‘Seven Solutions’ Would Drive Away Top Talent, UT Dean Says

By Tim Taliaferro in Promote & Protect on July 6, 2011 at 3:46 pm | No Comments

Implementing a series of proposals that advocate a business-style, market-driven approach to college education would leave Texas lagging behind other states and drive off top students and faculty, according to a new report released today.

In the strongest language yet to come out of The University of Texas, College of Liberal Arts dean Randy Diehl has authored a point-by-point refutation of the much-discussed “seven solutions” for higher education put forth by Jeff Sandefer and the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

The 20-page document addresses the solutions in detail, pointing out what Diehl describes as the dangers of applying simple tools and one-size-fits-all fixes to a complex teaching and research university like UT.

Here are some of the highlights:

• The University’s graduation rates, low tuition, and limited state support suggest it is already a national leader in promoting efficiency and excellence.

• Using salaries, class sizes, and student evaluations as the main ways to measure quality betrays an oversimplified understanding of teaching and learning.

• Similar initiatives to the proposed solutions have been introduced elsewhere and have yet to demonstrate significant success.

• Research at The University of Texas at Austin has an impact in the classroom and well beyond campus. Separating research and teaching would fundamentally change the mission of the university.

• For-profit educational institutions do not provide models of efficiency or fiscal responsibility.

• Competitive market forces can play a productive role in promoting excellence in higher education but the classroom should not be treated as a marketplace.

The University also announced today the formation of a new task force on graduation rates, chaired by Dean Diehl, who will issue a report by December.

See how news organizations have covered the report:

• Austin American-Statesman: UT dean disputes governor, ‘breakthrough solutions’
• Beaumont Enterprise: UT fires back at Perry plan, says college is not ‘Banana Republic’
• Chronicle of Higher Education: U. of Texas dean blasts higher-education reform agenda
• Houston Chronicle: ‘Seven Solutions’ draws new rebuttal
• Huffington Post: UT rejects Rick Perry’s plan to treat students as ‘customers’ in new proposal
• Inside Higher Ed: Texas dean pushes back at ‘breakthrough solutions’
• KUT: Gov. Perry, UT dean at odds over higher ed changes
• San Antonio Express: UT report takes aim at college ‘solutions’
• Texas Tribune: UT Dean rejects ‘Seven Solutions’ in new report
• WTAW: UT-Austin report blasts ed reform suggestions

Excellence and Efficiency at The University of Texas at Austin

Tags: jeff sandefer, randy diehl, seven solutions, tppf, ut regents