Here’s one way of cutting college costs: get a degree in three years, instead of four...Although most American students now take longer than four years to complete their degrees, the idea of three-year degrees has been gaining favor in some circles, with several colleges talking about or experimenting with such programs, often involving online courses or summer school...
Gifts to colleges and universities broke all records in 2008, but began to decline as the recession deepened, and will most likely continue to do so for the next two years, according to a survey by the Council for Aid to Education...
Colleges and universities led by Stanford, Harvard and Columbia raised a record $31.6 billion in fiscal year 2008, but their fund-raising outlook has darkened amid the economic crisis. A survey of 1,052 institutions conducted by the nonprofit Council for Aid to Education shows college fund raising rose 6.2% last year. But that predated the sharp stock-market decline that began last September because most academic fiscal years end June 30. Fund raising in academia is highly sensitive to stock prices because many donors, for tax reasons, give appreciated stock instead of cash...
Boosted by a healthy year-end finish in 2007, private giving to colleges and universities remained strong in fiscal 2008, according to a report to be released this morning by the Council for Aid to Education. The past few months have battered hopes that this trend will continue, at least in the next couple of years... (paid subscription required)
The top 20 college and universities, ranked by dollars received in fiscal 2008: 1. Stanford University — $785.04 million, 2. Harvard University — $650.63 million,3. Columbia University — $495.11 million...8. University of Wisconsin-Madison — $410.23 million...
...An increasing number of Virginia students with top grades and impressive test scores, many from populous Northern Virginia, are losing slots at the state's premiere schools to out-of-state students. Now, lawmakers are attempting to limit the number of out-of-state students admitted to Virginia's schools to reserve more seats for in-state students...The General Assembly is considering providing the schools with $12.5 million in extra funds to cover the cost of the in-state enrollment growth. The schools would be required to set aside at least 70 percent of freshman slots and 80 percent of new transfer slots for in-state students...
Kevin J. Renken learned the limits of his academic freedom the hard way. As an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Mr. Renken says he felt obliged to speak out about his belief that administrators there were mishandling a National Science Foundation grant to him and several colleagues. When the university subsequently reduced his pay and returned the grant, he sued, alleging illegal retaliation. Because he is a tenured faculty member, and he viewed the public university's use of public funds as a matter of clear public interest, Mr. Renken figured his complaints qualified as legally protected free speech. Not so, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit declared last September, in one of several recent court decisions that have raised doubts about the status of academic freedom at public colleges and universities... (paid subscription required)
In a nationally televised address to Congress on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama promised to increase federal spending on education, while ending “education programs that don’t work.” He urged all Americans to pursue “a year or more” of higher education, or career training, and set a goal for the nation to have the world’s highest proportion of college graduates by 2020... (paid subscription required)
