Types of Institutions for Higher Education

Education is considered an essential element in the development of individuals (Kubow & Fossum, 2003). The 1983 document, "A Nation at Risk," deemed that excellence in education should be to, "develop the talents of all to their fullest. Attaining that goal requires that we expect and assist all students to work to the limits of their capabilities. We should expect schools to have genuinely high standards rather than minimum ones, and parents to support and encourage their children to make the most of their talents and abilities (para 3).

Upon completion of high school, individuals have the opportunity to further their education through vocational or technical schools, universities, both public and private, for-profit schools, and community colleges. The following will examine the types of educational institutions established within the realm of higher education. The educational philosophy guiding the principles of the institution and structure will be discussed, as well as, how the institutional structure impacts various elements of the institution.

Higher education

Almost all higher educational institutions proceed through an accreditation process, which is developed to promote academic standards within the educational institution. Several accreditation agencies exist to ensure that graduates meet certain standards and secure consistency in education. There are numerous benefits for accreditation, namely, evaluation of curriculum, attentiveness of faculty to present the curriculum, and program achievement (Challa, Kasper, & Redmond, 2005). The educational philosophy that guides the principles of the institution and its structure has several components, which will be addressed under specific educational institutions.

Vocational Schools, Technical Schools, and For-Profit Schools

Vocational, technical, and for-profit schools offer certificate programs as well as degree programs that focus on short-term occupational training. Vocational, technical, and for-profit educational institutions generally cost less than four-year educational institutions (Mupinga & Livesay, 2004). A fundamental benefit of this type of higher education, in addition to cost effectiveness, geographic convenience, and program diversity, is that students have the ability to focus on a specific discipline, and then later pursue additional education while working in their chosen discipline (Mupinga & Livesay, 2004). Educational institutions in these categories offer programs in the following areas: health and life sciences, business and marketing, administrative assisting, bookkeeping, computer technology, cosmetology, and medical or dental assisting (Mupinga & Livesay, 2004).

Vocational and technical schools operate under the following philosophies: the school understands and meets the needs of students and functions upon the established mission and principles of the stakeholders, there is an intended plan to endorse and sustain the mission, values, and programs of the institution, functions beneath a governing board and administrative head that perform their position in a way that sustains the mission, values, and objectives of the institution, maintains a has a capable staff assisted by the financial and physical resources necessary, maintains a comprehensive program that provides for the advancement and welfare of the students, presents a stimulating and up to date curriculum that indicates standards of the related field of study and promotes the participation of students and offers them opportunities to learn fundamental knowledge and skills, utilizes various educational strategies and learning activities that highlight skills essential to the students' field of study and the principle of learning beyond the classroom, offers a reasonable, current compilation of media and technology resources to support the curriculum, develops a comprehensive assessment strategy and utilizes the strategy in an impartial and fair approach to determine student knowledge and to develop the value of the curriculum and instruction (SACS,2000).

Educational institutions that exist for a special purpose or for-profit institutions have the following philosophies guiding their principles: the special purpose institution should have no uncertainties in ownership or control and should be approved by the authority in which the institution resides, sufficiently financed available, the mission of the institution is recognized and sustained by the institution, faculty, and administration, curriculum is thoroughly defined and structured, the material and methods utilized for instruction is professionally authorized and facilitated to an appropriate group size that permits successful management of diversity among individuals, programs that include understanding of knowledge and involves the students, faculty and administration are adequately capable of performing assigned tasks, all costs of program are known to student and family, goals are established for students, the infrastructure of the organization and all aspects are defined, interaction between faculty, students, and parents are concluded, areas for education and administration are sufficient in size, the building and grounds of the institution follow codes for occupancy and student guidelines are followed, media and equipment are current and accessible, aspects of the functioning of the school are known including income, costs, and enrollment, the institution retain strategic planning for constant improvement of the institution (SACS, 2002).

Public Universities and community colleges

Public universities are offered by each state within the United States, most have multiple campuses throughout the state. Public universities are intended for the educational needs of a particular state, are financed mainly by state funding, and provide a quality education. Advantages of public universities include: comparatively low tuition, a wide variety of study options, admission is moderately easy, and close to home for residents of the state. Disadvantages include: class size is large, especially during the first two years, which leaves little opportunity for interaction with staff and individual study programs.

Community colleges are planned primarily for residents of a specific community, and award an Associate of Arts degree. Advantages of community colleges include: close to home, relatively easy admission, low tuition costs; combine a two-year academic program with vocational training. Disadvantages include: do not provide housing (Eckel & King, 2005).

Public universities and community colleges maintain the following philosophy for the institutions guiding principles: the institution conveys a vision, values, and mission that concentrate on improving the performance of the institution as well as the students, the institution and governing board support the ability of stakeholders to improve student learning by providing proper leadership, authority, and organization, the institution presents a curriculum that supports best practices and characterize outcomes for student learning, the institution utilizes instructional policies, and aids students with learning, assessments are in place to determine student knowledge, programs to aid in the welfare of the students, successful communications among stakeholders, and institutes a plan for improvement concentrated on students performance (SACS, 2002).

Private Universities

There is a wide range of private universities including high-status universities, religious oriented universities, specialized curriculum or special needs universities, business oriented universities, and ethnic oriented universities. Advantages of private universities include: few students thus a lower student-faculty ratio, admission is more individualized, more personalized support and study options, high completion rates. Disadvantages include: higher tuition costs, selective admission policies, and greater distance from home (Eckel & King, 2005).

The philosophy of private educational institutions is as follows: constant educational improvement, utilizes and imparts a vision, values, and a mission statement that offer focus for the value for the institution as well as the students, presents and encourages strength in the leadership, governance, and organizational structure, presents financial resources for the institution, offers knowledgeable and skilled faculty and administration to support students, recognizes and offers services for the welfare of the students, current library and media, the site of the institution as well as the equipment are functional and safe, establishes community interaction, presents curriculum and instructional strategies to enhance student outcomes, endorses skills, and citizenship of students, utilizes systems to assess and improve student outcomes and the functionality of the institution (SACS, 2004).

Strengths and weaknesses of the components of the institutional structure

Educational institutions contain a structure that supports more individualistic than collaborative initiatives, which can be identified as a weakness for the institution. This individualist attitude can cause faculty and administrators to be in conflict with one another (Kezar, 2005). In order to improve upon the hierarchical administration that exists in most educational institutions, the whole organizational structure would have to be redeveloped. This would include: organizational chart, incentives, budgeting, and academic planning. Some incentives are strength for the structure because they thrive, but this is not always the case (Kezar, 2005).

The components that characterize a collaborative organizational structure are: a strong mission, networks of faculty and administration, elements that provide for collaboration, rewards for collaborative work, precedence positioned on cooperative ventures, and distinctive values and initiatives (Kezar, 2005).

Educational institutions that maintain more of a traditional hierarchical structure promoting autonomy, maintain a more relaxed work atmosphere, quicker decision-making, and occasions to partake in discussing issues and direction, and increase awareness of local communities. This type of structure maintains a clear chain of command. Institutions that are more centralized, with the structure having a silo effect, effectiveness is improved, less frequent abuse of institutional resources, improved access and transfer opportunities. However, the centralization structure tends to maintain slower decision-making, longer problem-resolution, and increased red tape (Timberlake, 2004).

The affects of structure on pertinent components

Class size

The structure of the educational institution can have an affect on class size, particularly the building and facilities. Smaller institutions frequently have limited classroom space, whereas larger institutions frequently have larger facilities and thus more classroom space. Another area that could affect classroom size is the number of full time and adjunct faculty to teach (Eckel & King, 2005).

Classes that contain general subjects, that are part of the core requirements of general education, would tend to have students from different programs. However, as students start to specialize in their degree field, classroom size, as far as students, tend to be smaller. Regulatory agencies for vocational schools, etc. will specify a maximum of students in a classroom (Eckel & King, 2005).

Educational goals

The president of the educational institution, working closely with the different department heads, usually sets the educational goals of the educational institution. The main issue of structure affecting goals is the size of the institution and student body. The institution that offers one program of study compared to institutions that offer several different programs, each department maintaining educational goals per program offered. The goals are the same, which would still be the student body size, curriculum, faculty, facilities, and administrative staff. The needs of the educational institution are the same no matter the size of the student body; the size of the student body only increases the needs (Marcy, 2002).

Standards

Higher educational institutions have three types of standards, institutional standards, perceived standards by students, and regulatory standards. The infrastructure such as the number of administrative staff can have a positive or negative impact on meeting or exceeding the standards, not only the administrative staff but also the qualifications of that staff. In consideration of the affects on structure, there can be variations within the standards. For instance, a employee not understanding the systems and not being properly supervised can make a series of mistakes or change systems without approval. Also, senior employees sometimes make change without approval and fail to coordinate with other departments, which creates chaos within departments. In larger institutions this type of variation within standards can be difficult to manage, whereas, within a smaller institution, these variations are easier to manage. However, whether the institution is a large school, or small school, the standards required by the leaders of the institution and the regulatory agencies still have to be met (Eckel & King, 2005).

Curriculum

In considering curriculum models and structure, the academic dean maintains the responsibility of curriculum. Educational institutions offer programs which transfer knowledge to students to aid them in their future endeavors, the curriculum is taught by the faculty which has the academic freedom in the classroom to use reasonable means of transferring the knowledge to students. However, there tends to be an oversight by department heads to ensure that professors are staying on track with the curriculum being taught. In larger institutions, with large budgets, the resources in the classroom are usually more extravagant compared to a smaller institution that does not possess as many resources to teach. All educational institutions are concerned with the results or outcomes.

Conclusion

All higher education institutions, both public and private, both nonprofit and for-profit, and from state colleges to research universities to community colleges to a wide variety of technical and professional schools, perform a public objective. Significant differences in excellence, purpose, and goals exist in each of these institutions. However, they each engage in a distinctive and essential function. It is evident that higher educational institutions should maintain a sense of shared purpose, have support from administrators and faculty, necessary funding, policies and procedures in place, and assessment of goals (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).

References

Accreditation standards for public institutions. (2002). Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Retrieved April 25,2006, from http://www.sacs.org/.

Accreditation standards for special purpose institutions. (2002). Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Retrieved April 25,2006, from http://www.sacs.org/.

Accreditation standards for vocational-technical institutions. (2000). Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Retrieved April 25,2006, from http://www.sacs.org/.

A nation at risk: An imperative for educational reform (1983). Excellence in education. The National Commission on Excellence in Education. Retrieved April 20,2006, from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html

Challa, C.D., Kasper, G.M. & Redmond R. (2005). The accreditation process for IS programs in business schools. Journal of Information Systems Education,16 (2), pgs. 207-217. Retrieved April 23, 2006 from ProQuest database.

Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin. Retrieved April 27, 2006 from http://www.csuhayward.edu/wasc/pdfs/End%20Note.pdf.

Eckel, P.D. & King, J.E. (2005). An overview of higher education in the United States: Diversity, access, and the role of the market place. Retrieved on April, 24, 2006 from ProQuest database.

Kezar, A. (2005). Moving from I to we: Reorganizing for collaboration in higher education. Change. Retrieved April 27, 2006 from EBSCOhost database.

Kubow, P.K., & Fossum, P.R. (2003). Comparative education: Exploring issues in international context. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Marcy, M.B. (2002). Diversity, demographics and dollars: Challenges in higher education. Retrieved April 25, 2006 from http://www.pfhe.org/docs/WP3.pdf

Mupinga, D.M. & Livesay, K. (2004). Consider vocational-technical education for post-secondary education. The Clearing House, 77 (6). Retrieved April 22, 2006 from ProQuest database.

Nonpublic school standards for accreditation (2004). Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Retrieved April 25,2006 from http://www.sacs.org/.

Shapiro, H.T. (2005). A larger sense of purpose: Higher education and society. Retrieved April 25, 2006 from http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s8022.html

Timberlake, G.R. (2004). Decision-making in multi-campus higher education institutions.The Community College Enterprise, 10 (2). Retrieved April 27, 2006 from ProQuest database.