The Mismatch between Postsecondary Education and the Bay Area Economy
The fields of postsecondary education and the San Francisco Bay Area economy are varied and complex. They are integral to each other’s success but are mismatched and ill-suited in many ways. These fields have developed under different conditions, with different pressures and for different purposes. Often, colleges must adjudicate between two worlds: one relating to the historic traditions of higher education, and the second attuned to the serving the needs of the economic region in which they are embedded. The former system is inertial and preserves the traditions and values of the academy; at best, change occurs in an incremental fashion. By contrast, colleges who seek to meet the regional needs of the Bay Area, which continuous to grow and shift in new and unpredictable ways, must be prepared to adapt to exponential change.
The mismatch between postsecondary education and the Bay Area economy is important to address because it threatens the supply of skills and knowledge needed for economic growth and civic vitality in the region. Without the skills and knowledge of its workforce, Silicon Valley would not be the economic engine that it is today. Led by Michael W. Kirst and W. Richard Scott, in partnership with the Gardner Center and with funding from the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, LearningWorks, and the Rosenberg Foundation, this study examines the changing ecology of higher education, particularly how colleges and universities – including broad-access institutions that accept a majority of the students who apply – balance the twin demands of upholding the academic standards and liberal arts traditions of the past and responding to the demands of a volatile and rapidly changing market economy.
Related Publications
- Scott, W. R., & Kirst, M. (2017). Higher Education and Silicon Valley: Connected but Conflicted [Supplementary Materials]. Johns Hopkins University Press.
