Brian Sandberg: Historical Perspectives

Are you sure that you want to take business education as a model?

Many businessmen and higher education “reformers”, such as Jeff Sandefer in Texas (see previous post), argue that business education points the way to “transform” academics for the 21st century.

The Chronicle of Higher Education now reports that: “Business majors spend less time preparing for class than do students in any other broad field, according to the most recent National Survey of Student Engagement: Nearly half of seniors majoring in business say they spend fewer than 11 hours a week studying outside class. In their new book, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, the sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa report that on a national test of writing and reasoning skills, business majors had the weakest gains during the first two years of college. And when business students take the GMAT, the entry examination for M.B.A. programs, they score lower than do students in every other major.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education then asks: “And what about employers? What do they want?”

“According to national surveys,” the story continues, “they want to hire 22-year-olds who can write coherently, think creatively, and analyze quantitative data. They’re perfectly happy to hire English or biology majors. Most Ivy League universities and elite liberal-arts colleges, in fact, don’t even offer undergraduate business majors.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education points out that even some business education leaders have doubts about the utility of a business major: “Back in 1980, J. David Hunger, the St. Benedict/Saint John’s fellow, wrote a monograph about the travails of undergraduate business education. He has never quite resolved his ambivalent feelings about the field. ‘At some times in my life,’ he says, ‘I’ve argued that we don’t really need a business major.'”

Want to reduce the costs of higher education?

Reexamining the costs of business schools within university budgets would a good place to start.  According to the recently released AAUP Faculty Salary Survey, which examines academic salaries across the nation, Professors of Business Administration and Management earn on average 50.9% more than Professors of English Language and Literature.

Another place to save money?  Soaring administrative costs.   But, that’s a story for another post.

Meanwhile, read the full story in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Salary inequities continue to get worse at universities and colleges across the United States.  Over the past generation, the number of administrators have grown, while faculty numbers have remained almost constant.  Those administrators’ salaries have also ballooned, while faculty salaries have flat-lined (adjusting for inflation).

Now, the American Association for University Professors (AAUP) has published a new annual salary report showing that university presidents’ salaries have continued to increase during the latest recession (academic years 2007-2008 through 2010-2011).  The AAUP reports that “During this recessionary period, the average salary increase for presidents was twice the average faculty salary increase at public institutions and nearly three times the faculty salary increase at private institutions. Such a disproportionate increase in compensation for a single individual is an indication of misplaced institutional priorities—especially when faculty members and other higher education employees have been faced with involuntary unpaid furloughs, hiring and salary freezes, and cuts to benefits.”

See the AAUP’s summary or the entire 2010-2011 report online.  See the Chronicle of Higher Education or the New York Times for additional reporting on this issue.

Faculty and graduate students at Northern Illinois University should be aware of the issues raised by the AAUP’s report.