Failing Universities examines how commodification and corporatization are shaping higher education in the United States. Colleges and universities were once places where students came to learn, experts, intellectuals, and others came to teach, and where knowledge was created. These days, America’s higher education system is removed from that mission. Traditional liberal arts education is being replaced by a focus on “job-ready” skills demanded by employers, or at least what universities assume employers want. In turn, many public universities are becoming little more than technical schools, with traditional education reserved for those who can afford an elite private university. Football and basketball programs (most of which lose money) are turning universities into entertainment centers. Good teaching is being traded for successful grant writing. Stable tenure-track university employment is being replaced by a gig economy where low-paid adjuncts, contract workers, and graduate assistants teach most courses. Too many universities are run by “bean-counters” with little interest in education beyond cutting costs. Targeted by conservatives, many universities are no longer safe spaces where instructors can discuss ideas that question the prevailing political narrative. Taken together, higher education is becoming just another marketplace commodity. Despite these challenges, we believe that reform is possible.
Failing Universities is granular in that it drills down and lists the salaries of some key college and university presidents, administrative salaries, coach salaries, and the costs of consultants. The book examines the effects of corporatization, providing a comprehensive critique of the sector’s problems. It outlines how higher education’s commodification has impacted affordability, access, waste, hierarchal administrative structures, faculty governance, the college sports industrial complex, and status and social mobility based on institutional prestige. We explore alternative policy solutions and examples of systems of higher education that are both efficient and cost-effective. In addition, we propose a forward-looking agenda for structural reform that is less expensive and more educationally sound than the current model. Our proposals emphasize social cohesion, sustainability, respect for diversity, and understanding and appreciation of democracy and democratic principles. These recommendations are alternative solutions designed to return higher education to its primary mission.
