Richard Vedder of Ohio University has long been one of the leading scholars of higher education in America, and he takes a dim view of how it has been changing: becoming far more costly, often without leading to more academic gain for students.
In today’s Martin Center article, Vedder asks, “Who Should Own the University of North Carolina?”
The article was inspired by the creation of a commission by North Carolina governor Roy Cooper to study ways of improving UNC system governance. He’s skeptical that it will accomplish much.
A big problem is that university administrators have much more information about what’s going on than do outside trustees and boards. He writes, “In my 2013 UNC Board of Governors appearance, I stressed that governing boards are often intentionally misled by university administrations. They depend on the president of the school and other top aides for information on what is happening on campus. But university presidents have powerful incentives (involving their own job-security and compensation) to provide rosy, good news about what is happening on campus, and they often downplay or ignore important developments that they do not want the board investigating.”
The built-in problem with public higher education is that those who run it constantly plead for both more money and complete autonomy to decide how to spend it.
Vedder suggests some marginal changes that could improve efficiency, but he isn’t too optimistic about the prospects for significant reform.