Proposed Michigan University System

There has been talk recently of consolidating all the universities in Michigan into a statewide system, according to MLive.com. It is unclear whether this is a good idea or a bad idea.

Ohio has been implementing this policy, and while most Michigan students would never want to be like OSU, according to the most recent USNWR rankings, OSU is one of the 20 most improved universities in the country this year.

It would be useful to look at different models and how they have worked for different states.

For example, California has an integrated state university system, involving community colleges, four year schools, and flagships. However, they have two tiers with the UC system being the high end, and the CSU system being the lower tier. They also have two extremely highly regarded flagship campuses with Berkeley and UCLA, with UCSD also being considered very good. In fact, Berkeley and UCLA are the two most highly regarded public schools in the nation, and have the two lowest acceptance rates of public schools. However, California is also the biggest state in the nation, and it is in fact easier to get in as an out of state student than an in state one, so a system of this much scale might not be the most useful model for a smaller sate like Michigan.

New York doesn't seem to quite have had the same success with their integrated university system. They don't particularly have a flagship, besides maybe Stony Brook or Binghamton, and those have a hard time competing with private schools in the state and elsewhere for students.

It seems like the most important part in an integrated university system would be to decide which schools got more money from the state, and were considered "flagships", but this might hurt non-flagship schools. For example, the two schools that would most likely be considered flagships in Michigan would be MSU and UM, and if push came to shove, they would probably get money over all the other schools in the state, which might hurt more regional schools who might get shorted on money.

This move would also hurt the independence of individual schools, who would no longer have autonomy. But, on the other hand, this would also streamline things, and give power over tuition increases to the legislature, which might be more conservative in raising tuition than individual boards of regents. There would also be a more clear and direct path from community college to a four year school, and less overlap in course offerings.

Overall, a unified system should probably be considered a qualified good, with the need to run it carefully very apparent. There already exists a tiered system of universities in the state, and if the system could be unified and streamlined, this would be good, but strict legislative control over institutions of higher education could be dangerous.