I had never heard of a research university, and I googled it for a definition. While there were several listed definitions for "Research University", the actual texts described universities in general, with no specific mention of research university. I concluded that the idea of a research university only seems to be in the minds of persons at the National Research Foundation and related government bureaucracies.
From a practical consideration, any university that teaches science must also teach research techniques, in the same way it would teach how to light a Bunsen burner in a Chemistry lab course.
However, a large number of federal agencies have been collectively dumping billions of taxpayer dollars into university research and apparently have some sort of sales program to justify this.
From another point of view, while I would hope that states are actually decreasing funding of university research, it may be that the federal government has taken over this aspect to the extent that the states are finding it difficult to legitimately place more money.
The objective of a university should be to teach students. For science, that includes lectures and hands-on laboratory courses.
When those students later arrive in private industry jobs, some may likely end up in research and development departments, which industry finds necessary for the development of new products to sustain its business. Obviously research techniques should be taught by the universities to prepare those students.
However if a university considers its main function to actually turn out research and subscribes to various funding mechanisms to accomplish this, it is no longer a university, but rather a research organization.
from anonymous CJ:
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, it is no surprise that state support of university research has declined. Most states are dealing with the overfunding of pensions and other benefits for their employees. Their second problem is Medicaid which is a major cost in most states. On the other hand, states have never been the major funders of academic research programs as the article you cite makes clear.
Secondly, I am surprised that you pretend not understand the differences among universities. There are universities that command and spend significant amounts of money on research. Most of it comes from the federal government: NSF, DARPA and NIH to name the main sources. Essentially all the PhD degrees granted in science and engineering are supported by federally funded research grants. A majority of those degree holders go to industrial research organizations and some remain in universities to teach and train future PhD candidates. In effect, federal research grants train those who form the backbone of industrial research in this country. I am sure you know this.
Son Steve has given me some references on Tier 1 universities which indirectly clarifies research universities. There are two interpretations of Tier 1 universities. The first is from a national viewpoint, which judges the total quality of the University from a number of aspects. The second seems to be from a Texas viewpoint, which concentrates on research and uses a research funding of at least $100 million to qualify. In essence, these universities are then "Research Universities", although the term is not in common usage as indicated by my previous claim that I could not easily pick it up with googling.
ReplyDeleteI believe you have presented good reasons why states have become less involved in research grants to universities. You indicated general shortage of state funds for pension and other employee benefit obligations, and Medicaid. This seems to imply that states have become more astute than the federal government in determining spending priorities when there is a shortage of funds.
With respect to the fact that essentially all PhD's in science and engineering are supported by federal research grants. Is that really necessary? I suspect that without federal research grants, we would still have an adequate number of PhD applicants in science and engineering. That group of degree holders would then go to industrial research organizations and some would remain in universities to teach and train future PhD candidates, as they do with the present grant system. Graduate students need minimum funding for their personal livelihood and most of them could have laboratory teaching assistantships paying a small stipend, while they also engage in the research requirements for their degrees. Others could have independent funding from their families or other private donors. The system was used many years ago, before government started research grants as a political tool to obtain information intended to support its ideologies, such as carbon dioxide promoting global warming.