Dr. Lloyd Armstrong, University of Southern California

Dr. Lloyd Armstrong, Jr.

University Professor
University of Southern California
blog: Changing Higher Education

Dr. Lloyd Armstrong, Jr. is a University Professor at the University of Southern California, and holds appointments in the Rossier School of Education and the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.  His research focuses on the research university of the future, with particular emphasis on the globalization of higher education.  Armstrong was provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University of Southern California from 1993 until 2005.  Prior to coming to USC, Armstrong was on the physics faculty at the Johns Hopkins University from 1969 to 1993, and was dean of the school of arts and sciences 1987 to 1993. He received a B.S in physics from MIT, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley.  He has served on advisory boards for the NSF, the National Research Council, the U.S Army, the Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB, the Institute for Theoretical Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics at Harvard, the California Council of Science and Technology, the Southern California Economic Partnership, and the Pacific Council on International Affairs. More about Dr. Armstrong.

Rahul- Recently Mukesh Ambani of Reliance announced building a world class university and Vedanta University had been working on its ambitious project for more than three years. How realistic do you think these visions are? What does it take to build a world-class university from scratch?
Lloyd- There is no set definition for a “world class university”; rather, the term describes an institution whose reputation for excellence is well known by pertinent groups of people (academics, industrialists, students, government agents, etc.) around the world.   Very importantly, this reputation essentially always is based on the research component of the university, not the teaching component.  It does, however, typically also imply that the incoming students are of the very highest quality as judged by international standards.

Vedanta clearly will have many obstacles to overcome in order to achieve this status.  Cost will provide one major obstacle: creating a world class university from scratch is enormously expensive, especially if the goal is to serve a large number of students. Final construction costs for the newest UC campus (30,000 students) have been reported to be in the region of $2B.  The annual budgets for many US institutions in the world-class category are of the order of $.5B-$1B for operating expenses, with an additional $1B-$3B in research funding.   Faculty who are capable of doing research at a world class level are relatively unusual, and thus globally a scarce resource.  Because of global competition for their services, they can demand very high salaries and state of the art research equipment.  Consequently, Institutional start- up expenses for individual new faculty often are in the multi-million dollar range.

Vedanta aspires to be world class, and to have 100,000 students.   If one follows the paradigm defined by the present world class universities, that is an almost impossible combination. It is highly unlikely that any institution could hire– and support – enough world class research- intensive faculty to teach 100,000 students.   It is also unlikely that Vedanta could attract 100,000 students of quality that would be qualified as “excellent” by international standards. In order to be viewed as world class, Vedanta would have to find a way to reconcile these desires that are outside the current paradigm.  In any case, hiring enough world class researchers simply to become visible globally will be a huge challenge for Vedanta, because typically the type researchers it needs to hire will have many choices that are in well established institutions in or near major cities.

Around the world, there are many institutions that are seeking to become “world class”.  For many of those institutions, this may not be the best way to serve their regions and their people. World class institutions cannot provide major benefits to their regions unless there is in place a “pyramid” of higher educational opportunities, with the world class institutions at the pinnacle.   That is, there must be ample opportunity to obtain a solid advanced education for the vast majority of students who will not have the incoming credentials expected of students in the world class university.   Without the critical large base of educated workers that that group provides, a world class university can provide little “value added” to a region.

Rahul- You have had a significant university leadership experience as the USC Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs during the period 1993 until 2005. What advice do you have for administrators aspiring for leadership positions? How could they prepare themselves for the future responsibilities?
Lloyd- One learns leadership by doing leadership.  That is, one prepares oneself for higher leadership positions by taking on lower level leadership roles as they become available, and working hard and creatively to assure the most positive outcomes possible.  This process might begin with accepting committee chairmanships at the university level, or in professional societies, then advancing to department chairmanships and then deanships.   One learns new things about leadership – and about oneself - with each experience.  In particular, conditions often change, leading to significant challenges in a position that are quite different from those that were anticipated.  Rising to those new challenges and using them as opportunities for creation of new levels of institutional excellence is a test of leadership -and an important part of the learning curve for upward-bound managers

Rahul- You edit one of the most popular blogs on international education--Changing Higher Education on globalization and higher education.  Please share what are the top two trends you are witnessing in the field of global higher education?
Lloyd- The biggest trend in global higher education is – more of the same.  We have seen very large increases in the number of students getting some part of their education outside of their native country. The US, which has traditionally been the country of choice for such transnational educational experiences, is losing (relatively) its attraction.  Some of this decrease in attractiveness is due to our lack of welcoming posture for non-US citizens.  More important, however, has been the increase in quality higher education opportunities in numerous countries around the world.  Also important in changing the transnational flow of students has been the opening of educational borders in Europe to encourage inter-European student exchange.  We also see increasing numbers of Americans studying abroad for some period of time.   All of this, however, is just increased activity in an area that has existed for a very long time, albeit a very important area.  As such, it stimulates relatively little self reflection in the higher education community.

A major trend of potentially major significance is the opening by institutions based in one country of programs and even campuses in other countries.   Many of these openings have been stimulated by an offer by some country to cover substantially all costs of the new venture.  Others have been opened because market surveys indicated that a profit could be made (sometimes correctly, sometimes in error).  At this point, the vast majority of these examples of transnational education seem to have been done without a clear strategic (rather than tactical) vision of their role in the evolving mission of the institution. However, enough of these ventures are occurring that new conceptualizations of what it means to be a major higher educational establishment in a globalizing world are likely to begin to appear.   That will be exciting!