College life may look different in the
not-so-distant future: Students squinting out dirtier windows,
faculty offices with full wastebaskets and no phones, sporting
events in which opponents never meet, and paper course catalogs
existing only as artifacts of the wasteful old days. While colleges
and universities slashed their spending this year with wrenching
layoffs, hiring freezes and halts in construction projects, they
whittled away at costs with smaller, quirkier economies, too...
...One of the original motivations behind
(the three-year degree system in a harmonization of higher-education
systems known as the Bologna Process) was to enhance the educational
experience of students, but some critics say that the new degree
cycles instead shortchange them. The harshest opponents charge
that students are being rushed through their studies to obtain
degrees whose value is still not fully understood or accepted in
their own countries. They believe the endeavor has been co-opted
by governments and used as an excuse to impose controversial reforms,
including cost decreases and tuition increases... (paid
subscription required)
Salaries for most faculty and staff
members at the University of California could be reduced by 8 percent
through pay cuts, furloughs, or a combination of the two, under
a proposal released on Wednesday by the university’s president,
Mark G. Yudof... (paid
subscription required)
