IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/cshedu/qt7pb373fw.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Can Public Research Universities Compete?

Author

Listed:
  • Brint, Steven

Abstract

Many leaders of public research universities worry about falling behind private research universities at a time when private university finances have improved dramatically and state support for higher education has declined. In this paper, I provide grounds for a more optimistic view of the competitive position of public research universities. I develop two "business models" for higher education: the public research university model is based on high volume of enrollments and low cost per student, while the private university model is based on low volume and high cost. I show that the private model, at its best, generates a high proportion of future leaders, stronger educational reputations, and leads to the accumulation of more institutional wealth. However, the public model remains viable and successful, principally because it typically generates larger faculties. The total societal contribution of public research universities, as measured by human capital development and research publication, is greater than that of private universities.

Suggested Citation

  • Brint, Steven, 2006. "Can Public Research Universities Compete?," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt7pb373fw, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:cshedu:qt7pb373fw
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7pb373fw.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liwen Vaughan & Debora Shaw, 2005. "Web citation data for impact assessment: A comparison of four science disciplines," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 56(10), pages 1075-1087, August.
    2. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1996. "Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number clot96-1.
    3. James Monks & Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 1999. "The Impact of US News and World Report College Rankings on Admission Outcomes and Pricing Decisions at Selective Private Institutions," NBER Working Papers 7227, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amy Ellen Schwartz & Benjamin Scafidi, 2004. "What's Happened to the Price of College?: Quality-Adjusted Net Price Indexes for Four-Year Colleges," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(3), pages 723-745.
    2. Yolanda Kodrzycki, 1999. "Geographic shifts in higher education," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Jul, pages 27-47.
    3. Gordon C. Winston, 1997. "Why Can't a College be More Like a Firm?," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-42, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    4. Cyrenne, Philippe & Grant, Hugh, 2009. "University decision making and prestige: An empirical study," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 237-248, April.
    5. Bruce A. Kimball & Jeremy B. Luke, 2016. "Measuring cost escalation in the formative era of U.S. higher education, 1875–1930," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(4), pages 198-219, October.
    6. E. Han Kim & Min Zhu, 2010. "Universities as Firms: The Case of US Overseas Programs," NBER Chapters, in: American Universities in a Global Market, pages 163-201, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Gordon Winston & David Zimmerman, 2004. "Peer Effects in Higher Education," NBER Chapters, in: College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay For It, pages 395-424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Rongying Zhao & Mingkun Wei, 2017. "Academic impact evaluation of Wechat in view of social media perspective," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1777-1791, September.
    9. Takao Kato & Chad Sparber, 2013. "Quotas and Quality: The Effect of H-1B Visa Restrictions on the Pool of Prospective Undergraduate Students from Abroad," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(1), pages 109-126, March.
    10. Grey Gordon & Aaron Hedlund, 2017. "Accounting for the Rise in College Tuition," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Skills, and Technical Change: Implications for Future US GDP Growth, pages 357-394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Tao, Hung-Lin, 2007. "Monetizing college reputation: The case of Taiwan's engineering and medical schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 232-243, April.
    12. Pavlov, Oleg V. & Katsamakas, Evangelos, 2023. "Tuition too high? Blame competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 409-431.
    13. Caroline M. Hoxby, 1998. "Tax Incentives for Higher Education," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 12, pages 49-82, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Caroline M. Hoxby, 2009. "The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    15. Tan Kuan Lu, Clifford, 2014. "University Rankings Game and its relation to GDP per capita and GDP growth," MPRA Paper 53933, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Laura Thissen & Sjef Ederveen, 2006. "Higher education; time for coordination on a European level?," CPB Discussion Paper 68.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    17. DANIEL P. McMILLEN & LARRY D. SINGELL & GLEN R. WADDELL, 2007. "Spatial Competition And The Price Of College," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 45(4), pages 817-833, October.
    18. Dooley, Martin D. & Payne, A. Abigail & Robb, A. Leslie, 2010. "Merit-Aid and the Distribution of Entering Students Across Ontario University," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2010-10, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 26 Mar 2010.
    19. Gordon C. Winston, 1999. "Subsidies, Hierarchy and Peers: The Awkward Economics of Higher Education," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 13-36, Winter.
    20. Polishchuk, L., 2010. "Collective Reputation in Higher Education: An Equilibrium Model," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 7, pages 46-69.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cdl:cshedu:qt7pb373fw. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://escholarship.org/uc/cshe/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.