Outsourcing Higher Education

Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat” changed the way I think about our world. In it, he describes (among other things) the process of outsourcing. Outsourcing is simply contacting work with an outside company, often to an international group that can do the work cheaper. If you’ve ever been on hold with a cell phone company, you were likely working with someone in a different country where minimum wage is cheaper.

This isn’t necessarily the “sweat shop” work that Nike and other clothing companies have done, exploiting child laborers in third-world countries. Outsourcing can be a way to offer employment overseas, stimulate international economy, and promote education. Friedman describes this in his book, as have several others.

I work in housing. We have about 500 full time staff members, several of which (I can think of at least 9) mostly answer phones, work with databases, log paperwork, and provide administrative oversight. These are good people, and I enjoy working with all of them. How far away are the days when higher education will consider outsourcing some of these administrative positions?

There are many companies that will provide you with an assistant, administrator, data specialist, or phone operator overseas. One such program offers folks who will work on one-time projects, who are supervised by the overseas company, or who set you up with a person for you to supervise.

There’s a bit of research on this topic specific to higher education (you can download an article here). In this research, a survey was done that measures institutions (from three different states) satisfaction with outsourcing. Institutions were largely satisfied. And why not? Outsourcing provides a cheaper way to do work, with decreased pressure from unions, fewer liability issues, and possibly increasing the level of quality.

Should higher education move towards outsourcing more? For housing, outsourcing could take place with occupancy, assignments, human resources, and answering phones. Across the institution, we could see outsourcing with technology, website development, advising, admissions, and even grading papers.

Higher education (especially student affairs) tends to be a people-first profession. If a parent were to walk into the housing office and find they couldn’t talk face-to-face with an administrative assistant or operations manager, they might be upset. However, we might also be able to provide better service in roommate pairing, prompt response, and around-the-clock service. Our front-line staff work from 7:30-4:30, including during the summer. Outsourcing could allow us to have staff available to answer calls after the work day (when many parents and students call).

There are certainly intangibles that happen in the office. Staff wouldn’t have the same sense of trust with one another, and supervisors who depend on face-to-face interaction to develop staff and hold them accountable would have to learn new skill sets. Many of these secretary/administrative positions can also be opportunities for students to connect to a person one on one. On the other hand, we wouldn’t be asking students to pay for the time when administrative assistants are chatting with students instead of working on paperwork, scheduling, and occupancy reports.

I think the idea of outsourcing is complex and potentially political. It would take a pretty bold director to fire a current (probably loved) administrator and replace them with someone overseas. I know I wouldn’t mind having parts of my job outsourced so I could focus on the truly developmental and leadership tasks that can only be done ‘on the ground.’ Maybe international outsourcing could be an opportunity to develop our staff and take our departments to the next level.