Why Public Higher Education Should Be Free: How to Decrease Cost and Increase Quality at American Universities

The High Cost of Research

88 American research universities have played an essential role in the world economy and the development of many important new technologies and medical innovations. In fact, without the research done at these institutions , we probably would not have the Internet, cellphones, most vaccines, and many other inventions that make our lives easier and more sustainable . However, this investment in research comes at a large cost, and one of the main reasons why tuition goes up and instructional quality goes down in higher education is that externally funded research changes the priorities at these institutions. Moreover, the way that research is supported serves to undermine one of the core values of modern science: the unbiased pursuit of truth through open inquiry.1 To make this argument, I will explore how sponsored research often hurts teaching and how universities are losing their commitment to science, while they pursue expensive side projects. Research versus Teaching It is a hot, sunny summer day on a UC campus, and I am surrounded by science faculty who are taking a break from a meeting. One young professor says to another, “Yeah, I have to do three next year, but they promised me only one the following year.” The rest of the conversation that I am overhearing lets me translate this cryptic phrase into: “I have to teach three courses next year, but the chair of my department promised me that 7 the High Cost of Research tHE HIgH CoSt oF RESEARCH 89 I have to teach only one course the following year.” This sentence alone tells us much about the problematic relationship between research and instruction at American research universities. First of all, this professor is teaching in a quarter system and he has the summer quarter off, so he is complaining about teaching one course during each session in the next year. Moreover, the course is seen as a burden rather than as an integral part of his job. Second, he has made a private deal with the head of his department so that he will teach only one course the following year. In other words, during a two-year period, he will teach only four classes. During the same time period, a full-time untenured lecturer in his program, making a third of his salary, will be teaching eighteen courses. Also, this professor’s lab will be filled with low-wage graduate students and postdoctorates who might have to go on food stamps to be able to afford living in this expensive city. Not only does this system undermine any sense of justice and equality in higher education, but it shows how perverse incentives shape the attitudes of research faculty. As many other people have argued, universities undermine education and teaching by basing tenure, promotion, and merit increases for some professors on research.2 To move up in this system, therefore, one needs to produce a book or important article, get an outside research grant, or patent a new technology. A new professor quickly learns that it is possible to advance even if you can put very little effort into your teaching and get horrible student evaluations. In other words, some professors at research universities are socialized to believe that they will be rewarded only for doing research and bringing money and prestige to the university from the outside world. In turn, many universities think that the only way they can survive the constant reductions in state funding for higher education is to shift more of their focus to research and revenue-generating activities. However, not only does this process threaten to turn universities into corporations , but it also changes every aspect of an educational institution.3 Good books have been written on the relationship between research and teaching, but none of them have devoted much attention to how undergraduate education is affected by this change in priorities.4 As I will show, not only do professors often have no incentive to become good teachers, but they also have little incentive to care about the university as a shared community.5 And because there is no incentive for high-paid 90 WHy PUBlIC HIgHER EDUCAtIon SHoUlD BE FREE research professors to teach in an effective manner, forcing them into the undergraduate classroom helps to drive up costs and drive down the quality of instruction. It is important to stress that we still need to support research and research universities because they play...