Editors Note: Washington College’s new president Sheila Bair took to the pages of Fortune Magazine this week to write about a variety of things impacting higher education these days including the all important issue of retention.
The business model of education is fundamentally broken.
Do business executives have the right skills to take on leadership positions at institutions of higher education? The recent firing of a former private equity manager Simon Newman who served as president of Mount St. Mary’s has rekindled that debate.
To be sure, Mount St. Mary’s had a bad experience — its president reportedly said that the school should kick out struggling students early on, before their attrition would impact retention numbers reported to college raters. He compared the strategy to drowning bunnies….
But one bad apple should not spoil the barrel. While the United States’ higher education system remains the envy of the world, its business model is fundamentally broken. Relentless tuition increases are making the quality of education we provide beyond the reach of students living in this country and an increasingly unattractive option for students living abroad. Experienced managers with business and finance skills can help solve the problem. But college leaders must also be committed to the ultimate goal of the institutions they lead — educating students.
Read the rest of the opinion piece here
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