Conference: Higher ed key to changing society, economy

While headlines focus on the 2,100 Ann Arbor jobs being cut by Pfizer Inc., U-M economist and public policy expert Paul Courant says few people notice that the University has added 2,313 jobs over the past three years, for a total of 31,740 current full time employees.

Nationally, higher education pumped more than $315 billion into the economy in 2004 or 2.9 percent of the gross domestic product, said Courant, former provost who recently was named U-M librarian and dean of libraries.

Courant was among the featured speakers at "Understanding and Strengthening Higher Education's Contributions to a Changing Society,'' a national conference held at U-M March 22-24 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education.

The conference attracted scholars from across the United States and Canada who came to discuss the roles and opportunities for higher education in the global economy.

Speakers noted that much of the job growth from research universities comes from new employment related to health care research and university-run hospitals, as well as other research investments. U-M currently spends about $800 million per year on research.

"Universities are spectacularly valuable institutions, and are likely the best bet we have for continuing prosperity,'' Courant said. "At worst, lots of people get subsidized in something of value to them.. At best, lots of other people benefit as well."

Besides being hotbeds of innovation, Courant said there is strong evidence that even people who didn't go to college earn more money in areas where most people around them did go to college. The Ann Arbor region consistently has the lowest unemployment rate in Michigan.

Sheila Slaughter, Louise McBee Professor of Higher Education at the University of Georgia, noted that some research universities now are seeing their administrative roles catch up with the size of their faculty, particularly in jobs related to technology transfer.

She said patenting by universities quadrupled between 1988 and 2003, from about 800 to more than 3,200 patents, while the Association of University Technology Managers climbed from 381 members in 1986 to 3,200 in 2003.

A number of speakers saw several challenges for U.S. higher education, however, as other nations become increasingly more competitive, and as American students have been slow to enroll in the career fields showing the most growth opportunities in the job market.

Michael Bastedo, U-M assistant professor of education, noted the National Science Board now estimates the United States ranks 17th in the number of students pursuing science and engineering degrees, even as jobs in those areas increase 5 percent per year. In contrast, he said, twice as many students in European and three times as many in Asia are earning science and engineering degrees each year.

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