Doctoral Dissertation Research: Market Logic in Higher Education

在过去的十年里，营利性大学的市场行为受到了极大的关注。这个项目考虑哪些组织选择遵循这个逻辑。这项研究提出了组织和个人层面的问题。首先，考虑了“特定组织如何以及为什么更加关注高等教育的市场化战略”这一宏观问题。然后，在个人层面上，“对市场压力的关注变化对组织内的个人有什么影响或后果？他们是如何驾驭组织变化的？”本论文具有重要的学术贡献。高等教育研究人员主要关注大型州立大学或精英大学的收入来源，这些大学通过研究或慈善手段获得市场类型的资金。相比之下，本研究考察的是那些收入主要来源是学生入学人数的学院或大学。更具体地说，该项目将大学研究的重点从信念系统转移到行为上，并强调了信念的制度逻辑如何与其他组织逻辑（如市场、国家或职业）相互作用。为了回答这些问题，本研究采用了比较案例研究设计，检查了八个机构的数据。该项目依赖于公开可用的数据，如课程目录、校友杂志、IPEDS财务数据以及员工访谈。这个项目聚焦于美国教育和美国社会的重要发展——市场逻辑的迅速扩张。它有助于理解组织对市场压力的反应，这种现象几乎适用于每个组织。鉴于本研究关注的是广泛入学学校的依赖以及它们对学费收入的依赖，它将为高等教育的融资提供重要的见解，包括个人资源的投资以及经济援助计划。

In the past decade, significant attention has been afforded to the market-based behavior of for-profit universities. This project considers which organizations choose to pursue this logic. This study poses questions at both the organizational and individual level. First, the macro query of "How and why did particular organizations give greater attention to a market-based strategy of higher education?" is considered. Then, at the individual level, "What effects or consequences did changes in attention to market pressures have on individuals within the organizations and how did they navigate the organizational change?" This dissertation makes significant intellectual contributions. Higher education researchers have primarily given attention to revenue streams available to large state or elite universities with the research or philanthropic means to secure market types of funding. In contrast, this study examines the college or university that has one dominant source of revenue: student enrollments. More specifically, the project shifts the focus of the study of colleges from belief systems to behavior and highlights how the institutional logic of belief interacts with other organizational logics, such as the market, state, or professions.To answer these questions, this research employs a comparative case study design that examines data across eight institutions. This project relies on publicly available data such as course catalogs, alumni magazines, and IPEDS financial data, as well as employee interviews. This project focuses on important developments that continue to unfold in American education and American society - the rapid expansion of market logic. It contributes to the understanding of organizational responses to market pressures, a phenomenon that applies to almost every organization. Given that this study focuses on the dependence of broad access schools and their reliance on tuition revenue, it will offer important insights into financing of higher education, including investment of individual resources as well as the financial aid programs.