1

OECD conference on Higher Education in times of Crisis

Institutional response!

Jens Aaris Thisted, ph.d.Vice Dean –Open UniversityCBS

2

Business as usual!

As business school that is mostly financedby public means (no tuition!) we are in asteady-state situation

Pre-career B.Sc. M.Sc. – no tuition - > 10.000 stud.Mid-career (E)MBA – high tuition - > 500 stud.Early-career (Op.Un.) – low tuition - > 2.500 stud.

3

Research

More competitive bidding for non-state, EUand other funding sources.

Funds will be directed towards crisis-alleviatingactivities – less base funding.No indication of decrease in state research funding.

4

Faculty & Students

Competitive situation for faculty has eased a bit.

Students may exercise ’arbitrage’ betweenhigh-fee and low-fee institutions.

Difficult job situation may encouragestudy propensity.

5

Value crisis

Executive behavior scrutinized

CSR – in all its aspects

Topical changes e.g. accounting(back to ’prudency’)

Job flexibility – flexicurity model

Less thrills

6

Crisis concept

Often the chinese sign of ’crisis’ is enterpretedas ’danger’/’challenge’ and ’opportunity’.

Sinologists have told me that the latter part is wrong.It should rather be ’decisive moment’

The positive connotation of ’opportunity’ is notwell founded!