Running head: WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY?

What is Higher Education Policy? Carolyn Cristancho Georgia Southern University

WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY? What is higher education policy? At first thought, the answer is simple. Higher

education policy is policy that is tailored towards higher education. When looking deeper, however, it is harder to discern what that means, exactly. Does that mean these policies only effect students? Can these policies be base on law? Are these policies permanent or can they be changed based on university climate and culture? In order to understand higher education policy, these questions must be answered and, in order to answer these questions effectively, one must understand what policy is, in general. According to Haddad (1995), a policy is [a] single decision or group of decisions which may set our directives for guiding future decisions, initiate or retard action, or guide implementation of previous decisions. In short, a policy is what guides action (Haddad, 1995). In higher education, these actions may include curriculum changes, regulations on funding allocations, and daily facilities operations among other things. While knowing what policy is and what it entails is an important aspect of understanding higher education policy, it is also necessary to know whom policy effects and, perhaps most importantly, how policy is created and implemented. Policy is a part of every aspect of higher education; some major aspects include finances and budgets, curriculum, student life, enrollment and admission, and financial aid. Policies are used by each entity in an institution for different reasons. One reason is to ensure a seamless structure throughout the institution (Bastedo, 2005). Policy may also be used to ensure an institution is continuously adapting to its social climate (Bastedo, 2005). For example, San Jose State University requires that students who repeat courses must pay extra for those courses due to the decrease in their budget (Newell, 2009). Many institutions have seen changes in policies about enrollment. Institutions want to see

WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY? increases in enrollment, so some states are creating policies that provide incentives for institutions that are successful in increasing enrollment, retention, and graduation rates

(Complete College Georgia, 2011). With this few examples, it is apparent that policies are a part of every aspect of higher education, and many of these policies intertwine. It is also important to look at who policy effects. Students, faculty, and administration are all impacted by policy in different ways. Administration generally sees policy and policy change first. They are obligated to solve issues in the best way possible for every party involved. Faculty members are responsible for upholding the policies that relate to them. Students are impacted by policies because they see the result of the policy implementation. Understanding the creation of policy is one of the most important aspects of understanding higher education policy. The reason behind a policys implementation is what differentiates higher education policy from policy in general. It is difficult to understand that reasoning without knowing how higher education policies are created. While there are many models of policy creation, most models have the same general outline. There is a goal, an objective, a method, an implementation, and a performance evaluation (Shouwstra & Ellman, 2006). First, one must set a goal. This goal may be based on a problem that needs to be solved or a policy that currently exists but is not successful. After setting a goal, it is important to specify an objective. This objective is a more specific aspect of the goal (Shouwstra & Ellman, 2006). By giving an objective, one is specifying the route he or she would like to take to remedy the issue that the goal is trying to mend. Once an objective is determined, one must research the objective and create a method in which the objective can be implemented. It is important to consider

WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY?

how each method may impact the institution as a whole. Will one department be required to make significant changes? Are these changes worth the money, time, and work that will be involved in creating this policy if it is approved? Who will have to be a part of the approval process? What are the possible negative outcomes of this policy? It is important to consider these questions as they may require one to re-examine the objective in order to ensure that the policy being presented is going to be beneficial for the institution (Shouwstra & Ellman, 2006). It is also important to recognize how one will test this method to ensure it achieves the overall goal. After a method is decided on and approved, it is time for implementation. Implementation is an important aspect of higher education policy, but it is important to remember that implementation is not the end of policy making. It is then important to collect data on how the policy made an impact. Did the policy fulfill the initial goal? Was the cost of implementation worth the outcome? If all factors measured return with a favorable result, the policy is effective. If there are unfavorable results, it is necessary to re-evaluate each step in the policy creation to ensure a favorable outcome (Shouwstra & Ellman, 2006). To show how the creation and implementation of a policy works in a higher education setting, we can create an example of a policy to be put in place. We can imagine that our institution is having trouble retaining students. One of the issues may be that students do not perform well on exams, which leads them to drop out of their program. With this in mind, our goal will be to increase student performance on exams. While it is difficult to assess all exams, it may be more beneficial and efficient if we assess final exam grades only. One major problem on college campuses is that many students have many exams or important projects due the week prior to finals. This may

WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY? take away the opportunity for students to prepare adequately for final exams, which can be a large part of a courses final grade. With this in mind, the objective for this policy

would be to implement a reading week the week before exams in order to give students time to focus on their final exams. A reading week is simply a week that is focused on studying for final exams. Classes are still held, but they are for learning or reviewing material. The idea is that professors are unable to give exams or final projects during reading week. Since we have found our objective, it is time to weigh different methods of implementation. While deciding on a method of implementation, it is important to research other institutions policies on reading week, as well as create specific guidelines that will be used if this policy is put into effect. We also need to create data for our control, and make sure that our method of measure is legal. If a reading week is put in place, it is important to be able to compare average exam scores from each course to previous years, so we will need to get permission from students to allow us to use their final exam test score as part of an average for our evaluation. If students do not agree, we will use enrollment as our indicator of the success of reading week. For this reading week, we propose that no exams or final projects are to be due the week prior to final exams. As we decide on a method, it is crucial to answer different questions. How will this affect the academic calendar? Will this significantly impact courses schedules? Will faculty be inconvenienced by this change and, if so, is the inconvenience large enough to warrant a re-working of the policy? For this examples sake, we will say that faculty does not agree with a full week labeled reading week. Because of this, we need to go back and alter our method. Our new policy proposes that no exams or final projects may be due the Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday prior to the week of final exams. This has

WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY? decreased the inconvenience for the faculty and the policy gets passed. Reading week has been implemented and it is now necessary for us to examine the effectiveness of the policy. If we compare average scores and retention rates to previous years that did not

include a reading week and we get a positive outcome, our policy was successful. If the outcome is not positive, we will re-evaluate each step to see what needs to be adjusted until a positive outcome is achieved or the policy is no longer implemented. We can see in this example that many different entities on campus are involved in the passing of this policy, and this policy guides the actions of the faculty and students. There are many steps to policy creation and implementation, especially in higher education. In order to change or create a policy, it is necessary to ensure the policy is needed and is backed up by research and data. Policies are not implemented overnight and often take time as adjustment may be needed. The goal of creating policy is to guide future decision-making, and ensuring policies are sound before implementing them is a way to ensure future decision-making is effortless (Haddad, 1995).

WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY? References

Bastedo, M. N. (2005). Sociological frameworks for higher education policy research. Retrieved from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bastedo/papers/bastedo.sohe.pdf Complete College Georgia. (2011). Complete college georgia: Georgias higher education completion plan 2012. Retrieved from https://georgiasouthern.desire2learn.com/d2l/le/content/139121/viewContent/380 7878/View Haddad, W. D. (1995). Education policy-planning process: An applied framework. UNESCO: International Institute for Education Planning. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/11_200.pdf Newell, M. (2009). Higher education budget cuts: How are they effecting students. California Postsecondary Education Commission. Retrieved from http://www.cpec.ca.gov/completereports/2009reports/09-27.pdf Shouwstra, M. & Ellman M. (2006). A new explanatory model for policy analysis and evaluation. Tinberg Institute. Retrieved from http://papers.tinbergen.nl/06063.pdf