Two New Reports on Research-Intensive Universities

”...I have had the opportunity to work on a wide range of issues as the Assistant to President Bush for Science and Technology, but none has been more important to me than those issues involving the health of this nation’s research-intensive universities.” - D. Allan Bromley

In one of his final acts as President Bush’s science adviser, Allan Bromley has released two reports authored by White House panels: “Renewing the Promise: Research-Intensive Universities and the Nation,” and “In the National Interest: The Federal Government and Research-Intensive Universities.”

During a White House briefing, Bromley noted that the partnership between the federal government and the approximately 170 research-intensive universities has “paid tremendous dividends.” He acknowledged that important changes in the world (the end of the Cold War, emergence of new economic superpowers, environmental concerns, etc.) have stressed universities and their relationship to the federal government.

Both reports make a number of recommendations to ease this stress. A major, and what will be a controversial recommendation, in Bromley’s words, is: "...universities must focus on what they do best and on what only they can do.” Bromley and panel members acknowledge implementing this recommendation will entail painful choices, including the elimination or downsizing of departments that are less than world-class quality. The reports recommend applications-specific work being the responsibility of industry, with federal laboratories doing large and long-range programmatic studies or research involving very large, frontier facilities.

“Renewing the Promise...” warns that the expansive funding provided in the 1960s and early 1980s is unlikely to return. Universities are cautioned against starting programs that the nation will be unable to fully fund. “The overall system should not be significantly expanded,” said Princeton University President Harold Shapiro, Vice-Chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Universities should strengthen their commitment to teaching, and efforts must be undertaken to restore public confidence in universities. Federal support of universities must be improved. Shapiro also said that industry and universities must change their perceptions: “Each group looks down on the other, and much in the way of cultural change needs to be accomplished all around.” Finally, new scholarship mechanisms are proposed.

The reports are seen as the first step of an examination of the R&D system in a post Cold War environment. Companion studies of the federal laboratories and U.S. industrial research are planned.

Both reports make for very interesting reading. To obtain a set of the reports, contact NSF at 202-357-5000 or e-mail to pubs@nsf.gov (Internet) or pubs@nsf (BITNET) and request publication #92-223.