While educators debate the wisdom of three-year college degrees, some ambitious students are going ahead and finishing their coursework in three years anyhow as a way to save thousands of dollars in tuition...Only 4.2% of U.S. undergraduates earned bachelor's degrees in three years, according to the most recent statistics from the Education Department. The average student spends six years to get a degree at a public university and 5.3 years at a private institution, according to the College Board. A handful of colleges have begun offering three-year degree programs, an idea trumpeted by Sen. Lamar Alexander, a former education secretary and college president, at the American Council of Education's annual meeting in February. He called three-year degree programs the higher-education equivalent of a fuel efficient car. But critics say shaving the fourth year off college could limit a student's social experience and provide a narrower education...
President Obama on Tuesday laid out his $12 billion plan to reform the nation's community colleges as part of a larger push to retrain unemployed workers and prepare the U.S. workforce for an increasingly competitive global economy. His proposals would pump $2.5 billion into building and technology upgrades, $9 billion toward efforts to increase student success, and $500 million into grants to help develop online courses that, in some cases, would be free. The goal: to help 5 million more Americans earn degrees and certificates by 2020...
"The Obama Plan," Inside Higher Ed, July 15.
President Obama, as he promised he would, placed community colleges Tuesday in the center of his plans to revitalize the American economy. He proposed billions in new spending -- for job training programs, improvements in basic skills education, facilities and free online education -- to focus on two-year institutions. In words that community college educators have longed to hear, he stressed the importance of community colleges in broadening access to American higher education, and he specifically rebuked the way these institutions have often been ignored in favor of elite institutions...
A bill that the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives education committee will introduce today would end the bank-based guaranteed-student-loan program, provide additional mandatory money for Pell Grants, and expand the Perkins Loan program from the current $1-billion to $6-billion a year, while overhauling its structure, Congressional aides confirmed Tuesday night... (paid subscription required)
College governing boards are becoming more effective and engaged but continue to fall short in some areas, according to survey results released today by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges... (paid subscription required)
Colleges still have about two years to post net-price calculators on their Web sites to comply with a new federal requirement, but two colleges that already have calculators up and running urged others to get a jump on it at a session here at the annual meeting of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Financial-aid officials from Purdue University and Williams College said the calculators had helped demystify the aid process for families applying to their colleges. And they said that, contrary to what many aid administrators fear, families seem to understand that the calculators provide an estimate, not a guarantee... (paid subscription required)
Financial concerns have dominated the agendas of college governing boards in the last year, and trustees at private institutions have been more occupied with finance and enrollment issues than academic programs, according to a report released today by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges...
As two of the longest-serving University of Illinois trustees appeared Tuesday before a state panel investigating clout in admissions, the questioning quickly focused on Gov. Rod Blagojevich's behind-the-scenes influence. One board member remembered specific phone calls and a request for favors. The other recalled little -- even as he looked at internal e-mails that painted him as the intermediary between the governor's office and the state's flagship university...
When the TCF Bank Stadium opens in less than two months, the University of Minnesota plans to implement a system to deter alcohol-related problems by administering breathalyzers to prior offenders. The program, called "Check BAC" -- as in blood alcohol content -- is just one of the many steps the University and police are taking to prepare for the inevitable trouble that will come with bringing football back to campus. University police have been travelling around the Big Ten looking for advice on alcohol enforcement and traffic control to get ready. Check BAC is modeled after a University of Wisconsin-Madison program...
