“Mutations” dans l’enseignement sup érieur aux Etats-Unis

1. “Mutations” dans l’enseignement supérieur aux Etats-Unis Intervention le 18 mars 2009 Michael Harris, Université Paris 7 et IUF Avec mes remerciements à Peter Hogness, rédacteur en chef du Clarion, journal du syndicat de la City University of New York

2. Organisation de l’intervention • Présentation du système universitaire américaine Les étudiants Cout de l’enseignement supérieur Le corps enseignant Financement des universités publiques et privées Gouvernance • Les “mutations” Contingent faculty “Corporatization” Effets de la crise

3. Pour éviter des malentendus

4. Pour éviter des malentendus • L’intervenant n’est pas un expert du système éducatif américain.

5. Pour éviter des malentendus • L’intervenant n’est pas un expert du système éducatif américain. • Il n’est pas venu en France par préférence pour le système français.

6. Pour éviter des malentendus • L’intervenant n’est pas un expert du système éducatif américain. • Il n’est pas venu en France par préférence pour le système français. • Il est membre de l’IUF mais ce n’est pas parce qu’il n’aime pas l’enseignement.

7. Pour éviter des malentendus • L’intervenant n’est pas un expert du système éducatif américain. • Il n’est pas venu en France par préférence pour le système français. • Il est membre de l’IUF mais ce n’est pas parce qu’il n’aime pas l’enseignement. • Il n’a aucune patience avec les idées reçues à propos du système américain, par exemple :

8. (Le Monde du 5 mars) … Comme en France, c’est rare mais ce n’est pas impossible. Aux Etats-Unis, les sociologues sont autorisés à déterminer les origines socioéconomiques et éthniques (!) des étudiants, par exemple : Source : America’s Untapped Resource, 2007

9. Mais je suis à peu près sûr que plus que la moitié de l’assistance tient des propos comparables à ceux cités dans Le Monde. Quant à l’intervenant, il croit que l’enseignement supérieur public (contrairement à l’éducation secondaire) a toujours été plus démocratique aux USA qu’en France, mais que cette tradition est ménacée : comme partout ailleurs :

10. En fait, et selon un phénomène paradoxal mais observable … dans beaucoup d’autres univers sociaux… l’argent (public) va plutôt d’abord aux héritiers et donc à ceux qui ont déjà le plus de capital.C’est-à-dire que ce sont généralement les étudiants d’origine favorisée qui bénéficient des financements les plus importants, comme des meilleures conditions d’études. Et ici je ne parle pas du cas de ces élèves de grandes écoles, dont les études sont intégralement prises en charge par l’Etat en échange de quelques années de bons et loyaux services… Ce constat de l’inégalité de notre système d’enseignement supérieur, et partant de ses fonctions de reproduction sociale, est à peu près unanimement partagé. Or ce qui est étonnant avec les réformes lancées par Valérie Pécresse, c’est que le souci de la démocratisation semble avoir complètement disparu de l’agenda politique. … En fait, il est clair que les réformes actuelles, loin de vouloir lutter contre ces inégalités vont plutôt les amplifier et ce ne sont pas les mesures cosmétiques du Plan réussite en Licence qui contrediront cette tendance. SOURCE : cours du département de sociologie de Paris VIII Vincennes- Saint Denis, effectué le vendredi 20 février 2009, devant l’ENA.

11. Le système éducatif aux USA ést assez compliqué.

12. Page suivante : Les 24 meilleures universités des USA, selon le classement US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT A la différence du classement de Shanghai, celui de USNWR, qui classe les universités en (au moins) 4 catégories (Tier 1-4), sans compter les “small liberal arts colleges”, est très suivi par les administrations des universités

14. Un peu d’histoire American universities have their roots in the establishment of the colonial colleges -- institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, William and Mary -- that were founded in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries or shortly after the American Revolution. These colleges drew on medieval sources and the tradition of Cambridge and Oxford to offer a prescribed curriculum of ancient classics, rhetoric, mathematics, Christian ethics and philosophy. Their purpose was to educate a small, elite group of leaders for the church, the learned professions and citizens for the new nation. Their goal was the preservation of learning and its transmission through teaching to the next generation. The large number of private liberal arts colleges in the United States today, which offer only four-year baccalaureate degrees, continues the tradition of these colonial colleges today in America. During the last third of the nineteenth century, either just prior to or immediately following the American Civil War, an entirely new kind of university appeared on the American scene. This new university accompanied the spread of American settlement to the west, both to the Great Plains of the upper Midwest, and to the new states of the West Coast. New lands were brought under cultivation, and the continent was connected by the transcontinental railroad. The United States was entering the industrial age. The emergence of new universities to serve this new society began with the passage of the Morrill Act, legislation passed in 1863 and signed by President Lincoln, according to which the federal government granted large tracts of land* to each of the states, the sale of which was to provide the money for the establishment of universities in each of the states. Thus was born a uniquely American institution, the public, land-grant university - universities like the University of Illinois, the University of Minnesota, the University of California and many others. These state universities had several functions. They were intended to educate a larger percentage of the population for life in a democratic society. And, without ignoring the classical disciplines, they were intended to conduct research and provide training in applied fields, above all, in agriculture and engineering. These "land-grant" universities were similar to the technical universities in France and Germany. With the addition of the agricultural extension service later, these institutions were responsible for "extending" the knowledge of modern agriculture to the farmers in all of the states. SOURCE : The Privatization of Public Universities, discours de R. Berdahl, Chancellor, UC Berkeley, Erfurt, mai 2000 *débarrassé d’indigènes, bien sûr…

15. Un peu d’histoire American universities have their roots in the establishment of the colonial colleges -- institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, William and Mary -- that were founded in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries or shortly after the American Revolution. These colleges drew on medieval sources and the tradition of Cambridge and Oxford to offer a prescribed curriculum of ancient classics, rhetoric, mathematics, Christian ethics and philosophy.Their purpose was to educate a small, elite group of leaders for the church, the learned professions and citizens for the new nation.Their goal was the preservation of learning and its transmission through teaching to the next generation. The large number of private liberal arts colleges in the United States today, which offer only four-year baccalaureate degrees, continues the tradition of these colonial colleges today in America. During the last third of the nineteenth century, either just prior to or immediately following the American Civil War, an entirely new kind of university appeared on the American scene. This new university accompanied the spread of American settlement to the west, both to the Great Plains of the upper Midwest, and to the new states of the West Coast. New lands were brought under cultivation, and the continent was connected by the transcontinental railroad.The United States was entering the industrial age. The emergence of new universities to serve this new society began with the passage of the Morrill Act, legislation passed in 1863 and signed by President Lincoln, according to whichthe federal government grantedlarge tracts ofland* to each of the states, the sale of which was to provide the money for the establishment of universities in each of the states. Thus was born a uniquely American institution, the public, land-grant university - universities like the University of Illinois, the University of Minnesota, the University of California and many others. These state universities had several functions. Theywere intended to educate a larger percentage of the population for life in a democratic society. And, without ignoring the classical disciplines, they were intendedto conduct research and provide training in applied fields,above all, in agriculture and engineering. These "land-grant" universities weresimilar to the technical universities in France and Germany.With the addition of the agricultural extension service later, these institutions were responsible for "extending" the knowledge of modern agriculture to the farmers in all of the states. SOURCE : The Privatization of Public Universities, discours de R. Berdahl, Chancellor, UC Berkeley, Erfurt, mai 2000 *débarrassé d’indigènes, bien sûr…

16. Nombre d’étudiants inscrits, 2007 Source: U.S. Dept. of Education 2009

17. Cout de l’enseignement supérieurpublic :l’exemple du système CSU (CaliforniaStateUniversities)

18. Cout de l’enseignement supérieur public : l’exemple du système University of California `A titre de comparaison : “annual fees at the University of California have risen from zero in 1960-61, to $450 in 1971, to $3600 at the present time, down from two years ago.” Berdahl, mai 2000

19. Cout de l’enseignement supérieur public :l’exemple de SUNY (State University of New York) et CUNY (City University of New York) The SUNY Board increased undergraduate tuition by $620 (14 percent) … to $4,950 per year, graduate tuition by 14 percent annually, and non-resident undergraduate and graduate tuition by 21 percent annually. These increases are effective beginning in the Spring 2009 semester. The 2009-10 Executive Budget also recommends that the SUNY Board increase resident graduate tuition by an additional 7 percent, effective with the fall 2009 semester. The CUNY Board authorized increasing undergraduate tuition by up to $600 (15 percent), … to $4,600 per year. Additionally, CUNY graduate tuition would increase by 20 percent. Source : New York State Division of the Budget, 6 dec. 2008

20. Les universités privées sont beaucoup plus chères, mais les bourses sont très répandues : The College Board estimates that in 2008-09, full-time students at independent colleges and universities receive an average of $10,200 in grant aid from all sources and federal tax benefits. This aid reduces the average net tuition and fee price that full-time undergraduates pay from the published “sticker price” of $25,100 to about $14,900. Full-time students attending four-year public colleges and universities receive an estimated average of $3,700 in grant aid from all sources and federal tax benefits, which reduces their average tuition and fees they pay from the $6,600 sticker price to about $2,900.   Source : The Financial Downturn and Its Impact on Higher Education Institutions  Prepared by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) in Partnership with the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities (AGB)

21. Néanmoins, les dettes encourues par les étudiants sont souvent onéreuses

22. Néanmoins, les dettes encourues par les étudiants sont souvent onéreuses Source : Democracy Now! Le 12 mars 2009

25. Nombre d’enseignants, 2007 Source: U.S. Dept. of Education 2009

26. Mais les adjuncts (voir plus loin)gagnent beaucoup moins que les full-time : “In order to earn a modest yearly income, say $33,000, an adjunct would have to teach 20 courses at $1,650 per course - an impossibility, and twice the workload of her salaried peers.” (à noter le mot “her”)

28. 28% 13% 12% 23%

29. Gouvernance In the United States, a college or university is typically supervised by a President or Chancellor who reports regularly to a Board of Trustees [comité directeur] (made up of individuals [notables] from outside the institution) and who serves as Chief Executive Officer. Most large colleges and universities now utilize an administrative structure with a tier of vice presidents, among whom the Provost (or Vice President for Academic Affairs) serves as the chief academic officer. Source : Wikipedia

30. Gouvernance

31. Quelques-uns de 50 trustees de Chicago Edition Hotellerie Edition Banque Industrie Banque Banque Industrie

32. Quelques-uns de 26 Regents de l’University of California

33. “Shared governance” • Trustees/Regents • President/Chancellor • Provost (chief academic officer) • Deans • Department • Faculty senate • Syndicats? (uniquement dans les universités publiques)

34. CONTINGENT FACULTY A quoi va ressembler l’université américaine dans une génération, selon Marc Bousquet, How the University Works (2007)

35. RECRUTEMENT Département de…, Hiring committee Département de…, Hiring committee PROVOST Ad hoc committee

36. Mr. Bowen [President of AAUP, 2004] calls the "adjunctification" of the faculty one of the top two or three problems facing all of higher education. With half of the faculty now made up of part-timers, academe is moving toward a piecework system similar to that of farm laborers, he says. He recently met a part-timer in New York who teaches at eight institutions, juggling as many as 16 courses for a not-so-whopping total income of $45,000 a year. That looks a lot different than the ideal academic job, says Mr. Bowen, noting the tenured position he had at Maine's Colby College, in the political-science department. AAUP is always beating the drum for tenured jobs, even while they seem to be slipping away. “… we always say …that our primary purpose is to guarantee academic freedom — and that is inextricably linked to tenure.” (Chronicle, June 11, 2004) • Today, 48% of all faculty serve in part-time appointments, and non-tenure-track positions of all types account for 68% of all faculty appointments in American higher education. (voir graphique). Source: AAUP, http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/issues/contingent/default.htm

41. Syndicalisation des graduate assistants (doctorants) In 2000 the National Labor Relations Board said that New York University was obliged to recognize its graduate assistants' union, a decision that led to a wave of organizing at private universities across the Northeast. But the ruling was reversed four years later when the board, full of new appointees of President George W. Bush, said graduate assistants at Brown University were primarily students and were not covered by federal labor law. Advocates of unionizing may be helped by President Obama, who is expected to appoint board members who support labor rights.… The AAUP has been working to persuade Congress to pass both the Employee Free Choice Act and … the Teaching and Research Assistant Collective Bargaining Rights Act. That measure, which was introduced last spring but never made it out of the U.S. House of Representatives education committee, would explicitly state that teaching and research assistants can form unions with which universities must negotiate. Source : Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 20. 2009. Anecdote : soutien exprimé par mes collègues en 2008 pour la syndicalisation des doctorants : 0% (mais il semble que Alan Sokal est pour…) En 2004 40.000 graduate assistants étaient membres de syndicats.

42. Corporatization There are many ways in which corporations are entering into university campuses. Obvious ones include corporate sponsored classrooms, while there are not so obvious ones like scientists plugging away at the latest biotech crop and drug research. The main goals of unversities' governing boards and certain faculty and departments are to secure investments from corporations, develop patentable technologies, create start-up/spin-off companies, and train graduates to meet employer's goals. The federal and state governments are playing a strong role in strengthening corporate-university links, by cutting back on funding for research at public universities and at the same time enacting laws encouraging corporations to invest in university research. … This has led to increases in tuition fees and the underfunding of many academic departments, especially in the liberal arts. SOURCE: Berkeley Watch “Academics in Canada are growing increasingly concerned about what they see as the expanding influence of corporations over their campuses.… As government support for the universities has fallen -- from about 60 % of campus budgets in the 1980s to 40 % today -- the institutions have come to depend more and more on private funds for facilities, research, teaching, and other activities. … ‘The danger is that teaching and research are going to be steered by these infusions of money that our universities are only too eager to receive," said Bill Graham, president of the [Canadian Association of University Teachers] and a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto. "And the idea that knowledge only has value if it has commercial applications must be challenged. This is potentially the most explosive issue in postsecondary education in decades.’” (Chronicle, November 12, 1999)

43. Corporatization “… the increasing dependence on private support leaves public universities vulnerable to influence from private sources. Last month, for example, the Chairman of Nike announced that he would withdraw his $30 million pledge to the University of Oregon because it had chosen … to affiliate with the Workers' Rights Coalition to monitor conditions under which American companies were producing goods in Third World Countries. Critical of the decision and the political values he believed it represented, he simply withdrew his gift.” (Berdahl, mai 2000) What are the dangers of a university-industrial complex? First, … the loss of common ground, … common purpose within the university. … the university-industrial complex brings market forces into the university to an extent never before contemplated. … [salary differences between disciplines] have grown enormously. At the level of assistant professors, there can be as much as 100% between humanists and business school faculty, for example. Second, with the … new capacity for some faculty -- biologists, engineers, computer scientists, and business school faculty -- to earn substantial amounts outside the university, there can be corresponding devaluation of the work of humanists and social scientists. … the new president-elect of Stanford … [said] that his greatest challenge was to convince Silicon Valley's wealthy contributors to Stanford that the humanities were vital to the well being of Stanford. … Who will guide us through the moral and policy thicket of this new age if the humanists and social scientists are weakened by the overwhelming drive of market forces in a university-industrial complex? And third, the university-industrial partnership … lucrative and essential as it is for much of the basic research of the university, can undermine the belief in the basic objectivity of the research of our faculty. (Berdahl, mai 2000)

44. Capitalism, academic style, was once most evident in the realm of patenting and technology transfer, pursued by a few research university faculty. But it now extends to … [e]ducation … transformed into a service mediated and delivered through technology. The result is a standardized and commodified education.

45. Capitalism, academic style, was once most evident in the realm of patenting and technology transfer, pursued by a few research university faculty. But it now extends to … [e]ducation … transformed into a service mediated and delivered through technology. The result is a standardized and commodified education. Academic capitalism is a cultural system within higher education…. It shapes the way we talk about and define our role in the academy. University presidents increasingly see themselves as CEOs, and ask to be paid accordingly. More faculty view themselves as small businesspeople, although they treat their relatively secure academic salaries as sinecures; in public institutions, these faculty amount to state-subsidized entrepreneurs.

46. Capitalism, academic style, was once most evident in the realm of patenting and technology transfer, pursued by a few research university faculty. But it now extends to … [e]ducation … transformed into a service mediated and delivered through technology. The result is a standardized and commodified education. Academic capitalism is a cultural system within higher education…. It shapes the way we talk about and define our role in the academy. University presidents increasingly see themselves as CEOs, and ask to be paid accordingly. More faculty view themselves as small businesspeople, although they treat their relatively secure academic salaries as sinecures; in public institutions, these faculty amount to state-subsidized entrepreneurs. Another change that comes with academic capitalism is the rise of nonfaculty professionals on campus. Although these professionals have advanced degrees, technical bodies of knowledge, and professional associations, they are hired, evaluated, and fired by supervisors, not by peers, as faculty are. Their presence on campus thus shifts power to management. …These managerial professionals conduct some academic work and affect other such work, including teaching. Some participate with faculty in technology transfer to commercialize intellectual property. Others are involved… in evaluating or developing the instructional activity of faculty members. … They promote the use of technology in instruction, conflating it with innovation and quality, and argue that faculty should change their instruction to become more interactive.

47. Capitalism, academic style, was once most evident in the realm of patenting and technology transfer, pursued by a few research university faculty. But it now extends to … [e]ducation … transformed into a service mediated and delivered through technology. The result is a standardized and commodified education. Academic capitalism is a cultural system within higher education…. It shapes the way we talk about and define our role in the academy. University presidents increasingly see themselves as CEOs, and ask to be paid accordingly. More faculty view themselves as small businesspeople, although they treat their relatively secure academic salaries as sinecures; in public institutions, these faculty amount to state-subsidized entrepreneurs. Another change that comes with academic capitalism is the rise of nonfaculty professionals on campus. Although these professionals have advanced degrees, technical bodies of knowledge, and professional associations, they are hired, evaluated, and fired by supervisors, not by peers, as faculty are. Their presence on campus thus shifts power to management. …These managerial professionals conduct some academic work and affect other such work, including teaching. Some participate with faculty in technology transfer to commercialize intellectual property. Others are involved… in evaluating or developing the instructional activity of faculty members. … They promote the use of technology in instruction, conflating it with innovation and quality, and argue that faculty should change their instruction to become more interactive. Capitalism, academic style, then, is a mode of production. With entrepreneurial universities comes a restructuring of professional work. But the rise of managerial professionals challenges not only the faculty's expertise; it also challenges the prevailing model of shared governance that sees two parties on campus, faculty and administrators (with the latter serving the trustees). Gary Rhoades (General Secretary, AAUP): Capitalism, Academic Style, and Shared Governance

48. Corporatization and commercialization of curriculum Source : Academic Capitalism in the New Economy: Challenges and Choices GARY RHOADES AND SHEILA SLAUGHTER, American Academy (2006)

49. Corporatization and commercialization of curriculum • First, strategic decisions about the development, investment in and delivery of curriculum are being increasingly driven by short-term market considerations and are made outside the purview of shared governance. Source : Academic Capitalism in the New Economy: Challenges and Choices GARY RHOADES AND SHEILA SLAUGHTER, American Academy (2006)

50. Corporatization and commercialization of curriculum • First, strategic decisions about the development, investment in and delivery of curriculum are being increasingly driven by short-term market considerations and are made outside the purview of shared governance. • Second, the structure of professional employment on campus is changing in ways that moves faculty away from the center of academic decision making … For example, other professionals (e.g., in teaching centers) are increasingly being identified as ”the experts” with regard to pedagogy; the emphasis is on learning, not teaching (making the teacher less central to the process); and the curriculum is being divided into a set of tasks performed by various personnel (un “chaine de montage virtuelle”). Source : Academic Capitalism in the New Economy: Challenges and Choices GARY RHOADES AND SHEILA SLAUGHTER, American Academy (2006)