Corporatization of the University Section Presentation

Max Ma, Alexander Soong, Yuchen Qu

Professor Valverde

ASA 002

Oct 15, 2017

Corporatization of the University

The questions regarding education as a right and if our education system is equipped to teach immigrant students came up in discussion last week. I found the answer to those question in reflecting about my time here at UC Davis and my pursuit in acquiring a job after graduation.

To me the whole “Tiger Mom” stereotype and phenomenon exists because we are immigrants at our core. And in order to get here and stay here, is actually a lot like getting a job, you have to prove yourself and be capable to do so. In order to maintain status here in a capitalist society, the bottom line is we have to have capital. There is a fundamental idea in my family, and my culture is that higher education is a passageway to financial security and stability in the upon graduation, and that without it there would be no plausible way to build a family, pursue your passions and live a life. There is a famous saying in Chinese “Money cannot buy you everything, but without money you can do nothing.” Many people indeed say, money can’t buy you happiness, but be frank and ask yourself, “Can I be happy, when I do not have a home to go back to, and food to eat or shoes to wear?”

For those of us that are fortunate to have higher education and this opportunity to develop a professional skillset that will dictate our future, we have to know that education is not a right and the truth is that education is a privilege. We’re here because our parents worked hard enough for us to have an opportunity to grow up and go to school here. We are immigrants because we believe in the American Dream. The idea that if you work hard, you will succeed. That being said, I am completely happy with my situation at UC Davis. I know that I’ve worked hard, and I am confident that with time I will find a good job. However, the only time I was unsatisfied with my status as a UC Davis student was when I recently applied for jobs at leading companies in the technology industry. In reality, it has become this industry’s standard that employees have acquired a degree from an accredited institution of higher education. Without it, you are simply not considered for employment at any level. When UC Davis was not listed on the list of schools, I thought to myself “why?”

The answer is because we live in a capitalist society. Everyone is here to make money, to get ahead, to have a better life than the other people around you. In order for companies make profit, they need to hire the top talent from the best schools. Think about it. Does Google typically hire from a community college? To be the best, you are required to have the best credentials for whatever field you are in.

Maintaining a level of education that will produce high achieving students is not easy. In order to do so, the university needs to attract the best faculty to teach its students. This requires funding from the state and private organizations, but if the students are not profitable and not contributing to societal growth, is that investment really worth it for those providing the financial resources? In a Los Angeles Times article regarding running universities as a business, the fact that federal spending on university R&D had fallen to 59.5% of the total in 2012, the lowest share since 1956 and contributions from state and local governments and industry had fallen by roughly two-thirds. Because the Social sciences and humanities are not profitable in the long run compared to STEM majors, they were the first programs to be cut. The overall decrease in external funding has shifted the financial burden onto the students.

The University of California is a public university that is predominantly funded by state government. Unlike private universities that are funded mostly by wealthy individuals, entities and businesses, University of California is naturally in a disadvantage due to its short funding. Being one of the world’s most reputable universities as well as the only university system that has six of its campuses ranked top 100 isn’t easy. UC currently accommodates a total of 251,700 students, 21,200 faculty members, and 144,000 staff members. With decreasing year-to-year government funding and a student body that includes 70% California residents on average, the UC system has faced a tremendous financial burden when it comes to maintaining the quality of its students’ experiences.

With 70% of its student body that pays no more than $33,000 a year, UC’s income has dropped due to state government relatively short funding due after accounting the inflation rate. Comparing to private colleges’ large endowment, low student-faculty ratio, advanced facilities, and excellent professors, UCs lack of funding is undoubtedly one of the biggest obstacles to reach higher competitiveness. However, in order to overcome the nature of its disadvantage of being a public school, UC is left with only one approach, which is to raise tuition to invest in improving quality of education to compete with other private universities. Likewise, UCs would hope to have the financial capability to hire reputable faculties to give its students the best education experiences and environment that will eventually build a strong and reliable alumni network across the globe. Therefore, UCs must invest in its education to enhance the learning experience and environment to help its students to become more competitive in the real world. Most importantly, since the “rate of return” on a university to fund certain major or school could vary substantially, every school usually gives the most attention to a department they believe to generate more advantages for the school. For example, UC Berkeley might choose to emphasize a stronger financial support on its world well-known Haas School of Business than Social Science in order to help maintain the quality of its education in business school. By conducting this approach, Haas School’s alumni can continue to shine in the business world, and later contribute to UC Berkeley in both tangible and intangible ways. Even though neither raising tuition nor charging disproportionately against international students is morally correct, UCs can’t use the quality of its education and facility as a tradeoff to lower students’ burden.

From a financial perspective, I believe UCs have all the means and rights to raise tuition in order to keep up the quality of education while accommodating a large student body. In order to provide California residents the priority to receive a world-class education, UCs must always give admission opportunities to California residents first. However, UCs must have the financial capability to continue its function and maintain its education on a world-class level. Therefore, University of California, a public university that has six of its campuses ranked world’s 100, has to raise its capital tuition to continue offering its reputable education quality.

According to the article “Napolitano: UC quality not sustainable without tuition hike” by ALEXEI KOSEFF, international students have to pay $42644 annually, while the in-state local students pay $12630. We international students have to pay three times more tuition compared to in-state students to acquire the same quality education.

In addition, my family did not immigrate here with money as some other international students have. My parents work in state-owned businesses, and they earn an average salary. Considering the dollar-to-RMB of 1 to 6.7 exchange rate, sending me study abroad was a significant decision that tortured my family and me three years ago. This decision meant my parents had to work longer hours and save more money from daily expenditures just to support their son studying at a university in the United States. Otherwise, they would be retired and able to start enjoying their life now. Instead, they are still working painstakingly, to pay for my expensive international student tuition fee.

At the end of the day, the moral of the story is: life’s not fair. Every individual is trying to achieve the most in their life. The same goes for Institutions of higher education who do what they must try to ensure that their students are competitive post-graduation, to attract high-achieving faculty and to maintain their reputation and quality of education. As students of these seemingly unjust universities that oversell the price of education, maybe it’s time we stop questioning those in power, take a look around and see how fortunate we are to be here and empower ourselves to be appreciative of every opportunity presented to us, and put our best foot forward.


References:

Koseff, Alexei. “Napolitano: UC Quality Not Sustainable Without Tuition Hike.” The Sacramento Bee, 4 Jan. 2017

Kasperkevic, Jana. “The Harsh Truth: US Colleges Are Businesses, and Student Loans Pay the Bills.” The Guardian, 7 Oct. 2014, www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/oct/07/colleges-ceos-cooper-union-ivory-tower-tuition-student-loan-debt.

Hiltzik, Michael. “When Universities Try to Behave like Businesses, Education Suffers.” Los Angeles Times, 3 Jan. 2016, www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-university-business-20160602-snap-story.html.