Since its adoption in 1960, California's Master Plan for Higher Education has served as an anchoring force for public higher education in our state. There is a commonsense notion that lies at the core of the Master Plan, which is that California can afford to provide access to all students who desire a higher education only by avoiding costly duplications of function.

Thus, the University of California, the California State University and the California Community Colleges have each been given distinctive missions.

Recognizing that doctoral and professional degree programs are expensive to mount, the Master Plan wisely sought to ensure quality in them by limiting the number the state will support: Only UC is allowed to independently award doctoral and professional degrees. CSU can award doctoral degrees in joint programs with UC or with private California universities.

This differentiation of function was being challenged by CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, who mounted a vigorous effort to persuade state lawmakers to pass legislation that would enable CSU to independently award a doctorate in education, the Ed.D. Last winter, UC President Richard C. Atkinson decided to publicly oppose this initiative, while at the same time taking action to expedite the development of joint doctoral degree programs in education.

On Nov. 9, President Atkinson and Chancellor Reed jointly announced that UC and CSU have agreed to create a mechanism to establish new joint Ed.D. programs that would build on the mutual strengths of both systems while maintaining the basic tenets of the Master Plan. According to the agreement, UC and CSU will be equal partners in the development and implementation of the new joint Ed.D. programs.

So what was the harm in CSU independently awarding a doctoral degree?

Writing to the legislative committee that is revising the Master Plan, UC President Emeritus Clark Kerr warned that "once doctoral degree-granting authority is given to CSU in one discipline, the principle of differentiation of missions among California's three public segments of higher education would be breached.

"Pressure will inevitably mount to extend this authority to other fields as well. Approval of an independent CSU doctorate would be a major example of ‘mission creep' -- a well-known phenomenon in American higher education in which one segment of higher education redefines its mission to include responsibilities already being performed by another."

Under the new agreement that will create a joint board to develop, fund and expedite proposals for these joint programs and establish a joint regional assessment process to ensure that the needs of K-12 and community colleges match the resources at UC and CSU, I believe a workable compromise has been reached. President Atkinson has acknowledged that UC needs to do more to meet state educational leadership needs in K-12 and the community colleges. Prior to Nov. 9, he had announced an ambitious initiative that included increasing the number of joint educational doctoral programs UC mounts with CSU and increasing enrollments in the programs that already exist.

The president deserves the thanks of the UC faculty for undertaking this difficult task of both preserving an institutional separation of missions that has benefited California enormously and responding to a statewide need to provide training for educational leaders.