Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Value of college tuition is called into question

As college tuitions continue to climb, a study released today fuels concerns about whether the investment in higher education by families and taxpayers translates into better results. Students are a growing source of revenue for colleges, but little of that money is going into classroom instruction, says the report by the Delta Cost Project, a Washington-based non-profit. The study also finds that the percentage of students who complete a degree hasn't kept pace with increases in enrollments, revenue and total spending.

Leaders in higher education typically argue that spending increases are necessary to maintain educational quality, but "what we see across a broad range of indicators is that states and institutions are spending money in areas that may not be in line with the public priority of preparing more graduates," report author Jane Wellman says. The report is based on Department of Education data across 18 years from nearly 2,000 institutions representing 90% of students.

The study examined only operating expenses, which include instructional costs - primarily faculty salaries and benefits. The fastest-growing operating expenses are related to research, public outreach and financial aid, the report says. Other examples are student services, maintenance and academic support. Bill Troutt, president of Rhodes College in Memphis and chairman of a congressional college cost commission a decade ago, suggests classroom instruction shouldn't be the only focus. "We are making a very significant investment here in affordability," he says. Troutt also says the study should have included capital costs, such as construction and technology - factors he says influence student learning. "I think it's fair to calculate those in giving families a picture of what the true cost of education is," he says.

For the current school year, sticker price increases ranged from 4.2% at community colleges to 6.6% at public four-year institutions, College Board data show.

The report does not address the quality of the education a student receives, but completion rates are drawing more attention in a competitive global economy. The United States spends more per student than any other industrialized nation, yet it ranks at the bottom in degree completion (54%), says a 2007 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The organization average is 71%; the high is 91% in Japan. "We absolutely must talk about productivity - the linkage between resources and results - if our country is serious about competing globally and maintaining our quality of life," says Travis Reindl of Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based non-profit group.

Richard Vedder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity says findings support calls by a federally appointed commission on which he sat to hold colleges more accountable for student achievement. "I'm hoping the policymaking public will say we've got to do something about this," such as making funding contingent on academic performance.

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Ivy Leaguers are bright - but nice?

For my family, the college application process this year was a happy one - my younger sister was accepted at an Ivy League school. I was thrilled for her and excited to answer questions about my own university experience. But when she asked me what students at the "top" colleges were like, I realized I was disturbed by my answer.

During four years at Princeton University and nearly a year at Yale Law School, I have been surrounded by students who dazzle. These are the students for whom application processes were made. They include published novelists, acclaimed musicians, and Olympic medalists. They include entrepreneurs, founders of human rights groups, and political activists. If they have hobbies such as stamp collecting and belly dancing, by golly, they are the best stamp collectors and belly dancers in America!

These youths live a life of superlatives, a life in which being No. 1 is not just an aspiration but the status quo. They can be inspirational, but they are not always nice people. You know what I mean. I mean the kind of "nice" that involves showing compassion not merely because membership in community service groups demands it. The kind of "nice" that involves lending a textbook to a friend who doesn't have one. The kind of selfless, genuine "nice" that makes this world a better place - but won't get you accepted to college.

Of course, top universities accept hundreds of individuals who have demonstrated the highest levels of citizenship. These teenagers have volunteered in more food banks, sponsored more fund-raisers, and lobbied more officials than any previous generation. They earn, rightfully, the gratitude of their communities and the plethora of honors that come with it. Colleges at the top of US News and World Report's rankings would balk at the notion that these students are anything but the best and the brightest.

I'm not saying different [An adjective as a predicate?? This girl is among the brightest but has not been taught elementary grammar]. I'm saying that sometimes some of these students will denounce world hunger but be unfriendly to the homeless. They will debate environmental policy but never offer to take out the trash. They will believe vehemently in many causes but roll their eyes when reminded to be humble, to be generous, and to "do what is right."

It is these people, though, who often climb America's ladder of success. They rise to the top, partly on their own merits yet also partly on the backs of equally deserving but "nicer" people who let them steal the spotlight. Before they, or we, know it, they are the politicians and corporate executives subverting the very moral positions they espouse. They are the many figureheads who purport to be leaders even as they embarrass our country.

Watching the race for the presidency, I cannot help but wonder whether our candidates, with their prestigious degrees and impressive credentials, are nice people. I wonder if, in their trek to the top, they have pushed aside the kind of quietly brilliant altruists who mean what they say and say what they mean. I wonder if our society is crippling itself by subjecting its youths to an almost Darwinian college selection process.

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An Australian university lurches Left -- in the usual simplistic Leftist way

Macquarie University students will be forced to "do good" and "change the world" -- but what has that got to do with academic ability or achievement? And what if I think that I "do good" simply by entering one of the professions? The definition of "doing good" is unclear but seems to be very unsophisticated for a university. I am glad that I was able to concentrate on my studies when I was there. And what about all the students who have to work their way through university? How are they going to fit in all this crap?

All students at a leading university will have to undertake volunteer work and study subjects from the arts and sciences under an overhaul of its curriculum designed to provide a broader education and more socially aware graduates. In a first for an Australian university, Macquarie University Vice Chancellor Steven Schwartz today will announce a partnership with Australia Volunteers International that will create a mini peace corps, giving undergraduate students the opportunity to do volunteer work overseas.

Called the Global Futures Program, it will develop programs with local communities throughout Australia, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Some form of community work will be compulsory for all undergraduate students at Macquarie under the new curriculum, to start in 2010. In addition, the university will require all undergraduate students to study subjects from the humanities, social sciences and sciences so that arts students must take science subjects and science students must take arts subjects.

The university, in northern Sydney, had also considered making the learning of a foreign language compulsory but it was not feasible at this stage. Professor Schwartz told The Australian that the new curriculum was based on three themes of place, planet and participation, and was designed to provide students with a broader education than one geared solely to a vocation and getting a job. "Universities are more than just narrow vocational schools; they have the opportunity to change the world, to shape society and shape democracy [Is that what the taxpayer is paying for? And what if the student is content with the world as it is and does not WANT to change it -- preferring to concentrate on more personal things? Is there no place for such a person in a university? It would seem gross political bigotry to say so!]," he said. "It's about education for life not just for a job. We're trying to infuse the institution with more than just a utilitarian vocational mission as one that also makes difference to a more democratic and inclusive society."

Professor Schwartz said the new curriculum developed the university's commitment to social inclusion and equity, and fitted in with programs already in place at the university, such as MULTILIT, a remedial literacy program being used in Queensland's Cape York, and the Teach for Australia scheme. Macquarie University, in partnership with Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson's Cape York Institute, is developing the Teach for Australia program. It is based on similar schemes in the US and Britain to recruit the brightest graduates to teach for a short time in disadvantaged schools before they start their professional careers.

Macquarie's focus on a broader education follows the restructure at Melbourne University, called the Melbourne Model and based on US college degrees, which offers six broad undergraduate degrees followed by a graduate professional degree in specialist areas such as law or medicine.

Professor Schwartz said providing an education based purely on skills was inadequate. "I used to be a dean of medicine and I believe probably a lot of skills we taught students were obsolete before they graduated," he said. "Our students graduating this year will retire about 2050. We don't know what the world will look like in 2015, let alone 2050. "At Macquarie, we want to give students the right skills to get ahead in the community and we want to give them employable skills but we also want to make them open to equity issues, to social progress and social justice in terms of equal opportunity."

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1 comment:

OBloodyHell said...

> Richard Vedder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity says findings support calls by a federally appointed commission on which he sat to hold colleges more accountable for student achievement. "I'm hoping the policymaking public will say we've got to do something about this," such as making funding contingent on academic performance.

GREAT!! Now the Fed is going to "fix" higher education just like it's "fixed" K-12!!!

Idiots.

Bring back the Little Red School House. They actually taught their students how to read and write, and when Johnny left, he could actually add.

.. and tell the Feds to go F*** themselves.