University of Virginia Library

Increasing Pressure

Universities have increasingly
felt the pressure to compete across
the board, and indeed a broad view
of the role of the university in a
modern society dictates to an
extent that involvement and
proficiency in all areas of academic
pursuit be sought. Accordingly,
when a new branch or completely
new field is opened up, the
prestigious schools engage in a kind
of race, each seeking the limited
number of faculty who will be
qualified to teach this new material,
as well as the limited funds that can
reasonably be expected to be
available.

Once the premise that it is
incumbent upon the institution to
add each and every new field to its
curriculum is adopted, it follows
that the number of students must
or rationally should be increased.
Otherwise, as the theory goes, the
same number of students will be
spread across a larger number of
fields. That in and of itself would
not be an undesirable result, but
too few students in too many fields
would render the cost prohibitive.
In short, there would be an
insufficient return of the money.