Given the interdependence among these great institutions, both private and public, one must speculate about the subjunctive. Were a few of these great universities so weakened at some point that they could not support research, would their extraordinary chain of research developments have been broken? What might not have been discovered or invented that is key in today’s civilization? The probability that progress would have been interrupted or derailed is, of course, far greater if the whole set of universities had been weakened. Are these subjunctive musings becoming reality? For example, the Schumpeter column in the September 4, 2010 issue of The Economist acknowl- edges the “best in the world” status of US higher education but concludes, “America’s universities lost their way badly in the era of easy money. If they do not find it again, they may go the way of GM.” Such warnings are frequent in the popular press and recent monographs. What I give you today is my analysis as an economist of the dangers facing the ecosystem of research universities. My analysis focuses on research universities only. A central characteristic of research universities is that they thrive on synergy that flows from their mixture of research, graduate study, and undergraduate instruction. Each element depends on the other and each is improved by the presence of the others. Undergraduate instruction is improved by the depth of faculty expertise and the wealth of library, computing, and laboratory resources available. Graduate study is strengthened by the opportunities to participate in cutting edge research and to learn the craft of teaching in a rich, supportive environment. Faculty expertise is present because resources that flow from tuition, state appropriations, endowment funding, and research grants and contracts enable these universities to acquire the resources needed to house and support their programs of research. Forces that threaten to weaken this synergy are growing stronger. Even if it were possible to provide undergraduate education with the same qualities, to equally well educate graduate students and to conduct the same level of cutting edge research in single-mission institutions, the financial interdepend- ence of the three activities makes it unlikely that institutions attempting to do so could thrive. RLI 274 2 The Future of the US Research University ( C O N T I N U E D ) FEBRUARY 2011 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC Research universities…thrive on synergy that flows from their mixture of research, graduate study, and undergraduate instruction.
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