The Outsourcing of Classroom Instruction in Higher Education

Overview & Synopsis

Many constituencies external to higher education have begun promoting greater accountability. This view advocates a closer focus on the bottom line and that universities should utilise a more business-like model. One major outgrowth of this paradigm shift has been the seemingly recent emergence of outsourcing in higher education. Higher education has seemingly been slow to adopt this strategy. Or has it? The truth is that higher education has been outsourcing classroom instruction for many years. Recent statistics in the US suggest that over half of all undergraduate instruction is contracted out to teaching staff outside the university's regular full-time academic staff. Is this usage of outsourcing working in higher education? This paper applies an outsourcing assessment method developed in the business world to higher education so as to answer questions concerning the outsourcing of classroom instruction.