others could take to strengthen the research and education missions of our research universities, their relationships with other parts of the national research enterprise, and their ability to transfer new knowledge and ideas to those who productively use them in our society and economy. This report examines trends in university finance, prospects for improving university operations, opportunities for deploying technology, and improvement in the regulation of higher education institutions. It also explores ways to improve pathways to graduate education, take advantage of opportunities to increase student diversity, and realign doctoral education for the careers new doctorates will follow. Research Universities and the Future of America is an important resource for policy makers on the federal and state levels, university administrators, philanthropic organizations, faculty, technology transfer specialists, libraries, and researchers.
Before the Second World War, few universities in the United States had earned high respect among the international community of scholars and scientists. Since 1945, however, the distinctive attributes of American higher education—decentralized administration, pluralistic and research-minded faculties, and intense competition for government funding—have become world standard. Whether measured by Nobel and other prizes, international applications for student admissions and faculty appointments, or the results of academic surveys, America's top research universities are the best in the world. The Rise of American Research Universities provides a fresh historical interpretation of their ascendancy and a fresh, comprehensive estimate of their scholarly achievement. Hugh Davis Graham and Nancy Diamond question traditional methods of rating the reputation and performance of universities; they offer instead an empirical analysis of faculty productivity based on research grants received, published research, and peer approval of that work. Comparing the research achievements of faculty at more than 200 institutions, they differ with most studies of higher education in measuring performance in every academic field—from medicine to humanities—and in analyzing data on research activity in terms of institutional size. In this important and timely work, Graham and Diamond reassess the success of American universities as research institutions and the role of public funding in their developmentfrom the expansionist "golden years" of the 1950s and '60s, through the austerity measures of the 1970s and the entrepreneurial ethos of the 1980s, to the budget crises universities face in the 1990s.
A recent ranking undertaken by Jiao Tong University in Shanghai shows 36 U.S universities among the top 50 universities in the world, with eight of the top 10 in the United States. Author Fareed Zakaria has declared: "[H]igher education is the United States' best industry. In no other field is the United States' advantage so overwhelming. Although China and India are opening new institutions, it is not that easy to create a world-class university out of whole cloth in a few decades." America's lead may be less secure than Zakaria suggests. Neither the University of California, San Diego (ranked 13th) nor the University of California, Santa Barbara (ranked 35th) existed 50 years ago. China, at least, is pouring substantial resources into building a number of world-class research universities, while oil-rich Saudi Arabia is intent on building a research university in the next few years to equal the best universities anywhere. The competitive advantage the United States currently enjoys is obvious, but retaining it cannot be taken for granted; the support from state governments for their "flagship" public universities and the partnership between research universities and the federal government must be renewed and enhanced if America's lead is to be sustained. This paper attempts to describe the importance of research universities to education and science and to society more broadly.
Forty years after Clark Kerr coined the term multiversity, the American research university has continued to evolve into a complex force for social and economic good. This volume provides a unique opportunity to explore the current state of the research university system. Charles M. Vest, one of the leading advocates for autonomy for American higher education, offers a multifaceted view of the university at the beginning of a new century. With a complex mission and funding structure, the university finds its international openness challenged by new security concerns and its ability to contribute to worldwide opportunity through sharing and collaboration dramatically expanded by the Internet. In particular, Vest addresses the need to nurture broad access to our universities and stay true to the fundamental mission of creating opportunity.
