University of Virginia Library

Tidal Wave

Certainly in scholarship the best
have few rivals, while in terms of
accessibility the record is unique.
Over half of America's graduates
from secondary school go to college,
a university population twice
that of western Europe and more
than double America's own enrolment
in 1955. Nor has the trend
toward higher education for the
masses worked itself out. President
Johnson hopes that by 1976 two-thirds
of all secondary school graduates
will go on to colleges of some
kind, turning today's six million
into nine million or more.

This tidal wave means more
classrooms, more staff, more dormitories
and facilities. The great problem
is operating costs. In spite of
all the talk about computers and
television, productivity in higher
education has grown little. Besides
inflation, which takes its steady
toll, new technologies and new
areas of study have opened up, such
as African history and molecular
biology. Meanwhile the great increase
in the number of graduate
students, who require specialist
staff and equipment, gives the
screw another turn, even though
universities receive a federal grant
for each Ph.D. student. Federal
loans and grants for undergraduates
have cased the problems of young
people but have sharpened those of
the universities, for tuition and fees
provide well under half of the cost
of instruction. In 1966-67 the academic
deficit on current account
was put at nearly $4 billion.