CHAPEL HILL – A new thrust for North Carolina’s public universities aims to elevate discussion among state policymakers from day-to-day operations to strategic, long-range initiatives.
Andrew Kelly, a respected higher education scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, will head a new policy and research division for the University system. With a bachelor’s degree in history from Dartmouth and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, Kelly is a leading voice on access, financing and degree completion in higher education.
Establishment of this position to focus on long-range strategic issues should enhance governance of our state’s most valuable asset – the 17-campus University System. It should help pivot the governing board toward big-picture issues and away from operational decisions1 that should be made at the campus level. That would provide our universities the autonomy of which they are capable.
There are major issues facing higher education today all over the country, and certainly North Carolina is not immune. The recent study by Boston Consulting Group of UNC General Administration identified common themes and priorities, including:
- Student access and success,
- Affordability and efficiency,
- Geographic economic impact, and
- Excellent and diverse institutions.2
Add to those such issues as the value of a liberal-arts education, student preparedness for college, teacher training and preparation, etc. There are plenty of truly major strategic issues for the legislature and the Board of Governors to focus on without exerting energy to micro-manage each institution.
In addition, there is an unprecedented demographic shift taking place that will make education even more crucial.
In the future, our population will consist of a much higher percentage of poor and minority children, an increasing number of them Hispanic and Asian immigrants. These children must be adequately educated for jobs of the future, or the North Carolina economy is at high risk.3
So this position should enable President Margaret Spellings to redirect discussion and attention to a high level and significantly improve governance of our great University.
By bringing on board a well-known voice in national policy, President Spellings and University officials have the opportunity to enhance the system’s research capabilities and elevate the discussion to new and critical policy ideas. We applaud this move.
1 http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article80191537.html
2 https://www.northcarolina.edu/sites/default/files/unc_report_on_organizational_effectiveness_-_general_administration_of_the_unc_system_-_march_28_2016.pdf, Executive Summary.
3 http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article80191537.html
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