Research Universities Face Tough Challenges As Budgets Shrink

Abstract

Earlier this month, a group of experts sought to shed a little light on problems facing the country's research universities—almost all of which are struggling to redefine and reform themselves. The core question comes down to this: Are research universities really worth the $15 billion of public money they receive for conducting R&D? The one-day meeting, called Facing the Challenges of the Research University, was sponsored by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based policy think tank. It was arranged by Stanford economist Roger G. Noll who has just finished a year at Brookings studying the economic dynamics of the research university, roughly defined as a university with a research budget exceeding $75 million annually. That these uniquely American institutions are intense fountains of research is undisputed. Their campuses brim with centers, institutes, and departments covering every conceivable technical field. But that is the very source of the debate today. For these units are also ...