Chapters 1 - 3

Question 1

What factors have prevented universities from evolving?

Answer 1

(1) Institutional isomorphism - coercive, mimetic (to signal legitimacy to others), normative (faculty moving between institutions)
(2) Rankings (carnegie ladder)
(4) Monopoly over credentials
(5) Low price sensitivity (due to subsidies)
(6) Power of prestige in a system where “learning outcomes” are hard to measure

Question 2

Why does price continue to increase?

Answer 2

Increasing costs (sports, research, electives, amenities), low price sensitivity (due to monopoly & subsidies)

Question 3

What is BYU doing differently?

Answer 3

Focus scholarship on teaching, limited academic offering, undergrad only. Elimination of athletic program. Year round calendar. Success metrics: % admitted, decrease tuition relative to inflation

Question 4

By how much has tuition increased between 1997 and 2007 vs earning power?

Answer 4

Earning power remianed the same while tuition has increased by 30% adjusted to inflation

Question 5

What is the parallel of universities to the theory of disruptive innovation?

Answer 5

Sustaining innovations eventually surpassn what the most demand customer may want and continues to make marginal improvements at increasing prices.

Question 6

What was Harvard’s intial “DNA” in the 17th century?

Answer 6

(1) Religious-classical instruction - dogmatic, for training ministers, classic philosophy
(2) Nonspecialized faculty - low expertise, high empathy
(3) Small face to face classes - personalized, low efficiency

Question 7

Who started secularizing Harvard?

Answer 7

John Leverett (1708 became president) to move away from his predecessor’s involvement with the Salem’s witch hunt

Question 8

What was Harvard’s “DNA” in the 18th/19th century?

Answer 8

Secularization, specialisation, departmentalisation, long summer recess, professional schools, private fundraising

Question 9

What was classical-religious instruction like?

Answer 9

Dogmatic & focused on training to become ministers

Question 10

What were the implications of nonspecialised faculty?

Answer 10

More empathy (they recently been down the same path as students), less depth & expertise

Question 11

What were the implications of small face to face classes?

Answer 11

Greater personalization, low instructional efficiency

Question 12

What were the implications of secularization?

Answer 12

Skepticism - convenient for scholarly research. More practical teaching

Question 13

What were the implications of specialisation?

Answer 13

Better research. Greater expertise & depth of faculty knowledge. Diminished focus on students. Higher cost of instruction

Question 14

What were the implications of departmentalisation?

Answer 14

Greater breadth of choice for students. Increased fragmentation of scholarship & curriculum - less cohesiveness

Question 15

What were the implications of private fundraising?

Answer 15

Greater discretion of spending (severting ties with Massachusets govt.), Lower dependence on tuition & state, donor limitations and incidental expenses (i.e meteorites)

Question 16

What ideas did Charles Eliot brought from Europe?

Answer 16

After not receiving the professorship that he wanted (probably because he was more focused on admin tasks than scholarly ones), he quit Harvard and went to Europe. There he discovered:

(1) Influence of scholarship on economy and social progress
(2) Individuals’ suffering under undemocratic states - leading to low social mobility
(3) European universities were good at many things - breadth & depth combined

Hence he decided to encourage/discourage these traits

Question 17

What was the rationale behind the electives system?

Answer 17

(1) Student perform better at what they’re interested in

(2) Specialisation of research

Question 18

What were some concerns with respect to the electives system?

Answer 18

Coherence, breadth (too much?), depth (too little?), cost

Question 19

What other changes/improvements are attributed to Charles Eliot?

Answer 19

Curricular innovations (case method in law), modern academic course (encourage competition between faculty),

Question 20

How did Charles Eliot solve the problem of the need for an increasingly large influx of “college prepared” students?

Answer 20

He basically outsourced the job of preparing students for college through liberal education to high schools, giving them 2 jobs (vocational & liberal)

Question 21

Why can too much freedom with regards to courses lead to increasing costs & poor quality?

Answer 21

Little clarity when to cut down: problem with profits is that is not a good way to measure whether you are providing a good liberal education, professors are biased as for what constitutes and essential course, courses may exist as long as there is a teacher willing to teach it, there are no quality standards

Question 22

How did Harvard evolve during Eliot’s time (1869-1909)?

Answer 22

(1) Elective curriculum
(2) Grad schools atop college
(3) Faculty self-governance
(4) Tenure & other faculty benefits
(5) Student freedoms
(6) Intercollegiate athletics
(7) College entrance standards

Question 23

What were the implications of grad schools atop college?

Answer 23

(1) Greater supply of grad instructors

(2) Greater space for liberal education

Question 24

What were the implications of faculty self-governance?

Answer 24

(1) Excellence in scholarship
(2) Decreased attention to undergrads
(3) Increased costs

Question 25

What were the implications of student freedoms?

Answer 25

(1) More social activity
(2) Increased institutional costs
(3) Decreased academic discipline

Question 26

What were the implications of intercollegiate athletics?

Answer 26

(1) Increased costs

(2) Increased distraction

Question 27

What were the implications of increased college entrance standards?

Answer 27

(1) Passing off responsibility to high schools

(2) Less remediation needed