The Cold War is over, the arms race is winding down, but the battle of the brains is barely out of the starting blocks.

The world has gotten smarter, and the United States has got to get smarter, too, if we're going to prosper, said Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina system and President Clinton's former chief of staff, at a Forum 2007 plenary session.

The United States faces significant challenges, and colleges and universities are in a unique position to help the country adjust to a knowledge-based, global economy, he said. "The low-skill, moderate-income jobs are gone."

Universities must increase their effectiveness, and also their efficiency, in a time when federal and state budgets are strained by health care, Social Security and infrastructure needs.

Bowles highlighted several ways that the University of North Carolina is working to improve K-12 education in the state and its initiatives to increase access to higher education.

The UNC system worked with private businesses to develop a pilot project that will attract and retain quality math and science graduates to teach. In this program, teachers receive training to be licensed and are paid a salary similar to what they could earn in the private sector — about $50,000, rather than a typical starting salary of $26,000.

UNC also has selected 44 principals to receive leadership, management and business training at the Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill. "We are determined to do our part to equip them with better skills," he said.

Beyond K-12, the system is working to develop retention plans for students at each of its 16 campuses to help them follow through all the way to graduation.

"We don't know what the economy of the future is going to look like. We do know that it will require more people to be better educated," he said. "Of that, I'm sure."