Traditional institutions are increasingly concerned with innovation and growth as they compete with online providers for students and tuition dollars. Clayton M. Christensen and Henry J. Eyring, authors of The Innovative University, discuss what boards can do to keep their institutions relevant and competitive.
Why do most institutions imitate rather than innovate?
The tendency to imitate is understandable and generally well-intentioned. The powerful model of Harvard University and its peers is envied and emulated the world over. Also, foundation and state funding policies, as well as rankings, tend to reward institutions for becoming more Harvard-like (or climbing the “Carnegie ladder”). That tendency is reinforced by the surplus of Ph.D. graduates produced at the top universities, many of whom take academic positions at less-prestigious institutions and strive to make them more like their alma maters.
But such imitation is more expensive than it appears. It also causes institutions to de-emphasize undergraduate education relative to graduate programs and research. As a result, tuition rises even as the quality of undergraduate education slips.
How can boards encourage innovation?
Boards can help academic administrators, especially presidents, choose not to engage in imitation, a daunting professional prospect. Presidential search committees generally subscribe to the bigger-and better view of higher education. They are drawn to candidates who have led their institutions to increased research support, more prestigious athletic conferences, and higher rankings.
A president or other senior administrator who bucks this trend must count the professional cost. Not only is imitation rewarded in the job market, but innovation carries huge risks. Faculty members appreciate administrators who give them more financial support and freer rein, not those who shake up the status quo.
Boards have to create long-term personal incentives for top administrators to assume the risks of innovation. Job security may matter more than financial compensation. The three greatest presidential innovators in Harvard’s history—Charles Eliot, Lawrence Lowell, and James Conant—served for an average of 28 years each.
Boards are concerned with access and completion. Can online technology help achieve these goals?
Even an institution in dire financial straits can grow by increasing the number of courses it offers wholly or partly online, admitting new students without a proportional increase in physical facilities or full-time faculty members. The tuition that these new students pay can offset the incremental costs of serving them. It may even be possible to generate free cash flow to invest in other areas.
Online technology can also help to raise completion rates. Computer-aided academic advising allows students to plan the path to graduation more effectively. Required “bottleneck” courses that fill quickly or are offered infrequently can be made available online, decreasing time to graduation and thus reducing the risk that a growing debt burden or other life disruptions lead to dropping out.
How can boards support their institutions in making the best strategic choices?
To survive growing competition, universities must be both more student-focused and more narrowly focused on their academic offerings and scholarship. The board must play a leading role in accomplishing that. Traditionally, focus has been seen as a fetter on academic freedom and antithetical to the very nature of the university. The natural reaction of people in academe is to see focusing as doing or being less, a temporary, sure-to-fail administrative fad.
In fact, failure is almost assured unless the board provides institutional strength and continuity. No matter how talented or long-tenured a president, only the board can ensure the kind of intergenerational commitment required to keep an institution strategically focused. The board can also help the administrative team show faculty members, students, and alumni that focus is the key to achieving not less, but more.
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