Funding forms a critical aspect of public universities in terms of research and conducting learning. In the 1950s and 60s educated university students did protest concerning the Vietnam wars and other issues that were affecting America. With a high access to public funds, the universities and colleges could increase the intake of students. However, over the years the reduction in public funds has been construed to have an agenda. Courses on humanities such as sociology and philosophy play an essential role in shaping the minds of college students. Individuals can be able to reason critically and analyze everyday issues from clear perspectives. Additionally, the lack of state funding has resulted in an increment in the fees payable by students. As such, the levels of enrolment have reduced significantly, despite being a high number of qualified intelligent students. Universities then tend to seek high-paying non-residents students, as they can be able to pay tuition fees that are three times more than what the state residents students pay. Consequently, students from low-income families tend to be locked out of university admissions.
Poor payment packages for professors are likely to continue to reduce the number of students who aim to undertake PhDs. Furthermore, students aim to undertake courses that will eventually lead to high salaries. As such, they may ignore the likelihood of continuing the education once they secure employment opportunities with benefits. There is no incentive to attract more students to seek professorship. Students may not be motivated to seek professorship if they will be unemployed part of the year and their chances of getting medical benefits are zero. Furthermore, the lack of guarantee for a job as a professor is highly likely. As an adjunct professor, one also has to prepare for curriculum once a job is offered. Grading becomes a challenge, as certain university criteria have to be followed in the grading of the students.
The decline in the number of teaching faculty can be credited to the increasing number of administrators in universities. Salaries for the faculty members have been reduced to cater for the salaries of the university administrators. Administrators have focused the shift from education and research to profits. Many of the research conducted in universities is being used to target profit opportunities. Prior to this, professors running the universities focused on education and research as their top priorities. With administrators, it can become difficult for the professors to sanction any research without the approval from the administrators. Additionally, this may be accompanied by feasibility studies on their various proposals for professorships to ascertain their income generating probabilities before any funding is provided. Consequently, it becomes difficult for professors to research on issues that may be geared toward education purposes only.
The culture and university missions and vision have changed over time. As learning institutions, universities are supposed to provide a foundation for further learning and development. However, this has changed in the sense that students’ goal in going to universities is to ensure they get a good job or employment after completing their studies. As such, students in the learning environment will tend to focus only on satisfying the minimum requirements and exam regulations set by the university. Innovation and creativity become reduced at a very high rate. Furthermore, a corporate culture has undermined the quality of education. Replacing the academic values with corporate ones makes students develop money minded culture, and this may limit their academic potential, which changes the research goals when funding comes from corporate institutions.
Lectures are supposed to be a ground where students engage with their instructors. In such places they are supposed to reason, ask questions and maybe suggest more efficient ways of addressing issues that have become challenging. However, lecturers may lack that motivation to inspire students, the students can sense and feel a lack of motivation in a lecturer, and this may disorient them from a particular course or subject.
