Is it time for Michigan higher education to consolidate?

Patrick Shannon is an attorney who serves as board chair for Mackinac Straits Health System and teaches education law for Central Michigan University.

It is time for some of Michigan’s 15 public universities to consolidate, integrate and affiliate on behalf of their students. These autonomous university boards of trustees, university presidents, 15 university budgets, 15 administrative staffs, 15 foundations are all pursuing a diminishing number of prospective students and hard to find tax dollars. Michigan needs a higher education plan that builds a culture of continual improvement.

Now that the budget season has ended, political leaders should start a conversation to critically assess the need for these 15 publicly funded state universities, which range in size from approximately 50,000 students to one with about 2,000 students.

A glimpse at the delivery of health care nationally and in Michigan may serve as a guide for what could happen when a public good like education is forced to become financially accountable. Today there are very few independent and locally run hospitals. To assure funding, health care delivery is motivated by systems that promote access, efficiency, and above all quality of care through affiliations, integration of services, and acquisitions.

Health care is attempting to become leaner; it is time for our state universities to become a lean education system rather than operate as separate and distinct quasi-city states. Lean thinking promotes continual improvement, the elimination of inefficacies and is a cornerstone of many successful organizations. Lean thinking principles have been accepted by health care organizations in their promotion of efficient quality patient care.

Why shouldn’t Michigan’s students and taxpayers have a system of higher education that is based on affordability, access, efficiency, and quality? Is the purpose of higher education in Michigan merely employment and the status quo or is it about the access and delivery of a quality public education in an affordable and efficient manner for its students? The time is ripe to start the conversation as to how we improve higher education, not in 15 different ways, but in one statewide manner that promotes the integration of academic services.

We simply cannot afford to continue down the path of “everyone for themselves.” It is time for creative strategies that promote our public higher education institutions to collaborate and consolidate to deliver and provide an affordable, meaningful, and quality education experience for all Michigan university students.