News & Views item - April 2010

 

 

Public Research Universities in the US to Develop a Framework for Their Future. (April 1, 2010)

Scheduled for today the University of Texas, Austin is to host the first of five regional meetings which will analyse the contributions to education, research, and innovation by the US' foremost public research universities.

 

 

The media release from the 218-member Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) reads: There is growing concern about the long-term financial capacity of public research universities to sustain current levels of federal government research. For 20 years, public universities have done roughly 60 percent of the university research paid for by the federal government—work that is critical to the future of the country. This spring A۰P۰L۰U is convening five regional meetings to review the key issues and develop solutions. Five A۰P۰L۰U presidents and chancellors will host meetings in their regions. The hosts and the dates of their one-day meetings are as follows:

The APLU's statement concludes: In addition, Members of Congress have asked the National Academies to convene a panel charged with making recommendations for strengthening all research universities, including public research universities. A۰P۰L۰U will feed our analysis and views into the National Academies’ panel while advancing our goals. The National Academies have indicated they will have someone at each regional meeting. We are also working closely on these issues with AAU President Robert Berdahl, who will join us at several meetings.

 

 

A new APLU report, Forging a Foundation for the Future, describes how per-student state support has declined in the past 20 years, most sharply at those universities which conduct the most research. It also points to a growing gap in faculty salaries between research-intensive public and private universities.

 

In the last 20 years, state governments have reduced the budgetary emphasis they place on higher education. During this period, states have collected a fairly stable proportion of personal income through taxes, but have reduced the proportion of personal income they appropriate for higher education (Table 1 [above]). While the proportion of income taxed by the states has varied little, the proportion of personal income appropriated by the states for higher education has declined by roughly 30 percent.