Johnstone's approach, which he first labeled "learning productivity" in a 1992 monograph, concentrates on enhancing higher education's output, which is learning, rather than continuing to cut or cheapen its inputs, which consist primarily of faculty, staff and equipment.

He has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to respond to inquiries from colleges, universities and researchers on this subject, by forming a Learning Productivity Network to share information and best practices in the field via newsletters, E-mail and conferences. According to Johnstone, the elements of learning productivity are:

- Lessening the excessive downtime in student learning arising from lengthy vacations, short semesters and other interruptions of teaching and learning

- Lessening the redundancy of learning in the transition from high school to college and maximizing the possible collegiate-level learning during the high-school years

- Reducing the excessive "drift" that now characterizes American collegiate education and prolongs the number of years-and the cost-to acquire a college degree

- Providing more self-paced learning-primarily through educational technology-to allow students to proceed more rapidly and at less instructional expense.

"I am delighted with the news of Bruce Johnstone's recent grant from the Ford Foundation to begin the establishment of a higher education network looking at learning productivity," said Hugh Petrie, dean of the UB Graduate School of Education. "All of us in education, from the schools to the university, must begin to pay more attention to what students actually learn from our efforts, rather than concentrating solely on what we attempt to teach," Petrie said. "This grant is the first step in what may ultimately result in a restructuring of higher education consonant with the restructuring and reform that is occurring in so many other of the institutions in our society."

Johnstone acknowledges that colleges and universities "must become more productive, for the sake of students, parents and taxpayers alike." He adds, however, that we have nearly exhausted the possibilities of increased teaching loads, reduced programs, deferred maintenance, reduced student aid and higher tuition. "We must become more productive by employing methods that will enhance learning rather than reducing teaching or student services or shifting even more of the cost burden onto the student," he says.

The network, he says, will bring together people from public and private sectors, and from colleges, universities and government, who share in the belief that higher education can and must be made more efficient through enhanced productivity of learning.