Is the Higher Education Recession Over Or Just Starting?

A survey by Inside Higher Education shows a fundamental difference in economic assumptions of governors and college presidents with those who run the academic affairs such as provosts. Some are hailing the end of the economic downswing in 2008 while those who run the academics do not feel that this downturn is over. The perspectives are interesting and offer some insight to the debates going on in higher education. 

According to the survey only 5% feel strongly that the economic downturn is over at their institutions. Another 18% feel that for the most part it is over. A total of 21% strongly disagree and another 37% somewhat disagree. Only 26% of private nonprofit institutions agree that the recession for their schools is over. Public institutions were even more likely to believe the downturn will continue. 

The provosts feel that concepts such as MOOCs are unlikely to produce meaningful change. There will also be greater accountability on higher education to match effectiveness with finance. They are unenthusiastic about proposed changes for measuring school effectiveness at a national level but are excited about competency based programs.

Programs like STEM, professional degrees, and online programs are likely to receive more investment. It appears that schools are trying to receive additional funds and allocating those funds to programs that are likely to draw and retain students. Faculty and administrators have a divide in the way they view higher education and the changes that are needed.

The study was based on 842 provosts and has a margin of error around 3%. You may want to read the report yourself as there is a greater amount of information it offers. You can find some dissonance of perspective based upon where one sits within the higher education economic chain. For example, college presidents view the situation much differently than provosts and faculty members.

The report is a mixed bag. Certainly there is an adjustment in the perceived value of some programs versus others. Who can argue with STEM? Online programs are becoming a more common way to augment costs and attract students. Even though MOOCs have limited value they should be seen as higher education experimentation and may lead to either new adaptations or beneficial for continual professional education where a defined degree is not needed. In any event, the cost is rising and this is going to eventually run into the brick wall of public financing. Perhaps this will be when changes occur at a quickening pace.

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Book Review: Asking Questions

Asking Questions by Doctors Norman Bradburn, Seymour Sudman and Brian Wansink delves deeply into developing useful surveys for business, marketing, customer service, political and academic research purposes. The book provides an overview of how questions on surveys influence results. Developing strong survey questions will encourage more accurate and valid responses that accurately reflect the construct the researchers are trying to measure. The book will move you through three parts:

Part 1: Strategies for Asking Questions: Understanding the wider social context and cultural aspects of questions is important for understanding how those questions are interpreted. For example, developing questions about finance, sexual behavior, criminality, and very personal issues may lead to incorrect data. Different cultures will have varying viewpoints on which questions are appropriate and which ones are not. Understanding how questions are perceived from a cultural background or demographic can help in wording those questions properly and making them less stigmatizing. 

Part II: Tactics for Asking Questions: The way in which questions are worded and asked can have a huge impact on the actual results of the surveys. When possible such questions should be neutral and asked in different ways to ensure that they are not leading the answers. Leading answers means that more people will pick a particular response due to the way a question is asked. It is also important to have multiple forms of the question to help lower that chances that the questions were misunderstood and asked inappropriately.

Part III: Drafting and Crafting the Questionnaire: The final section of the book deals with concepts such as font size, color of paper, how it is to be administrated, websites, and other things thought about before the administration page. Even though these things may not seem that important they can change the nature and response rate of the questionnaire. If participants can’t understand the high language or see the font it is certainly going to impact the studies success.

A large percentage of research is conducted using surveys. We see these surveys in the news, within companies, political associations, and at colleges. How these surveys are developed often determine their overall validity. We should not expect every survey to necessarily be valid and truthful unless it is designed and administered in the right way. This means that what we perceive as accurate may not be accurate at all.  If you plan on conducting your own research it is beneficial to pick up this book when building your survey and a different statistical book when trying to determine how to validate that survey.  This book provides a strong list of references as well as non-for-profit and academic survey contacts.

Bradburn, B., Sudman, S. & Wansink, B. (2004). Asking Questions: the definitive guide to questionnaire design, for market research, political polls, and social and health questionnaires. San Francisco, CA; John Wiley & Sons.  ISBN0-7879-7088-3

Pages: Approximately 416