Higher education operates in a complex landscape where institutional missions and financial survival often collide. In this conversation, I explore these dynamics with Joshua Travis Brown, author of the new book Capitalizing on College (Oxford University Press).
Here’s What We Discuss:
Josh conducted an extraordinary study interviewing 150 university leaders across 8 faith-based institutions in 8 different states.
What emerged was something akin to a confessional—administrators revealing the moral compromises, ethical dilemmas, and institutional adaptations they've made in a system that increasingly treats students as dollars.
We discuss the concept of a “go to hell fund”—money administrators save so they can quit if asked to cross ethical lines. We examine how our student loan system, where funding follows individuals rather than going directly to institutions, has created perverse incentives throughout higher education. We explore four strategies universities employ to stay financially viable, from traditional endowment models to what Josh calls “accelerated” approaches that generate “more money than God.”
With half of private universities now operating at a deficit and a demographic cliff approaching, these tensions between educational mission and financial survival have never been more acute. His impressive research offers a microcosm of the broader challenges facing higher education systems balancing mission with financial imperatives—a tension that echoes across borders.
Our conversation illustrates the perils of the U.S. approach to student loans where “money follows the student” and why some countries, like Chile, are considering new approaches like a progressive graduate tax, and others, like the United Kingdom, implement income-contingent student loan debt repayment.
His research also reflects the particular dynamics of private higher education, which the latest issue of International Higher Education features a special section on.
The intersection of mission and money in higher education resonates deeply with our focus on “distributed progress” in this Substack, particularly as institutions worldwide navigate the pressures of market-driven survival.
Josh’s research raises profound questions about the future of higher education, the social contract between universities and society, and whether the system of financing higher education in the US is corrupting its purpose.
I hope you find it as illuminating as I did.
Conversation Highlights:
[00:00] How Josh's work at an institution with different compensation logics sparked his curiosity that led to this massive research project
[01:18] Interviewing 150 university leaders at 8 universities across 8 states
The Confessional Nature of Interviews
[03:22] Surprising "confessions" from administrators (at truck stops, off campus)
[05:53] “That felt do damn good!”: when interviews became catharsis
[08:51] The "missing middle": giving voice to voiceless middle administrators
Ethical Dilemmas of Money vs. Mission
[10:08] One participant’s "go to hell fund"
[11:11] How "money follows the student" creates market pressures
Four Strategies to Subsidize the Residential Campus
[13:50] Four strategies colleges use to subsidize residential campuses:
Traditional: Using endowment revenues to subsidize operations and scholarships
Pioneer: Taking education to students, meeting "in military bases...in high schools...in hotels" to create a "periphery market" that subsidizes the main campus.
Network: Running "multiple sites, multiple types" including "international campuses...throughout the state campuses...transfer students...online” with a complex revenue structure
Accelerated: Taking one market to scale, replicating processes while holding costs flat to generate “astronomical” margins. One faculty member said, "we used to not have any money, now we've got more money than God."
Ethics and the Campus Experience
[18:16] The financial freedom to uphold ethics
[20:00] Leaders trying to sustain mission-driven institutions they care about
[22:27] Ethically problematic moments during interviews
Advice for Students and Parents
[26:13] Advice for prospective students regarding the "students as dollars" mindset
Campus Transformations and Policy Solutions
[29:20] Institutions transforming campuses with $200-500M investments
[32:15] The US higher education financing system
[35:14] Potential policy solutions
[37:20] Differentiating real innovations from “money grabs”
Rapid Fire Round
[39:50] Origin of the book title "Capitalizing on College"
[40:20] Reading recommendations
[42:10] Visualization approach for communicating complex ideas
[43:10] Getting ideas into the marketplace to make an impact
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