“The percentage of Americans saying college is “very important” has fallen to 35%.”
“Consider: Three-quarters of public schools enrolling students in grades nine or above now offer advanced coursework through AP, pre-AP, International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, or dual enrollment. Thirty-six percent of public high-school students who graduated in 2024 took at least one AP exam; 23 percent scored three or higher (generally considered passing) on at least one. […]
“First: Are you, and do you want to be, a teacher? Not a professor, not a lecturer, not a researcher, but a teacher. After all, teaching is not the same as professing. Professors can work in relative isolation, and often in an echo chamber; teachers must successfully engage with and enable others’ learning. It’s not […]
“While overall perceptions of the value of college degrees have dropped roughly 5% over the last year, the majority of the respondents, across all ages, races and political affiliations, said at least one degree — associate or bachelor’s — is valuable.”
“If you’re going to [go to college], I think liberal liberal arts is a really good choice because I feel like the best talent moving forward, the people with the most agency are gonna have elements of philosophy, psychology, sociology, history, science, business, fine arts, political science, computer science….all of that helps, a diversity of […]
“The authors of [the Kalven Report] note that there is an important exception to the general stance of institutional neutrality: “From time to time instances will arise in which the society, or segments of it, threaten the very mission of the university and its value of free inquiry. In such a crisis, it becomes the […]
“Some universities have exacerbated the situation by drifting from their core purposes of education and research to take official positions on political and social issues. This has led many to see universities as just another ideological combatant in the daily political struggle… With so much at stake, universities must return to their foundational purpose and […]
“In the essay, Brooks cites a number of troubling societal problems and trends, all supported with extensive research, but the weakness of his argument is that he tries to find a single cause to explain all of them. That common denominator is what he calls “meritocracy.””
“What the future will look like for the cost of higher education is unclear as a big reason for the decrease in prices has been from increases in federal, state and local funding.”
“Almost 30 percent of the 400,000 dual enrollees, roughly 117,000 students, earned a bachelor’s degree in four years. But a majority (58 percent) had not earned any college degree, either a four-year bachelor’s or a two-year associate, or any post-secondary credential, such as a short-term certificate, within this four-year period.”
“A large number of colleges have very low student enrollment and few or no endowment resources, and these are the institutions most at risk now and in the coming years. Additionally, college enrollments in some states are likely to drop drastically over the next few years, putting some colleges in those states at risk.”
“But what if higher ed’s nearly 4,000 degree-granting colleges were boiled down to 100 institutions? Here is what that would look like:”
“Each year, universities choose their peer institutions when reporting their data to the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or Ipeds. In return, they receive a customized report that compares their performance to that of their selected peers on various measures, like enrollment, graduation rates, and average staff salaries. The Chronicle compiled […]
“Such findings indicate that despite “a push toward narrow technical training and STEM initiatives at the expense of humanities programs,” the labor force demands more than just technical skills from graduates.”
“The number of men enrolled in college nationwide has dropped by more than 157,000, or almost 6 percent, in just the last five years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The proportion of college students who are men is now a record-low 41 percent, the U.S. Department of Education says.”
“College costs are still too high, and increasingly so over time. College is indeed expensive for higher-income students, but the affordability problem is much greater—and more consequential—for lower- and middle-income students. If they can’t afford it, they can’t go.”
“The campus protests of the late 1960s sought in part to dismantle the in loco parentis role that colleges and universities had held in American life. But the past two decades have been shaped by a reversal of that, as institutions have sought to reconstruct this role.”
“In theory, today’s sky-high college wage premium should mean a surge of young people onto college campuses, not the opposite. But as a measure of the true value of higher education, the college wage premium has one important limitation. It can tell you how much college graduates earn, but it doesn’t take into account how […]
“Dual enrollment far exceeds the popularity of Advanced Placement courses”
“Gates Foundation issues report calling for a new definition of value, and for clear ways for students to identify it. The emphasis is on promoting economic mobility for all.”
“Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, a group of 656 schools including Mills, said he anticipated “there might be a small increase in the number of colleges that close in the coming year” because of issues exacerbated by the pandemic. But he said he does not expect “an epidemic of colleges going […]
“The college is still hammering out the details, but it’s exploring ways it can use some of the same services it provides for its roughly 150,000 online-only students with its campus-based learners.”
“These courses, which the company is calling Google Career Certificates, teach foundational skills that can help job-seekers immediately find employment. However, instead of taking years to finish like a traditional university degree, these courses are designed to be completed in about six months.”
“Open every piece of snail mail you get from the college, and read all of it!”
“The world’s largest invitation-only opinion survey of senior, published academics. It asks scholars to name no more than 15 universities that they believe are the best for research and teaching in their field, based on their own experience.”
“In light of the long evolution of free expression in the United States, we should be careful drawing conclusions based on a handful of sensationalist incidents on campus—incidents sometimes manufactured for their propaganda value. They shed no light on the current reality of university culture.”
“For the first time that I’m aware of, we have visualizations showing combined closures and mergers over time, broken down by sector and degree-type.”
““The four-year undergraduate experience is often out of reach for large segments of our population… the idea of getting that one degree and you’re set for life doesn’t really hold water anymore. Then the question becomes, ‘how do we make it easier for working adults and people who need to pick up new kinds of […]
“At Lambda, students pay nothing upfront. But they are required to pay 17 percent of their salary to Lambda for two years if they get a job that pays more than $50,000. (Lambda says 83 percent of its students get a job with a median salary of $70,000 within six months of graduating.) If they […]
“More than ever, it’s really important for Americans to closely examine the costs of abandoning public institutions and hand them over to corporate interests to save a few dollars on our tax bills. This is a case study of what happens when we do that. Spoiler alert: It ends badly.”
“Tuition Tracker is an interactive tool designed to help parents and students find the “right” college or university among thousands by using search criteria, such as desired location, price and size, to filter results.”
I asked Mitchell scholars if there was a department or discipline that they wished they had paid more heed. Science majors mentioned humanities. Humanities majors mentioned computer science and statistics. In retrospect, if not in real time, intellectually curious people appreciate and want the benefits of balance. So incorporate it, to some degree, in your […]
A bottom group of about 750 small private colleges recording less than $100 million in total expenses is increasingly struggling to cover costs with revenue.”
These aren’t easy problems… But I don’t think it’s beyond us to say, on the one hand, that everyone has a right to express their views, and, on the other hand, that a political provocateur may not use a university campus as his personal playground, especially if it bankrupts the university. At some point, when […]
“In 2014, it modified degree requirements to mandate that all students complete an internship, study-abroad trip or guided research project… Late last month, [the President] told students and faculty members that she envisions Hiram’s academics as being organized around five interdisciplinary schools… Not to be accused of technophilia, it has also given each student a […]
“In recent years, Pasadena City College has had a 320 percent increase in students whose parents make more than $100,000 a year, to 828 students last year from 197 in 2007. And it’s not alone.”
“First blockchain university promises to be the Uber for students and AirBnB for teachers…”
“I’m cynical about students. The vast majority are philistines. I’m cynical about teachers. The vast majority are uninspiring. I’m cynical about “deciders”—the school officials who control what students study. The vast majority think they’ve done their job as long as students comply.”
Sweet Briar’s official news release on the new curriculum and restructuring laid out in detail changes that were announced months ago, explaining that the new curriculum is intended to focus on women’s leadership. It said five new faculty members will be hired over the next two years to support the new curriculum… Roughly a dozen […]
Some of the courses, like “Argument and Persuasion” and “Decisions in a Data-Driven World,” focus on core skills. Others, like “Women and Gender in the World,” are tied to Sweet Briar’s mission. And courses on such subjects as design thinking and sustainable systems explore methods and approaches that are growing in popularity nationally.”
Minerva was ranked number 1 of all schools that administered the test. The average score of our students at the end of their freshman spring term was higher than the scores of senior graduating classes at every other university and college that administered the test.”
Since there are no teachers, it is up to students to figure things out. Everything is graded by peers. Students “manage their time how they want,” says Sadirac. “It’s totally self organized.” In education-speak, École 42 is both project-based learning and peer-to-peer learning, on steroids.”
First, the annual growth rate of college tuition is at its lowest rate on record. Second, the annual growth rate of student debt is lower than any time in the last decade. Third, the number of college enrollees has declined for five consecutive years. Fourth, the college premium—the extra income one should expect from getting […]
The seven witnesses who spoke to lawmakers were two students, two legal experts, a campus administrator, a former college president, and Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy organization that among other things tracks hate groups in the United States.”
“Ultimately, our ability to work meaningfully with others will determine the success of our enterprises, and that ability is honed through the humanities and social sciences.”