Key to U.S. future prosperity: world-class research universities
pouring significant resources into their own institutions. For instance, U.S. R&D expenditures, both public and private, have hovered between 2.5 percent and 2.8 percent of GDP over the last three decades, while Japan and South Korea have increased their R&D expenditures to well over 3 percent of their respective GDPs in recent years.
To renew the critical partnership between the federal government and universities, Congress and the administration should fully fund the America COMPETES Act. This would double the level of basic research conducted by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and National Institutes of Standards and Technology. In addition, Congress should at least maintain current levels of funding for basic research across other federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health. Such support would achieve a balanced research portfolio and ensure that universities would be able to educate “the scientists, engineers, physicians, teachers, scholars, and other knowledge professionals essential for the nation’s security, health, and prosperity,” the report says.
States must maintain high-quality regional research institutions in order to compete in an increasingly knowledge- and innovation-driven economy, the report adds. As budgets recover from the recession, state governments should strive to restore and maintain per-student funding for higher education to levels equal to the period of 1987-2002, as adjusted for inflation. Federal programs aimed at stimulating innovation and work-force development at the state level should be accompanied by strong incentives to sustain state support for public universities.
The report calls on the nation’s research universities to play their part by significantly increasing cost-effectiveness and productivity in both operations and academic programs. In addition, reducing federal and state regulatory burdens on universities will help reduce their costs. These savings can be used to constrain tuition increases or to increase financial aid. The federal government should also invest in infrastructure — particularly cyber-infrastructure — that has the potential for improving productivity in administration, research, and academic programs.
Universities should make doctoral programs more effective by reducing attrition and the time it takes to obtain degrees. Doctoral programs should also be aligned with the careers inside and outside of academia. In a time of constrained budgets and delayed faculty retirements, the government should support a faculty chairs program to open opportunities for early- and mid-career faculty.
Businesses, which have long relied on research universities for talent and technology, should also play a bigger part in ensuring their health, the report says. Federal and state policies should encourage collaboration between U.S. national laboratories, businesses, and universities in order to enable large-scale, sustained research projects.
