Good-value colleges
Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission? ask Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus in a Chronicle of Higher Education commentary. Many colleges “have lost track of their basic mission to challenge the minds of young people,” they write. ” Higher education has become a colossus—a $420-billion industry—immune from scrutiny and in need of reform.” Among colleges that provide good value to [...]
Overwhelmed
Already hit by rising enrollments and fundinc cuts, community colleges will face even more demand as high-cost for-profits lose students due to new Education Department loan rules. Proposed rules linking loan eligibility to default rates and debt ratios will affect only 8 percent of for-profit students in 5 percent of programs, Education Secretary Arne Duncan predicts. However, 55 [...]
Loan rules hit ‘bottom of barrel’ for-profits
For-profit companies whose students don’t pay back their loans will lose eligibility for new loans under Education Department rules proposed today. Only 5 percent of programs enrolling 8 percent of students – “the bottom of the barrel” — would lose eligibility in the first year, said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. For-profit providers would have to show that at least 45 [...]
U.S. ranks 12th in young college graduates
The U.S. ranks 12th in the world in college graduates 25 to 34 years old, according to a College Board report on the College Completion Agenda. Canada is now the global leader in higher education among young adults, with 55.8 percent of that population holding an associate degree or better as of 2007, the year of the [...]
Top 10 lessons from ‘Community’
NBC’s Community, a sitcom about a study group at the fictional Greendale Community College, has been a success, though I’ll confess that I’m not a big fan. (To see Chevy Chase playing a pudgy, old bore is depressing.) Anyhow, here are: Top 10 College Lessons from “Community.” |
Churning students pays for colleges
Public colleges have an incentive to enroll students, but not to help them complete a degree, writes Michael Kirst on College Puzzle. That encourages churning; Colleges bring in new students to replace the dropouts. An axiom among enrollment managers is telling: It is usually easier and less expensive to recruit a new student than to [...]
For-profits graduate more at-risk students
Only the private sector has the capacity to expand higher education and serve at-risk students, writes Tom Vander Ark on EdReformers. In his Gates Foundation days, he worked on doubling the number of low-income students who complete a college degree. He commissioned a Parthenon report, which found that most private-sector providers “do a better job [...]
Boomers go back to campus
Community colleges will continue reaching out to older students when the three-year grant for the Plus 50 Initiative expires at the end of the year, reports Community College Times. Plus 50, which aims to engage the 50+ population in learning, job training and civic activities, is managed by the American Association of Community Colleges and [...]
Job training doesn’t create jobs
Job training doesn’t help much when there are no jobs, reports the New York Times. Quick-fix programs — a job-hunting workshop, a resume polish, quick training in office skills — were designed for a boom economy. In a deep recession, even intensive programs can fail if predictions about the labor market don’t pan out. “It’s [...]
Ready to roll after 6-week class
It takes only six weeks to complete a truck-driving program at San Jacinto College in Texas, reports Community College Times. Trucking companies are hiring, says Ruth Kingsbury, terminal manager with Tidewater Transit Co., Inc. “I’m looking to hire about 20 drivers here locally. Jobs are coming in fast,” Kingsbury said. “So many drivers left during [...]
