New Forms of Higher Education: An Examination of the Learning Contract

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract - 0451310 Goodman This study examines new, innovative forms of higher education. The research questions include: what are the forms or structural properties of these new institutions and how do they differ from traditional research universities? What is the startup process of these new institutions? How can the concept of the "learning contract" help us understand the evolution of these new forms of higher education as well as other learning organizations? This multi-disciplinary research draws on the organizational change literature, role theory literature, recent work on psychological contracts, and the literature about innovative forms of higher education institutions. The project includes four related studies of research university startups. The first two studies will rely on rich ethnographic methods including interviews and observation, as well as archival records to capture the form of these institutions and their processes during the startup phase. The third study will develop and validate scales in a survey instrument, tapping the learning contract construct. The fourth study will use data from the first three studies to examine initial effectiveness indicators. These last two studies rely on construct development, hypothesis testing, and quantitative methods. The potential broader impact of this research includes: 1) helping U.S. universities maintain their historically competitive edge while under severe pressure to change due to environmental forces such as constrained governmental support, escalating faculty recruitment and retention costs, downward tuition pressure from skeptical constituents, lower cost content delivery systems (e.g., e-learning), and globalization of U.S. style education; 2) educational policy formation for new and existing research and teaching universities; and 3) the development of the learning contract within university settings will provide institutions and policy makers with new frameworks and measurement instruments to assess aspects of organizational effectiveness.