U.S. research universities were facing serious challenges well before the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding, according to Robert Brown, president emeritus of Boston University and author of “Fighting Fires and Building Flywheels: How We Sustain America’s Research Universities.” In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, Brown argued that the sector needs sharper institutional focus and a more predictable relationship with the federal government.
Brown spent 25 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining Boston University, where he served as president from 2005 to 2023. During his tenure, BU was admitted to the Association of American Universities in 2012. His book combines institutional history, memoir and analysis of how research universities operate and respond to crises.
Reflecting on his time at BU, Brown described major research universities as both global institutions and essential parts of their local communities. He said universities must remain accountable to the regions in which they operate, even as they attract students and researchers from around the world.
Brown said research universities had been under increasing pressure since at least the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Federal research spending had not kept pace with inflation or with the growing number of institutions seeking research-university status, while universities were taking on a larger share of research costs. He cited 2022 data showing that R-1 universities spent 45 cents of their own funds for every federal dollar they received for research.
At the same time, public concerns about the cost and value of higher education intensified. Brown said universities had failed to clearly explain the importance of their expanding role in basic research, particularly as corporate laboratories declined. He argued that simply promising to communicate more effectively would not resolve the underlying funding problems.
The sector also faces demographic pressures, including declining enrollment at some major universities and resulting budget cuts. Brown said these difficulties were compounded by the Trump administration’s restrictions on research funding and its pressure on private research universities, particularly in the Northeast. He also pointed to proposals to limit the participation of international students as an additional source of strain.
Brown said federal support for research had already become less bipartisan before the current administration. Although lawmakers continued to express support for scientific research, federal budgets did not provide the increased investment universities needed. He cited the CHIPS Act as an example of legislation that received broad support but, in his account, was not accompanied by sufficient appropriations to achieve its goals.
Rather than trying to determine how many research universities the United States should have, Brown said institutions should decide where they can be nationally competitive. Most universities, he argued, cannot afford to excel across every discipline, yet many continue trying to maintain comprehensive ambitions. Concentrating resources in selected fields could help institutions control costs and strengthen their academic missions.
Brown identified two central requirements for the future. Universities must learn to operate with fewer resources while reconsidering the balance between teaching and research. At the same time, the country must establish a new federal-university agreement that provides greater predictability for research funding.
He cautioned that returning to conditions before the Trump administration would not solve the sector’s problems, because universities were already financially vulnerable. Brown also expressed concern about the declining length of university presidents’ terms, arguing that institutional reform requires sustained leadership rather than short-term crisis management.
In his view, corporate and philanthropic funding cannot replace federal support. Corporate research funding accounts for about 4.5 percent of total funding across U.S. research universities, compared with 55 percent from the federal government, he said. Private funding is also concentrated in selected researchers and fields rather than distributed broadly across institutions.
Brown further questioned whether existing university structures are suited to emerging areas of knowledge. Departments remain organized around disciplines even though many important problems cross those boundaries, while the creation of new fields can make universities increasingly fragmented. He also said that the slow turnover associated with tenure could complicate the adoption of new teaching methods as artificial intelligence changes how people access and use knowledge.
Sources: Inside Higher Ed.