Impact of government R&D spending and the bifurcating labor market on high technology and higher education

Abstract

In the past decade the social effects of technological change have contributed to the increasing bifurcations in the economy and the occupational structure. These changes, taken together with the consequences of governmental research and development spending patterns and the structural changes taking place at higher educational institutions, have implications for higher education policy making in the 1990s and beyond that are too important to minimize or ignore any longer. This paper demonstrates how the academic community can enhance its income, status, and effectiveness in society by responding to the effects of technological change, and offers some strategies for coping with changing skill requirements and industry-university partnerships.