Universities in the Marketplace : The Commercialization of Higher Education

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Summary: A fairly candid accounting from someone who's been there
Review: Active university presidents, wary of saying anything untoward for fear of losing potential donors, are non-stop cheerleaders for higher education. Former presidents have the opportunity for candor but rarely take advantage of it. To some degree, Derek Bok is an exception to the rule. In this measured book, he sometimes reveals the warts in the current state of higher ed. Far from a screed, this book's criticisms are tempered, laced with some humor, and carry with them a sense of optimism.

Bok is far too kind and makes repeated excuses for the shortcomings in contemporary leadership in higher education. In a revealing segment, he opines that if R.M. Hutchins was a university president today, he would not have the ability to strongly influence decisions concerning university athletics. Baloney. Hutchins had conviction and courage, qualities that allow leaders to create positive change today as well as they did in the previous century.

That said, Bok is not shy to point out some shortcomings in universities today: a neglect of undergraduates, corruption in athletics, and a tendency for money to derail educational and research missions. Many others have made similar criticisms. But most have lacked the credibility and visibility of Bok.

Reading between the lines one can sense that Bok sees little value in faculty governance and views the professorate as inherently myopic. Change must, in Bok's view, come from the top.

This book is designed as a gentle warning. It's in some ways a watered down version of a book from the 1990s by another former college president - Killing the Spirit by Page Smith. Smith's book contained more vitriol and was read widely, but had no impact on changing the system. Bok's book isn't having any impact either. It is being ignored because it tells a story that university leaders don't want to hear. This is a well-meaning book and it's a shame it isn't getting the attention it deserves.

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Summary: Consideration Of Effects Of Commercialization On Academia!
Review: Anyone who has been associated with higher education in this country in the last fifty years is aware of the massive changes that have been sweeping over private colleges and state university systems in the last twenty to thirty years, changes ranging from the unfortunate consequences of political correctness to those associated with a relaxation of more rigorous academic standards to make such education "more accessible" to the population at large to other changes associated with the increasing concentration on more practical "vocational" educational skills to the proliferation of shop-as-you-go graduate educational programs, diploma mills designed to deliver to consumers a plethora of MBA and other business-oriented degrees in service to their career progression. Those of us professionally associated with higher education have often bemoaned the sad changes visiting themselves upon what was once a proud institution, the marvel of the western world in terms of its level of rigor, accessibility, and relative merit in terms of educational product.

In this recent tome by former Harvard University president Derek Bok, yet another form of change and devolution of all the academy once stood for is discussed with both intelligence and wit; the commercialization of institutions of higher education and the associated seduction and corruption of faculty, administrators and the university system itself. Bok takes a probing look at the many ways in which financial enticements have entered the ivory towers, and how such temptations are profoundly altering the business of the university system itself, often warping both the mission of the institution as well as the intellectual products flowing from the academic marketplace. Beginning with the advent of financial gain associated with college sport programs, the author wonders out loud at what point the transformation of what was once an ancillary concern for additional source of academic funding became a much more purposeful source of university profit, resulting in much more deliberate efforts on the university's part to use sport for financial gain.

He similarly muses over the fashion in which independent medical research efforts within university setting have become captive to the driving force of pharmaceutical and other medical enterprises, such that the focus and progress of medical research becomes much more focused on particular kinds of patent-driven and/or profit-oriented enterprises, efforts that if successful can turn humble medical researchers into instant millionaire tycoons. Similarly, universities now find themselves competing over intellectual hot properties like cybernetic wiz-kids, with places like Harvard offering fringe benefits like free homes in Concord or Lexington MA in order to lure promising young computer superstars capable of drawing a lot of grant money and/or corporate sponsorship to the institution. Finally, he debates as to what the practice of beginning such internet-based distance learning programs will have on both the quality and nature of higher education in the future, since it could well have significant consequences for those wishing to actually do their study on-campus.

Of course, commercialization has some positive aspects to it, as with the excellent (and quietly profit-oriented) extension university system associated with Harvard. One can gain access to the same faculty and coursework as is available in the full-time day programs at Harvard in part-time evening programs (both undergraduate as well as graduate) that are relatively inexpensive, have few entrance requirements and all of the advantages of a more rigorous Harvard liberal arts education. While it is likely true that the program exists as a way of Harvard itself cashing in on the cache of its name, it offers a quality educational program and provides a potential excellent product for a discerning consumer. At base, this is an absorbing book, one well worth the time and effort to thread through its 200 some pages in search of some provocative and thoughtful observations of the drawbacks associated with the increasing commercialization of the university marketplace. It is a book I can highly recommend. Enjoy!

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Summary: Gazing into the future of universities
Review: Derek Bok, a professor and formerly president of Harvard, writes about the pressures for commercialization that institutions of higher education face and are likely to face in the future. (Commercialization is defined as "efforts within the university to make profit from teaching, research and other campus activities.") In particular, Professor Bok has taken on three major themes: commercialization of athletics, research and education (online teaching, extension programs, etc.)

For one, this book is a useful reality check. Through scores of studies, Professor Bok dispels the myth that these three activities are profitable. Save few exceptions, these endeavors prove financially disastrous. More than that, there are the hidden dangers of compromising a university's academic standards and standing in the community. The call for a candid evaluation of the costs of commercialization is half of the book's theme.

The other half outlines prescriptions and guidelines for university presidents about how to handle these increased pressures. Professor Bok suggests revision to NCAA rules, and university oversight and care to limit the influence of corporate sponsors over research or the curriculum taught in schools.

In the end, "Universities in the Marketplace" is a reminder that universities are built around values: "the larger message of a liberal arts education [is] that there is more to life than making money." These values and the collaborative spirit, on which universities thrive, are threatened by the mistaken perception that there is money to be made by exploiting a school's name. The adherence to high standards is an old prescription for new pressures, and the one that Professor Bok suggests as the ultimate guideline for dealing with the threats of the future.