Arkansas Business

(Video: For more of Arkansas Business' conversation with Bobbitt, watch video here.) 

For Donald Bobbitt, president of the University of Arkansas System, the tumultuous world of higher education is exhilarating.

His high status means he must face the challenges in the world of higher education head on.

Bobbitt called those challenges a "perfect storm." Federal budget disagreements are resulting in slashed funds across the board, including for Pell Grants, which grant students federal aid that does not need to be repaid. That cut will hurt colleges from the bottom up.

"Higher education is the ticket to transcend the class you're born into," Bobbitt said. "Social mobility can occur with higher education degrees, and the failure of the Pell Grant system could have important ramifications in society."

(For more profiles of the leaders of Arkansas educational institutions, click here.)

More challenges, Bobbitt said, come from a state budget that will likely not increase and tuition rates that are rising sharply.

Recent years haven't "been a bonanza for higher education," he said. "We're simply trying to maintain our current position. We're going to have to figure out what we can do to lower costs and reach more students if we want to survive."

Bobbitt "caught the bug" of higher education while studying to become a research chemist. He taught chemistry at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for 20 years. After moving up the academic ladder out of state, Bobbitt returned to Arkansas in November to succeed B. Alan Sugg as president of the UA System.

Bobbitt detailed several actions he hopes will increase the UA system's efficiency.

First, he will be working to determine which classes need to be taught in mass lecture form versus smaller, one-on-one mentorships. "We have to be very specific where we use our resources," he said. "We can't teach everything the same way with the resources we have available."

He also wants to pull in more non-traditional students: adults who have some college experience but no degree. Bobbitt estimates there are between 10,000 and 50,000 such students in the state.