1. a. If it is not already, should your college or university become a for-profit institution?
b. How would your education change?
c. How would you change?
2. Would our current system of higher education benefit from aggressive private-sector competition or is the current competition among schools sufficient? Explain.
The Anderson School of Management at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) received permission in 2013 to substantially privatize its prestigious MBA program. The program will be allowed to raise tuition, keep most of its income, and spend that income on attracting yet more skilled professors and students thus raising its academic profile to better compete with Harvard University, Stanford University, and the like. Anderson leaders also believe the self-sufficiency/privatization decision will allow them to raise more money in contributions, some of which are contingent on the change. Tuition, currently over $96,000 for the two- year program, is projected to rise to “market rates” for top-tier schools (e. g., nearly $130,000 for Stanford). A few other UCLA programs were already privatized and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business became self-sufficient in 2002.