Endangered Access:
Western State Policies for Managing Higher Education Growth
Introduction/Background
This issue of Policy Insights was prepared by William Chance, Public Policy Research, Olympia, Washington.
Higher education enrollments in many western states are expected to increase significantly during the next decade. Substantial additional resources will be needed; yet, many states are unable to provide more funding and are looking into other possibilities. Tightly-connected systems, increased and expanded technological applications, alternative facilities, greater utilization of capacity, and renewed faculty commitments to access, growth, and service represent some of the approaches. A strategy for addressing growth involves the application of new technologies, seen not only as a way to avoid intolerable costs, but also as a way to gain productivity and shift the culture toward more learner-centered systems. Innovation in the use of facilities and different ways of increasing utilization also offer hope for maximizing resources and improving effectiveness. These approaches and their policy implications are discussed in this issue.
Background…
Projections of high school graduates portend sharply increased higher education enrollments during the next decade in many of the western states. Substantial additional resources will be needed to serve them. These conditions comprise the principal higher education policy question confronting the West: How can higher education growth be accommodated with limited resources?
WICHE’s recent western policy forum on "Endangered Access," co-sponsored by the California Citizens Commission on Higher Education, in Huntington Beach, California, explored possible solutions -- dramatically expanded technology applications, more closely-linked systems, innovative facility configurations and greater utilization of existing capacity, inventive financial incentives, and a renewed commitment to access and growth. This issue of Policy Insights reviews these and some of their policy implications.