Monday, May 21, 2012

The End of College?

Not sure if I am the problem, the solution, or just confused.  But I'm a "member" of five departments:  Duke Econ, Duke Poli Sci, Duke Public Policy, UNC Poli Sci, and UNC Public Policy.  That's not really a silo.  A two-part series in Bloomberg.  Interesting.

Part I: Competition Kills Colleges

Part II:  The College Cave Age

6 comments:

aub said...

I know I'm confused. What's the difference between Public Policy and Political Science?

Anonymous said...

where's your FTE?

Mungowitz said...

Aub: Google is your friend.

C&C: We don't really do that. No one cares. It's not some loser state school where we suck at the public teat, and have to account for our minutes.

Jon P said...

For a minute there I read "Competition Kills Colleagues", which is also true, I suppose..

Nick Hanauer is the latest billionaire whose economic pronouncements are getting outsized attention - when will he be addressed?

aub said...

Mungowitz: I think Google is mad at me (I probably didn't call when I said I would). It keeps sending me results that aren't in English. So I ran a couple through Translate. One site translated to "Public Policy is a subset of Poli Sci." The Stanford Public Policy site translated to "Public Policy rulz over everything and Poli Sci can suck it."

So I gave up and went kayaking with my kid.

HBanan said...

I read both articles, and I thought they could have been written by a grad student who has read the Chronicle of Higher Education a few times -- or even just the latest email issued by his dean explaining the new hire in integrative research in the field of your choice. Loads of cliches and sweeping assertion without real evidence that trends in faculty are negatively affecting education. I agree that spending on buildings is wasteful in universities with high attrition rates, but competition is a reality that cannot be escaped. In Ohio, people don't even need the US News and World Report -- they can visit all the state schools, and if one looks shiny and new while the other looks old, the 18 year-olds will pick the fancy looking school. Most of the comments were equally glib, demanding schools drop some of the most popular majors, including "business." Sure, tell grocery stores to stop stocking hot dogs and chips. He also ignores how many universities are focused on increasing collaboration and integration of departments; I know Duke is trending that way. NSF already grants specifically for collaborative efforts between widely different fields.