A lesson from the British Polytechnics for American Community Colleges.

Even though the antecedents of American higher education can be traced to the ancient universities of England, the American system has moved beyond the original model. Community colleges, although a unique American invention, can still learn from what is happening in modern-day Britain. The conversion of the British polytechnics into universities is parallel to the move by some community colleges to offer a workforce bachelor's degree. Based on the British experience, community colleges would do well to remain within their well-defined, universally understood parameters, rather than becoming hybrid institutions.

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Education seeks to raise aspirations. At all levels, students are encouraged, cajoled, and coaxed by teachers and parents to excel in their studies so that they can proceed to the next educational level. They are told that more education will result in greater security and in a better quality of life overall. Convincing empirical evidence exists to support at least the first of these contentions. For instance, based on 1992 figures, the lifetime earnings for workers were estimated to be $821,000 for high school graduates, $1.06 million for associate degree recipients, and $1.42 million for holders of bachelor's degrees (US Bureau of Census, 1994). In terms of employment, a college graduate is 10% more likely to be employed than is a high school graduate (Sanchez & Laanan, 1998). On average, further education leads to increased earnings and improves the chance of remaining employed, two elements essential for workers to achieve economic security.

Not only individuals, but institutions as well, have aspirations. Educational institutions are particularly susceptible to comparisons with other institutions and are constantly striving to better their relative standing. The process of ranking institutions of higher education has become a profitable business enterprise. Currently in the United States, over 50 publications produce comparative ratings, including special annual editions of U.S. News & World Report, Time, and Newsweek. Within higher education there is a clear institutional hierarchy, stratified in the U.S. by the Carnegie classification scheme. Although not every institution can or wants to be in the top category (that of "Doctorate-Granting Universities-Extensive" in the latest Carnegie categories), there is continual pressure placed on educational institutions to improve in stature and rank.

Community Colleges Serving Ordinary People

A recent addition to the American higher education structure, the community colleges came into being primarily to serve those students who were not readily admissible or did not have ready access to more traditional institutions. From the outset, two-year colleges were designed as multipurpose institutions, which were to fulfill four major educational purposes: transfer and preparatory, preprofessional, terminal general, and terminal occupational (Eaton, 1994, p. 14). Over the course of the twentieth century, the purposes of two-year colleges multiplied and expanded. These changes are reflected in the adoption of the new definitive title: "community colleges." Contemporary two-year institutions are expected not only to educate their students, but also to provide services to their local communities and to society at large (Boone, 1997). However, the dedication of two-year colleges to assist students at the bottom end of the higher education market, those underserved by traditional higher education, has remained in place. Potential students with limited financial means, with poor academic records, with language difficulties, and with personal or family backgrounds that tend to impede academic success are actively recruited by community colleges.

Thus, community colleges are wedded to the premise that all students, regardless of previous educational attainment, financial situation, or time demands, should have the opportunity to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to become economically secure and responsible members of society. Koltai (1993) underscored this point in his revealing description of community colleges. K. Patricia Cross is quoted in the article as saying that, "the tough problem is not in identifying winners; it is in making winners out of ordinary people." Koltai responded that, with their open-admissions policies and their remedial programs, the community college, more than any other segment of higher education, has confronted "this responsibility of creating winners rather than merely selecting them" (p. 112). All indications are that the community colleges will experience an ever-expanding market for their services in the foreseeable future, due primarily to two defining and countervailing forces: the increasing skills levels required for most jobs and the low skill levels exhibited by most high school students.

Projections indicate that, at least in the immediate future, the majority of job openings will require some college work but not necessarily a bachelor's degree (Cohen & Bawer, 1996). Students and their families, however, continue to value the four-year degree and the promise that it holds. Though community colleges offer a stepping stone to the baccalaureate degree, students who start at a two-year institution are significantly less likely to complete a four-year degree than students who begin at a four-year college or university (Sanchez & Laanan, 1998). The same conditions responsible for initially channeling students to community colleges (underpreparedness and financial need) negatively affect the probability that they will finish a two-year degree and, to an even greater extent, a four-year degree (Dougherty, 1994). Graduates of two-year institutions electing to attend four-year institutions also may face the added barrier of lack of geographic proximity; however, with the increasing availability of distance education, physical location is diminishing as an issue.

Baccalaureate Degree Granting Authority for Community Colleges

Despite the growing need for services to the most educationally needy, it has been suggested that community colleges should be expanding to encompass baccalaureate degree programs. One of the most vocal proponents for this upward drift is Kenneth Walker, president of Edison Community College in Florida. Walker (2000) argued that because community colleges have a long tradition of finding innovative ways of solving problems and of keeping student costs reasonable, they should metamorphose into four-year institutions offering a "workforce bachelor's degree." Because the facilities, faculty, staff, and programs are already in place at convenient locations, Walker theorized that "expanding the community college mission to include baccalaureate degrees," while still retaining the "open-door philosophy and responsiveness to local needs," would help to meet the nation's workforce demands (Walker, 2000, p. 62). Walker emphatically denied he is suggesting that community colleges should be converted into four-year colleges or that all community colleges should or even would be inclined to become four-year institutions. His premise, however, is that "community colleges which find themselves in situations where the need and desire exist" should have the opportunity and authority to expand their mission (i.e., to become baccalaureate granting institutions) (Walker, 2000, p. 63). Others share this view.

Several states, including Arizona (Puyear, 1998), Arkansas, Florida, Nevada and Utah, have taken steps to consider permitting community colleges, under certain conditions, to offer baccalaureate programs. Raising this specter has resulted in heated debates about the mission of the community college, the meaning of the baccalaureate degree, and the responsiveness of postsecondary education to the educational and economic needs of the state (Cook, 2000). The possible ramifications for community colleges in shifting focus from two-year to four-year programs are profound and strike at the very heart of their institutional purpose and culture.

A course of action that changes institutional identity can be risky, perhaps even fatal, to institutions that stray beyond their well-defined parameters. The British higher education sector with its redefined polytechnics provides a useful example of the pitfalls that can result when transformational aspirations become realities.

British Polytechnics Become Universities

Remarkable changes have occurred in higher education in the United Kingdom over the past decade, and some of these hold implications for American community colleges. Actions taken by the British Parliament in 1988 and 1992 accelerated the transformation of the traditionally elite higher education system into a mass system. With little warning and even less consultation with the university community, the number of universities doubled with a corresponding but greater increase in the university student population. This result was accomplished by granting university status to the polytechnics and to some colleges of higher education (Thomas, 1999). For years, the aspiration of the polytechnics had been to become universities. They coveted the standing associated with granting university degrees and the administrative autonomy enjoyed by the university personnel (Salter & Tapper, 1994).

The original British polytechnics were established at the end of the nineteenth century in London to teach street urchins literacy and practical skills and to inculcate them with evangelical Christian beliefs (Price, 1998). Some of the institutions developed over time into universities, particularly during the early 1960s when the university sector was expanded to provide additional places in order to meet the growing demands of the post-war baby boom. A second wave of polytechnics resulted from a Labor government policy enacted in 1966. The policy created a number of multipurpose institutions by merging existing advanced further education colleges, which offered such diverse programs as engineering, fine arts, business, and domestic science (Pratt, 1974). The purpose of these newly constructed institutions was to respond to the growing national need for more vocational, professional, and industrially based courses in higher education, a need to which the university sector had failed to respond. Often these emerging polytechnics were housed in dilapidated old school buildings, but eventually suitable facilities were built as their reputations grew with students, parents, and employers (Price, 1998). The polytechnics were popular with the government because they were cheaper, friendlier, and more receptive to new ideas than the universities (Scott, 1995). Unlike the universities, which traditionally had fairly autonomous internal governance structures, the polytechnics operated under the aegis of local education authorities, and in some respects were treated as super secondary schools.

As early as the mid-1970s, the desire of the polytechnics to be put on an equal footing with the universities was viewed by some, including the public press, to be detrimental to their mission. As noted in The Times Higher Educational Supplement in 1976, "... the present tendency of the polytechnics to seek `parity' with the universities, reflect[s] the distressing British habit of attempting to bestow status and prestige on institutions and individuals by changing their names rather than encouraging them to do well the things for which they are best suited" (Salter & Tapper, 1994, p. 17). Despite skepticism expressed by the press, and emanating from the university sector, the push to change the status of the polytechnics continued.

In British higher education there is a long-standing tradition of upward migration. Many of the local colleges of engineering and technology, which were founded in the nineteenth century, were granted university status before the World War I and became known as the civic or "redbrick" universities. The Colleges of Advanced Technology (usually referred to as CATs) were established after World War II to meet the need for more technologically trained workers. The CATs were converted to what became the "new" universities in the 1970s by the Labor government in an attempt to reduce academic and social snobberies. To fill the void left by the CATs, the polytechnics were expanded. Since the polytechnics have been upgraded and have acquired the recycled title of "new" universities, the further education sector has stepped in to assume the vacated training role.

Currently, further education serves 4.5 million students, as compared with 1.5 million students in the universities. With the present emphasis of the British government on workforce development, the further education sector is expected to continue to grow at a much faster rate than the universities (Linden, 1998). Additional growth in the further education sector could diminish the funding available for the university sector, which receives about 70% of its funding from the government (Edwards, 1997) and which already considers itself to be seriously underfunded.

The effects on the former polytechnics, resulting from the change of name and status, have been considerable and not totally beneficial. Being released from dependency on the local educational authorities was a desired end, but this control was replaced by substantial oversight by the central government of the entire university sector. Through a combination of fiscal requirements and assessment tools, the government has placed severe restrictions on universities, including enrollment levels by program, program offerings, fundable research interests, and faculty employment conditions. As a result, much of the autonomy the polytechnics were seeking has been lost not only to them but also to the more established universities.

In becoming universities, the expectations for the polytechnics expanded. They are expected to look and to act more like traditional universities. Their graduates and faculty are expected to perform equally well by program as those of other universities; their faculty members are expected to engage in productive research; and their efforts to secure external funding are expected to be successful. Because the polytechnics had always been primarily teaching institutions, the requirements to compete in both the research and fundraising arenas have created stress.

This stress level is heightened by the annual public disclosure of university rankings. Based on information available, but not published as such, from the Higher Education Statistical Agency, the major daily London newspapers, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Independent, assemble and analyze data on selected sets of performance indicators for all universities. Each year the top places in the rankings go to the well-established universities, with Cambridge, Oxford and parts of the University of London vying for the apex. Out of the 97 British universities compared in The Times Good University Guide 2002 (The Times, 2001) the highest rank for a new (post-1992) university was 48th place, which went to the only new university to break into the top fifty. The rest of the most recent university group placed in positions from 54th to 97th. These types of comparisons based on a series of performance indicators raise issues, many of which are germane to the role and mission of the institution. Some of the indicators used in the rankings, such as entry standards, research funding, and staff-student ratios, will make it difficult in the near future for the former polytechnics to improve their standings. Others, such as teaching quality and placement of graduates, are more compatible with their strengths but alone are not sufficient to raise their rankings significantly.

Recent news from Britain confirmed that the new universities are facing problems. Due to decreasing enrollments and diminished levels of governmental support, one third of these institutions are planning program eliminations, academic staff reductions, or campus closures. While the government claimed that these changes are attributable to student choices, officials of the teachers' union blamed the government for not providing sufficient funds to the new universities. Because of the distribution formula used, new institutions tend to receive about half the level of support that the older universities receive (Walker, 2001). Essentially all universities in Britain are publicly funded, causing governmental funding policies to have a profound effect on all institutions.

Of the major reasons cited by the government for assuming greater control over British universities, at least two are important to this discussion. The first was the inability of the universities, both individually and collectively, to describe their missions in terms of worth to the nation, and the second was their inability to describe the internal mechanisms used for controlling the quality of teaching and research in terms understandable to the public. Although the British and American systems of higher education differ in many respects, the lack of uniform and valid assessment measures is common to both.

Implications for American Community Colleges

The conversion of the British polytechnics into universities raises valuable parallels for American community colleges, particularly those considering entry into the baccalaureate-granting sphere. These implications fall into four distinct but overlapping categories: funding, faculty, equity, and identity.

Funding

Because instructional expenditures represent 55% of community college budgets (NCES, 2000a, p. 372), this area is a prime target for close scrutiny and cost containment efforts. Research by Watkins (1998) indicated that instructional costs at community colleges tend to increase in tandem with increases in several factors, including the full-time faculty-to-student ratio, the part-time faculty-to-student ratio, faculty salaries, and enrollment in high-cost programs. With the introduction of baccalaureate programs at community colleges, all these factors are likely to increase. The average number of students in lower division courses exceeds the averages in the upper division courses, even at prestigious colleges and universities. By offering only lower division courses, community colleges have long had the advantage of keeping many classes full and costs down. Initiating the upper division courses needed for four-year programs undoubtedly will increase the faculty-student ratio, thus increasing costs. In addition, the types of programs likely to be offered for workforce baccalaureate degrees, agricultural, skilled trade, and health programs, were the same types of programs found by Watkins (1998) to increase instructional costs. Faculty salaries would be another source of increased costs; faculty retained to teach in baccalaureate programs will expect compensation equivalent to that paid by four-year, rather than two-year, institutions. The differential between community college and college and university salaries for full professors runs as high as 55% (AAUP, 2001, p. 29). Community colleges must decide how to reallocate existing funds, not to anticipate additional public funding in order to meet the costs of new programs. The introduction of upper division programs will result in new expenditures, which cannot help creating a drain on existing resources.

When aspiring to become universities, the British polytechnics envisioned more funding and greater autonomy over the expenditure of those funds, but neither came with university status. In fact, due to the competitive processes used to fund British universities, the newer universities are at a distinct disadvantage as compared to established universities. In addition, with a downturn in the British economy, no end appears to be in sight for the financial plight of the universities, new and old.

The economic future for American higher education is not as bright as it has been in recent years either. The national economy has softened and so have the prospects for increased public funding for higher education. As funds become tighter, public institutions will resort to the options used in the past to meet shortfalls, such as leaving vacant positions unfilled, reducing salary raises, cutting programs, accepting fewer students, and raising tuition (Hebel & Selingo, 2001). The most vulnerable programs will be those for which the costs are high, the enrollments are low, and the links to the institutional mission are weak.

As the British polytechnic experience illustrates, institutions with well-defined, clearly understood missions have an advantage. In difficult financial times, the same is true for institutions that deliver high value at a reasonable cost. Community colleges offering two-year programs in liberal education and occupational training meet both of these criteria.

Faculty

Faculty are the heart and soul of every educational institution. The selection, development, and retention of those responsible for delivering the instructional program are among the most important decisions collegiate administrators must make. As an expenditure, faculty also constitute the largest single item in the budget. The expectation, and often an accreditation requirement, for faculty at baccalaureate-granting institutions is to have a terminal degree in their field, whereas, at community colleges the master's degree is usually considered to be the basic degree faculty must hold (Cohen & Brawer, 1994). For community colleges interested in offering four-year degrees, faculty with appropriate credentials must be secured and retained.

In British universities, faculty credentials are less of an issue. The thinking is that if a person can do the job, lacking a degree should not be a prohibiting factor. As a result, faculty members without doctorates were teaching in universities long before the latest group of new universities was established.

The expectations held for faculty responsibilities also differ by type of institution in the United States. For community colleges, the emphasis has always been on teaching; faculty are hired and promoted based on their ability to work well with students. Faculty advancement at four-year colleges and universities requires not only acceptable teaching, but also the production of recognized scholarly work. Scholarship, though undertaken by some community college faculty and advocated by those promoting greater academic rigor for community colleges (Vaughan, 1992), has not been highly placed on the agenda for most community colleges. In fact, many community college administrators view scholarship as a drain on faculty time. However, movement into the realm of baccalaureate degree status will be accompanied by the expectation that faculty will be actively engaged in scholarship and research. An inviting research environment requires dedicated time for faculty, support personnel, proper facilities, equipment and supplies, and expanded library holdings, all of which contribute to increased costs. Because community college faculties are burdened with heavy teaching loads and because the infrastructure for supporting scholarship and research at community colleges is often inadequate, the competition between community colleges and four-year colleges and universities for external research funding will not be a fair contest.

This is already the case in Britain where all universities compete for government research funds. In these competitions, which are run every five years as research assessment exercises, the newest universities are at a distinct disadvantage. The peer-review assessments are completed by subject area and are based on the volume and the quality of research (HEFCE, 1998); both factors are strongly related to past performance. As a result, the government research funding continues to flow overwhelmingly to the pre-1992 universities. In 2001, the 20 top-ranked universities received 90% of the government resources available for research (The Times, 2001). The new universities have a long way to go before they can be successful in securing research funds, because many have neither the financial nor personnel resources needed to improve their ability to compete.

Moving to baccalaureate status creates new expectations by some faculty and for some faculty at community colleges. Fulfilling both sets of expectations requires institutional commitment and the expenditure of additional funds. Even if accomplished, the end will result in an unhealthy stratification of the community college faculty based on those who do and those who do not teach in the baccalaureate program.

Equity

Eaton (1994) presented a very cogent description of the opposing views put forth by critics and advocates of community colleges on what constitutes success in higher education. Critics place emphasis on achievement and results in terms of degrees earned and research produced, while advocates emphasize giving students a chance to achieve. This same dichotomy is reflected in a newly revised taxonomy for the postsecondary market proposed by the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement (NCPI) and the names selected to identify each segment. In the NCPI "refined market segment definitions" the highest category is termed "Medallion" and includes those institutions in which "at least 75% of the freshmen graduate within 5 years of matriculation." At the bottom is the category labeled "User-Friendly/Convenience" that encompasses institutions at which "the graduation rates tend to be low, so the five-year graduation rate is not used as a criterion" (NCPI, 2001, p. 54). Particularly as the assessment of higher education has become increasingly outcome-driven, opportunity cannot be equated to achievement. Community college critics, who view the sector as "an educational hoax, an unfilled promise, or a revolving door," contend that placing too little emphasis on achievement results in short-changing community college students and perpetuates social inequality (Eaton, 1994, p. 70). This inequity stands to expand if community college students are given the opportunity to continue into bachelor's degree programs at their home institutions.

Transferring to four-year colleges and universities has always provided a path for community college students to demonstrate that they are capable of making the grade in traditional institutions of higher education, thus providing legitimacy for the community college collegiate track. To emphasize this fact, many community colleges publish the listing of colleges and universities that have accepted their students and encourage local newspapers to run feature articles that chronicle the trials some students have had to overcome to be accepted at four-year institutions. Should students remain at community colleges to earn baccalaureate degrees, the opportunity for validation for both the students and the community college is lost, to the detriment of both.

On the equity issue, the British experience offers a less well-defined comparison. Social class and the accident of birth still are important characteristics of British society. These factors have a strong influence on the schools children attend, their scholastic achievement and aspirations, and the universities to which they are admitted. Even though universities are treated similarly by the government, being a graduate of Thames Valley or East London does not equate with being an Oxford or Cambridge graduate. What is different, however, is that once entered into a British university, students are expected to complete their courses of study. Attrition rates are low, by American standards, at all British universities. The opportunity to enter is equated to the expectation of finishing. As a result, the actual rates for baccalaureate degree completion in the U. S. and in the U. K. are about the same. Only the routes for getting there are different. In America, the opportunity to complete the baccalaureate is open to all. In Britain, the opportunity is restricted to prospective students having appropriate secondary-school certificates. But in both countries, social class is still a major factor in determining which students will complete their college or university education. In the United Kingdom, students in the top two social classes have an 80% chance of going to university, while for those in the bottom two social classes the probability drops to 15% (Thomas, 1999, p. 47). Despite equal opportunity support programs and grants, complete educational equality still has not been achieved on either side of the Atlantic.

Identity

The reason for having a mission is to identify the fundamental purposes of an institution and to clarify its operations and future intentions (Peeke, 1994). From the institutional mission statement it should be clear what an institution is and also what it is not. Over the first century of their existence, the term two-year college has been used synonymously with junior, technical, and community colleges. As a result, the name has made it clear to both professionals and the general public that the instructional purpose of these institutions is focused on the first two years, rather than the final two years, of the college program.

Vaughan (1991) suggested that there are several dangers associated with community colleges getting too close to the edge of their core mission. Doing so raises the possibility that an institution will lose its sense of purpose and focus. Should this happen, it would become more difficult for community colleges to retain support, both internally with staff, students, and governing boards and externally with elected officials and the public. People like to know what they are supporting, which is the purpose of having a clearly defined mission. Without such a sense of purpose, there is confusion about what an institution, such as a community college, is and what it is attempting to do.

Another downside for community colleges in becoming bachelor degree-granting institutions is that by doing so, they become part of that group of colleges and universities that are ranked by a variety of different sources as the "best" institutions of higher education. At present, the community colleges usually are not included in these rankings. But upon entry into the category of four-year degree-granting institutions, community colleges that go this route will be subject to greater public review. Just as the British polytechnic experience illustrates, institutions with newly acquired status do not do well in national ratings when pitted against more established peers. Trying to compete directly in the same arena and using the same criteria as those used for four-colleges and universities can only be a losing proposition for two-year institutions.

In his article entitled "To Thine Own Self Be True," Hammons (1992) argued that "it is virtually impossible for community colleges to acquire stature based on what nearby four-year colleges and universities think of them" and, therefore, the time is ripe for community colleges to focus on achieving excellence on their own terms (p. 77). To be true to their own identity, community colleges should remain grounded in tradition and purpose, both of which encompass commitment to and limitation to the first two years of the collegiate experience.

Conclusion

The position of the community colleges within American higher education today is enviable because basically, as a group, they have a well-defined, clearly articulated mission and work efficiently and effectively to fulfill that mission. Community colleges are respected by their students and parents, by the employers of their graduates, and by the community as a whole for the tradition of giving everyone a chance to get a foothold into higher education. One measure of their success is in the numbers. Community colleges continue to record the most substantial growth in higher education and currently enroll over one half of this nation's undergraduates (NCES, 2000b, p. 127). In the twenty-first century, the need for community colleges to continue to do what they do best will not subside. Moving away from their primary mission of providing entry-level opportunities for students who otherwise could not gain access to higher education can only serve to dilute and to confuse this mission and possibly place the entire enterprise in jeopardy.

By educating and training the broad spectrum of students who pass through their doors, community colleges fulfill the purpose of taking those who enroll, preparing them well, and sending them out to be successful in the workplace and in their continued studies. The true calling of community colleges is to concentrate on making this delivery system function better. To trade this responsibility for quasi-baccalaureate status compromises the strong position within the higher education firmament that community colleges securely hold.

As the British example so clearly indicates, change in status is accompanied by new expectations. Expectations appropriate for baccalaureate institutions would place additional and unnecessary burdens on community colleges in terms of resource requirements, faculty credentials, performance levels, and public scrutiny. Particularly as national priorities are adopted to shift responsibilities from government to individuals, the need for remedial work, basic education, and workforce development will intensify. Community colleges should retain their predominance in these areas and by so doing continue to lift the aspirations of ordinary people.

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Cynthia V. L. Ward is an associate professor in the Higher Educational Leadership Program at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. [e-mail]