Engineer Marlene Meusel '97 puts her UMUC management degree to work in a high-tech arena.

Editorial Note: This article, the first in a series examining the changing face of higher education and UMUC's response, focuses on the evolving role of universities in public life. Universities are under pressure to change from elite keepers of knowledge to mass disseminators of education and training for today's workforce. Future articles will cover higher education's role in the global economy and the ways in which the online environment challenges traditional notions of teaching and learning.

	Training the Workforce		What the Students Say
	What the Teacher Says		Who's Running the Show?

Who said the following: "We ... believe in the power and wisdom of the marketplace"?

1. Economist Adam Smith describing the "Invisible Hand" at work.
2. AOL shareholders.
3. Your alma mater

The answer: #3. The assertion, from UMUC’s statement of values and vision (available online at http://www.umuc.edu), crystallizes the university’s response to the demand that universities keep pace in a changing economy.

"America is demanding relevance from higher education institutions," says Julie Porosky, UMUC senior vice president for global outreach. "The concept of an ivory tower is fundamentally no longer tolerated. The public expects higher education institutions to serve some practical purpose . . . training and educating the workforce."

No other university has embraced that mandate as strongly as UMUC. From its business-oriented focus (in which students are "customers") to the substance of its programs (where a valuable education is, in part, a relevant education), UMUC stands in the forefront of workforce education. As President Gerald A. Heeger told the Chronicle of Higher Education in December 1999, it’s not "simply a question of recognizing a new market. The institution itself has to change to be responsive to that new market."

For those who claim that embracing workforce education means abandoning the traditional aims of higher education, such as creating an informed citizenry, Porosky responds, "The university will always be about knowledge and education. The trick is in finding the balance, a synergy, to bring out the best in both the university and the business world for the benefit, ultimately, of students."

She offers UMUC’s winning formula: "By providing students with a well-rounded education grounded in a rigorous curriculum, UMUC prepares graduates to contribute fully in society and in the workplace."

That’s a good attitude to have, given the realities of the educational marketplace. According to a report in the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Leadership 2000 Series, "Postsecondary education has become our real school-to-work system and our worker training system." That shift, says Porosky, benefits both students and their employers in staying competitive in the global economy.

Because employee training is expensive, companies get a bonus when universities take on the role of workforce development. As the ETS report, Education = Success: Empowering Hispanic Youth and Adults, puts it, "In a school classroom, only the teacher gets paid; in an employer-training session, everyone gets paid." By 2005, employers will need to spend an estimated additional $15 billion annually — or $78.4 billion total — to maintain current levels among their most highly skilled workers.

No wonder that, as Porosky states, "Companies want universities to be responsive, not remote, so they don’t have to create their own internal universities."

When students make their demands on the university, they frequently echo their employers: They "seek degree programs that will help them in their careers," says Porosky.

Research by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation points out that "even high school graduates sense shifts on the higher education landscape." Notable among them is the notion that a college education doesn’t necessarily mean a four-year, one-shot deal, but should be lifelong.

The report, Gaining a Foothold: Women’s Transitions Through Work and College, recognizes that the "popular idea of ‘lifelong learning,’ with people developing their knowledge, skills, and interests throughout their lives, is in part driven by economic and technological changes that require the frequent updating of skills." In a volatile economy that no longer offers cradle-to-grave job security, workers need to be able to respond to changing work conditions from downsizing and outsourcing to temporary work and self-employment.

The ETS report gets at the heart of what’s at stake for today’s students: "Nowadays, it’s the education people get before going to work that counts the most. While they can still make progress by learning on the job, they have to get the job first."

What the Students Say  Top

When engineer Marlene A. Meusel ’97 headed back to school 12 years after earning a B.S. in computer science from Old Dominion University, she took the fast track: UMUC’s 18-month executive Master of Science in technology management. She knew what her options were in a demanding, high-tech career field: lead, follow, or get out of the way. And she knew she wanted to lead.

Of her role as a program manager for BAE Systems, an aerospace and defense firm in Reston, Virginia, she says, "I do this [management] because I can have a greater impact on the product."

When she went back to school in her thirties, she had plenty of company: The average age of UMUC graduate students is 35. "Older" students, historically served by UMUC, are making inroads nationwide in undergraduate education too. More than 47 percent of college students are older than 25, and going to school is not their full-time job, according to the Association for Non-Traditional Students in Higher Education. Careers and family also compete for their time and energy, and typically this group of students is "underserved" by educational institutions.

Being underserved wasn’t the experience of Joseph L. Butler ’98 at UMUC. What he saw as his "piecemeal education" over the years — from Georgetown University to the Community College of the Air Force to standardized tests through DANTES and the College Level Examination Program — became coherent in the hands of a UMUC advising team.

It's what graduates can do, not just what they know, that gives them an edge in today's workplace, says UMUC's Kevin Michael.

The comprehensive look at his educational experience led to "a game plan, and we followed that plan," he says. It included a stint at the University of Virginia to get a certificate in contracting on his way to earning a B.S. from UMUC with a specialization in technology and management. Besides looking for personal satisfaction, students want their degrees to boost their careers. Meusel’s graduate degree helped her clinch her current position, which requires an M.S. at a minimum. Though she admits she enjoys designing and developing software solutions, "there are many people who do this well," she says."There is a shortage of people interested in management who have the

She found the management training she needed at UMUC. "I believe the entrepreneurial spirit was ignited in many of us," Meusel says. "One does not seek to become a CPA or lawyer or physician in an executive course," she says, but "to become an executive."

The Graduate School’s program often mirrored the reality of the high-tech environment, she says. "The pace of the program allows the study of one subject to be immediately used by the next, matching the fast-paced, real-world decision opportunities that executives face." The "real-world experience of the professors" and case studies focused on technology applications in the global economy were also pluses, she says.

Though her educational goals are undecided — whether to focus on a Ph.D. in a computer technology specialty or management — Meusel plans to stay in executive management. Her master’s degree, she says, makes her well-prepared for whatever the future holds: "A main emphasis of the executive course was change, and your choice in either fighting it or embracing it."

Accounting students no longer have just one wish: "Teach me what I need to pass the CPA exam." Today’s students — and their employers — want more than that: "They want to know how to run a business and do a business plan, not just keep score, the traditional role of accounting," according to Kevin Michel, professor of practice at UMUC.

Students working in government, nonprofits, and industry who want to change careers or advance in their jobs fill his classes. "I’ve even had physicians in my classes," says Michel.

His job — which includes teaching, discipline assessment, and curriculum development — entails making sure that "what we’re teaching is relevant," he says.

CPA preparation is still in demand, but it’s now part of the pack-age of marketable skills students are seeking. Being a CPA is about complying with regulations, but employers want to see a range of skills, such as creativity, says Michel. "A CPA needn’t be creative, but to be successful on the job, you need to come up with solutions to problems."

In accounting, Michel says, "lifelong learning is important because so much of what we learn becomes obsolete" so quickly. Knowing how to keep up with tax law changes, finding out what they are, and applying information to new situations is far more important than simply regurgitating current law, he says.

As part of his work on a curriculum and instruction subcommittee for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), he helped develop a "competency model for what graduates should be able to do, with the emphasis on ‘do,’ not ‘know.’ " he says.

UMUC’s accounting program, when measured against the AICPA competency model, did very well, he says. Partly this was a factor of UMUC’s four across-the-curriculum initiatives: incorporating a global perspective, communication skills, information (or research) skills, and technology skills in all courses.

One area where UMUC fell short is group work. The remedy is easy: Online accounting courses can use the group feature in WebTycho, UMUC’s online course delivery system, to mimic the experience of real-world work teams by putting students together in small groups to work on specific assignments. As Michel states, "In today’s environment, everything is done in cross-functional teams."

 

Who's Running the Show?  Top

It’s not enough to have academic deans on staff these days. A university with an eye to the future will have administrators who are comfortable talking about "developing a new product line" or "developing and maintaining client relations." At UMUC, Julie Porosky is one of those administrators.

She’s now used to the silence that follows after she introduces herself in higher education circles. Nobody wants to ask, "What is a senior vice president for global outreach?" Porosky waits a beat and answers the unasked question: "My area of responsibility is the world and everything in it."

It’s not far from the truth. Regional, national, and international program development fall under her bailiwick. In a typical week, she might find herself discussing the viability of identifying the top five or so companies in Europe in need of employee training that UMUC could provide. She’ll spend time participating in the faculty training for WebTycho, because "if I’m going to be responsible for marketing UMUC products and sales, I want to be sure they’re as good as possible," she says.

She might have to don her cap as first chair of the first board of MarylandOnline, a consortium of Maryland community colleges and universities offering distance education courses. And she might meet with Nick Allen, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, to discuss "how UMUC is going to organize developing and delivering noncredit courses."

The results of that last meeting: In fall 2000 UMUC will offer "73 separate certificate programs that spin off existing graduate and undergraduate courses," says Porosky. The programs will range from 12 to 30 semester hours "depending on who needs them and who wants them," she says. Porosky partly credits "the democratization of higher education" over the past several decades with the shift toward more collaboration between businesses and universities. "We have moved from regarding collegiate education as something elite for which only select people are eligible to almost a basic right for everyone."

As UMUC's senior vice president for global outreach, Julie Porosky helps bring UMUC to the world.

 
More and more universities "look like us," says Porosky. They are opening their doors wide and operating on educational meritocracy: "We let you in and you prove yourself."

The democratization has also led to a profusion of educational providers — from strictly online universities like Jones International University to training centers run by companies like McGraw Hill to a new virtual university to be funded by the corporate parent of Harcourt Brace publishers.

"Lifelong learning, once only the province of UMUC," says Porosky, "is now on everyone’s lips."

The institution to win over students and employers will most likely be, to borrow from UMUC’s values and vision statement, "a healthy enterprise" that balances the needs of its "stakeholders." Such an institution will operate comfortably in a world where academic integrity coexists with "organizational restlessness," an abhorrence of "complacency," and a "pioneering spirit" — bringing students and employers what’s relevant to the classroom and beyond. UMUC, "part of leading-edge, future-looking academia," as Porosky will tell you, fits the bill nicely.