The final tier is devoted exclusively to teaching and has no graduate or research aspirations. Problems typically arise when institutions undergo transition between these categories and suffer identity crises. This is also frustrating for faculty members, who are trained at the higher tier and then find themselves employed somewhere below. The coming divorce between socialization and knowledge- transmission functions in higher education will be discussed in more detail later, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. Finally, the future of two-year institutions should be mentioned in this context.
Standardization is the key.
As the docking maneuver proceeds, we can already see how community colleges are acquiring the trappings of universities, while the latter are increasingly adopting the curriculum and student policies of their junior partners. Inside the Ivory Tower We noted earlier that control is passing from professional scholars to educational business managers at all levels, particularly the lower tiers. These institutions are also linked to local communities or state government, which provide a larger proportion of their budgets from public funds. This in turn influences academic policies. The current trend makes curriculum more responsive to the labor market and such business concepts as standardization within a state.