This is a re-post from the “On the Issues” blog of the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education [http://futureofhighered.org/on-the-issues/] A bill was recently introduced in the Florida legislature that would bypass the established system of accreditation and allow local state officials to accredit MOOCs and other online courses, including those from unaccredited for-profit providers.…
The lead for today’s installment of Meet the Press included the tease: “Is President Obama already a ‘lame duck’?” In 1933, the passage of the 20th Amendment shortened the period between the presidential election and the inauguration of the president so that if a sitting president were a “lame duck”—that is, either lost the election…
Reviews of Recent Books Concerning Current Issues in Higher Ed: No. 6 Donoghue, Frank. The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities. New York: Fordham U P, 2008. In this seminal work of the corporatization of American universities, Frank Donoghue offers a much longer historical view than most other authors focusing…
This piece is reposted from the “On the Issues Blog” maintained by the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education: http://futureofhighered.org/on-the-issues/ If you are looking for faculty-driven commentary on current issues in higher education, you should consider adding the “On the Issues” blog and the CFHE website to your links page. MOOCs may prove to…
Reviews of Recent Books Concerning Current Issues in Higher Ed: No. 2 Altbach, Philip G., Patricia J. Gumport, and Robert O. Berdahl, eds. American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges. 3rd Edition. Eds. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins U P, 2011. In selecting the essays included in this collection, the editors…
The greatest irony in the increasing privatization of public education is that the deficiencies that the “reformers” typically claim to be trying to correct are often exacerbated by the very “reforms” that they are advocating. There is now a tremendous amount of statistical evidence that, on average, students in charter schools perform worse–and often much…
Sources: National Center for Education Statistics, Bloomberg News, Chronicle of Higher Education, Blumenstyk and Fuller Number of post-secondary institutions newly accredited between 2005 and 2009: 483. Percentage of post-secondary institutions newly accredited between 2005 and 2009 that were private for-profit institutions: 77%. Percentage of total accredited post-secondary institutions in the U.S. that were private for-profit…
Source: National Center for Education Statistics Percentage of those enrolled in public four-year institutions who received financial aid in 2009: 79%. Percentage of those enrolled in private not-for-profit four-year institutions who received financial aid in 2009: 87%. Percentage of those enrolled in private for-profit four-year institutions who received financial aid in 2009: 86%. Percent of…
Sources: National Center for Education Statistics, Goldwater Institute, New Republic Average annual tuition at public four-year institutions in the U.S. in 2010: $7,605. Average annual tuition at private four-year institutions in the U.S. in 2009: $27,293. Average annual tuition at public two-year institutions in the U.S. in 2009: $2,713. Percentage increase in tuition and room-and-board…
Source: National Center for Education Statistics Total number of degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States in 2009: 4,495 Post-secondary enrollment in 2009: 20.4 million Percentage of the total U.S. population enrolled in 2009: 5.7% Enrollment by percentage in four-year institutions in 2009: 62% Enrollment by percentage in two-year institutions in 2009: 38%