Dive Summary:
- Last year, the University of North Texas at Dallas retained management consulting firm Bain & Company--whose recent report suggesting a third of U.S. colleges and universities are on an unsustainable path turned heads at an annual meeting of college business officers--to help it design a new, more accessible, more flexible and more student-centered model for the university.
- Recommendations were presented to the university's administration this spring reportedly included a narrow set of career-oriented majors, large teaching loads for faculty members, more hybrid courses, recruitment focused on traditional-aged and "driven" undergraduate students, low tuition and increased enrollment.
- A report that the university tried to keep confidential was obtained and published Thursday by The Dallas Morning News showed that a faculty and staff group tasked with evaluating the recommendations were critical of Bain's plans and have ideas of their own regarding the university's direction.
From the article:
It might not come as a surprise to a lot of people, but a group of university faculty and staff members and a group of Fortune 500 management consultants have different ideas about how a university should be structured and run. About a year ago, the University of North Texas at Dallas retained Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, to help it design a new model for the university that is more accessible, more flexible, and more student-centered. Bain traditionally works with Fortune 500 companies but has done some work in higher education, including a recent report that suggested a third of U.S. colleges and universities are on an unsustainable path. That report generated significant discussion at this year's annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, with many finance officials calling it overly simplistic. ...