American higher education is at a crossroads. Technological innovations and disruptive market forces are buffeting colleges and universities at the very time their financial structure grows increasingly fragile. Disinvestment by states has driven up tuition prices at public colleges, and student debt has reached a startling record-high of one…

Inventions developed at 117 research universities produced $242-million in royalties in fiscal 1993, significantly higher than the previous year. Observers see a maturation of the technology transfer process, in which inventions take some years to arrive on the market. Containing legal costs is a persistent issue for the institutions. (MSE)

Colleges and universities have devised a number of strategies to raise money for computers, including borrowing, courting foundations, reallocating funds from such things as financial aid and libraries, and general fund raising. Knowing the appropriate amount to spend on technology is difficult. (MSE)