The University of California is often held up by policy makers and higher education scholars as an example of a perfect (or as close to) higher education system. It is rational and centrally-planned. There is a negotiated but intentional articulation between institutions, programs and courses which allows students to navigate a single, coordinated system of adult education. The relative ease of student mobility and institutional cooperation with the University of California has been the envy of governments throughout North America and the UK. It ticks all the boxes for higher ed policy makers at the end of the twentieth/ early twenty-first century: enabling life-long learning, rational use and deployment of funding and the prioritization of a world class flag-ship campus. Order, rationality and transparency. What more could one want?
Unfortunately, the biggest weakness of the University of California may be its inherent interdependent connectedness. The University of California is predicated on the assumption that intelligent design is an advisable way to approach a higher education system. Until now, most higher ed scholars and policy makers agreed. Canadian provinces (especially Eastern provinces), other US states, and the UK have reflected negatively on their own, by comparison 'hodge podge' collection of universities and colleges. They've believed that the historical accidents that led to their respective independent, autonomous and in no way intentionally articulated universities made their own higher education "non systems" inferior to the intelligently designed University of California.
However, what this Times Higher Education article begins to suggest is that interdependent connectedness is not all that it is cracked up to be. The University of California is so efficient in its design that it doesn't have redundant systems, i.e. if one aspect of the University of California fails due to underfunding the entire system suffers. There is no fall back position and the system has restricted ability to adapt and change.
By comparison, the "non systems" of eastern North America are actually what one should call "ecosystems" of inter-relating (but not interdependent) institutions. Although interacting with each other, these systems are comprised of independent institutions that pursue and consider their own interest, versus a collective interest, first. This makes these systems more robust and capable of adapting to change (perhaps even evolving...?). If a few courses, programs or even institutions fail (which has been suggested with regard to England in the wake of the UK government's Comprehensive Spending Review) the entire higher education system does not collapse.
It could be that the very thing many policy makers thought was the golden fleece of university systems is the actually Achilles' heel of the University of California...
