budgets

Are there lessons here for institutions of higher ed?

On 08/23/2010, in budgets, business side of he, change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, game-changing environment, innovation, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

BlackBerry crumble: Why RIM is in trouble — from cnn.com

chart_ws_stock_researchinmotionltd.top.png

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BlackBerry’s biggest problem: The app gap (From DSC: RIM didn’t build the infrastructure / ecosystem necessary to compete)
With that in mind, some worry that there are eerie similarities between Research in Motion and Palm, the once-hot smartphone maker that failed to keep up with Apple, Research in Motion and others.

After Palm’s Pre phone flopped, the company’s stock took a nasty dive and some feared that it may not have enough cash to make it for the long-term. Hewlett-Packard finally stepped in and agreed to buy the company earlier this year, however.

Chris Bulkey, an analyst with Technology Research Group in Narberth, Pa., said Research in Motion could suffer the same fate. For now, the company’s sales and profits are still growing, but the pace is slowing.

And without a hot product on the horizon, Bulkey, who has a “sell” rating on the stock, said it’s hard to envision a bright future for Research in Motion.

“Research in Motion sells a commoditized product. There is margin pressure and the revenue growth is weak,” Bulkey said. “Over the long-term, they may need someone to bail them out like HP did with Palm if they see value in the technology.”

From DSC:
Along these lines…I recently received a call from a colleague who mentioned that Novell has recently been pushing their new videoconferencing product…hmmm…WAAAAAYYY too late to the game in my opinion. Here is a company who could have dominated the web-based videoconferencing and collaboration space — had they been able to innovate better and to think just a tad outside their normal LAN box.

If what we are offering in higher ed is a commodity…we had better look out! Times ahead will be very rough indeed. That’s why I have been preaching innovation, change, the dangers of the status quo, planning for the “Forthcoming Walmart of Education” and trying to create a strategy whereby we are not a commodity — as we all must bring something unique and compelling to the table.

New private university signals drive to privatise higher education in Britain

On 08/18/2010, in budgets, business side of he, game-changing environment, higher education, UK, by Daniel Christian

New private university signals drive to privatise higher education in Britain — from sott.net by Zach Reed

BPP, a private company that possesses 14 sites around the UK providing law and business degrees, was granted “university college” status in July, creating the first private university in the UK for 30 years. The decision signals the coalition government’s drive to privatise higher education.

Massive spending cuts brought forward by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government, combined with rising youth unemployment, has seen 200,000 students denied a university place this year. It is in this context that calls have been made to privatise higher education.

Buffett, Gates persuade 40 billionaires to donate half of wealth — from OregonLive.com

SEATTLE — Forty wealthy families and individuals have joined Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a pledge to give at least half their wealth to charity.

Those who have joined the Giving Pledge, as listed on its website, are: Paul G. Allen, Laura and John Arnold, Michael R. Bloomberg, Eli and Edythe Broad, Warren Buffett, Michele Chan and Patrick Soon-Shiong, Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, Ann and John Doerr, Larry Ellison, Bill and Melinda Gates, Barron Hilton, Jon and Karen Huntsman, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, George B. Kaiser, Elaine and Ken Langone, Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest, Lorry I. Lokey, George Lucas, Alfred E. Mann, Bernie and Billi Marcus, Thomas S. Monaghan, Tashia and John Morgridge, Pierre and Pam Omidyar, Bernard and Barbro Osher, Ronald O. Perelman, Peter G. Peterson, T. Boone Pickens, Julian H. Robertson Jr., David Rockefeller, David M. Rubenstein, Herb and Marion Sandler, Vicki and Roger Sant, Walter Scott Jr., Jim and Marilyn Simons, Jeff Skoll, Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor, Jim and Virginia Stowers, Ted Turner, Sanford and Joan Weill and Shelby White.

From DSC:
This is fantastic news! Excellent. I’m a big supporter of various charities myself — albeit with far fewer O’s ($$) behind the amounts of my checks than what these folks are able to provide! 🙂 But it got me to thinking…

If the United States government — or the government from another interested nation — could even get 1-2 billion of this enormous accumulation of wealth, think what could be done to create interactive, multimedia-based, engaging, customized/personalized, online learning-based materials that could be offered FREE of charge to various age groups/cognitive levels. Creative simulations and animations could be built and offered — free of charge — to students throughout the world. The materials would be available on a variety of devices for maximum flexibility (laptops, notebooks, iPads, iPhones, tablet PCs, workstations, etc.)

An amazing amount of digital scaffolding could be provided on a variety of disciplines. THIS could represent the Walmart of Education that I’ve been talking about…wow!

150 nonprofit colleges fail Education Department’s test of financial strength

On 08/12/2010, in budgets, business side of he, higher education, by Daniel Christian

150 nonprofit colleges fail Education Department’s test of financial strength — from The Chronicle by Goldie Blumenstyk and Alex Richards

A total of 150 private nonprofit colleges failed the U.S. Department of Education’s “financial-responsibility test” based on their condition in the 2009 fiscal year, data released on Thursday show. That’s 23 more than the 127 that failed the test in the 2008 fiscal year, and an increase of about 70 percent over the number of degree-granting institutions that failed two years ago.

Report: Higher education in Michigan hurting

On 08/11/2010, in budgets, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, higher education, Michigan, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

Report: Higher education in Michigan hurting — from The Detroit News by Kim Kozlowski

Michigan’s declining investment in higher education is among the worst in the nation — making it difficult for students to get degrees and the state to recover from the poor economy, according to a report released Monday.

The first report of its kind by the Michigan League for Human Services found state aid and financial aid programs to Michigan’s 15 public universities declined by nearly 17 percent from 2002 to 2010. Meanwhile, undergraduate tuition for in-state residents during that same time period jumped 88 percent.

Funding for the state’s 28 community colleges, meanwhile, decreased 7 percent between 2002 and 2010 as tuition increased 40 percent — from an average of $54 to $76 a credit hour, the report showed.

The trends occurred as Michigan’s job market is moving away from manufacturing to a knowledge-based sector, and must be reversed, officials said.

Inexperienced companies chase U.S. school funds

On 08/10/2010, in budgets, business, education, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

Inexperienced companies chase U.S. school funds — from the NY Times by Sam Dillon [via GetIdeas.org blog]

Gates’s millions: Can big bucks turn students into graduates?

On 08/10/2010, in budgets, colleges, community colleges, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, student-related, universities, by Daniel Christian

Gates’s millions: Can big bucks turn students into graduates? — from The Chronicle by Elyse Ashburn

Saving public universities

On 08/10/2010, in budgets, cost of getting a degree, future of higher education, game-changing environment, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

Saving public universities — from convergemag.com by Jessica B. Mulholland

As university budgets shrink, governors are searching for ways to make the remaining education money more effective, Thomasian said. “One of those ways to make it effective is for higher education to start using a lot more online learning.”

Debates about the rigor of online versus traditional degrees abound, but the truth is that the recession is straining traditional public universities, tuitions are continuously rising and students are being turned away from already-overcrowded classrooms. So does online education offer a viable alternative for delivering higher education, career retraining and lifelong learning?

Ray Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors Association, thinks so. “I really believe that higher education has to move online,” he said at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers midyear meeting in Baltimore. “Private universities have done it; government will have to follow along.”

…

A Broken Model?

Ultimately the higher education system as we know it is in jeopardy, and many contend that the model is already broken.

“Particularly for the public institutions,” Breneman said, “if you think their role and purpose is to serve the public in a broad way and to be affordable and accessible, I think we are running a risk of closing out opportunities to a substantial part of the youth population if we aren’t careful. We’re shifting the cost from the general taxpayer, which is what it has historically been, over to the families.”

Help for state higher ed

On 08/06/2010, in budgets, business side of he, higher education, by Daniel Christian

Help for state higher ed — from InsideHigherEd.com by Doug Lederman

WASHINGTON — With state revenues stagnating and unemployment stuck at high levels in most states, the budget outlook for public higher education in the 2011 fiscal year remains rather bleak. But college leaders in most states are poised to get a gift from the nation’s capital this week, in the form, oddly enough, of $16 billion in Medicaid funds.

The money was part of legislation — which was approved by the Senate Thursday, and which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has called her colleagues back to town to consider next week — that would also provide $10 billion to states to save “education jobs.” While logic might suggest that that would be the portion of the measure with implications for higher education, it really isn’t; that money is set aside to help ward off the elimination of as many as 138,000 elementary and secondary school teaching positions.

Seeking Evidence of Impact — from Educause

On 08/03/2010, in budgets, collaboration, strategy, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

From http://www.educause.edu/ELI/EDUCAUSELearningInitiative/SeekingEvidenceofImpact/206622

As the pace of technology change continues unabated, institutions are faced with numerous decisions and choices with respect to support for teaching and learning. With many options and constrained budgets, faculty and administrators must make careful decisions about what practices to adopt and about where to invest their time, effort, and fiscal resources. As critical as these decisions are, the information available about the impact of these innovations is often scarce, uneven, or both. What evidence do we have that these changes and innovation are having the impact we hope for?

What are the current effective practices that would enable us to collect that evidence? With the advent of Web 2.0, the themes of collaboration, participation, and openness have greatly changed the teaching and learning landscape. In light of these changes, what new methods for collecting evidence of impact might need to be developed?

Established practices and good data have made inroads in these areas. Often, however, they are scattered, disconnected, and at times in competition, making it challenging for the teaching and learning community to discover and compare their merits. Bringing these practices together and encouraging the invention of new ones will enable more institutions to measure impacts and produce data, providing a richer, evidence-based picture of the teaching and learning landscape on both the national and international level. The ELI announces a program intended to bring the teaching and learning community into a discussion about ways of gathering evidence of the impact of our innovations and current practices.

We hope to bring all types of higher education institutions and professional associations into a conversation on this theme. We envision an inclusive discussion that includes faculty members, instructional support professionals, librarians, students, and research experts in a collaborative exchange of insights and ideas.

Join us as we

Catalyze new collaborations to advance evidence-based applications of learning innovation to benefit higher education practices
Initiate a collective exploration that will serve to reinvigorate the community’s enthusiasm for and dedication to the task of identifying evidence of impact
Enable participants to become (re)acquainted with a variety of current effective practices, so they can make appropriate choices about which ones to adopt locally
Encourage the teaching and learning community to explore and discover options for new ways of gathering evidence
Inaugurate ongoing dialogues, projects, and collaborations that help to enable institutions to effectively gather and share evidence of impact

As the pace of technology change continues unabated, institutions are faced with numerous decisions and choices with respect to support for teaching and learning. With many options and constrained budgets, faculty and administrators must make careful decisions about what practices to adopt and about where to invest their time, effort, and fiscal resources. As critical as these decisions are, the information available about the impact of these innovations is often scarce, uneven, or both. What evidence do we have that these changes and innovation are having the impact we hope for?What are the current effective practices that would enable us to collect that evidence? With the advent of Web 2.0, the themes of collaboration, participation, and openness have greatly changed the teaching and learning landscape. In light of these changes, what new methods for collecting evidence of impact might need to be developed?

Established practices and good data have made inroads in these areas. Often, however, they are scattered, disconnected, and at times in competition, making it challenging for the teaching and learning community to discover and compare their merits. Bringing these practices together and encouraging the invention of new ones will enable more institutions to measure impacts and produce data, providing a richer, evidence-based picture of the teaching and learning landscape on both the national and international level. The ELI announces a program intended to bring the teaching and learning community into a discussion about ways of gathering evidence of the impact of our innovations and current practices.

We hope to bring all types of higher education institutions and professional associations into a conversation on this theme. We envision an inclusive discussion that includes faculty members, instructional support professionals, librarians, students, and research experts in a collaborative exchange of insights and ideas.

Join us as we

Catalyze new collaborations to advance evidence-based applications of learning innovation to benefit higher education practices
Initiate a collective exploration that will serve to reinvigorate the community’s enthusiasm for and dedication to the task of identifying evidence of impact
Enable participants to become (re)acquainted with a variety of current effective practices, so they can make appropriate choices about which ones to adopt locally
Encourage the teaching and learning community to explore and discover options for new ways of gathering evidence
Inaugurate ongoing dialogues, projects, and collaborations that help to enable institutions to effectively gather and share evidence of impact

Higher ed: The bubble

On 07/29/2010, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, future of higher education, game-changing environment, by Daniel Christian

Higher Ed's bubble

Also see:

“It’s a story of an industry that may sound familiar. The buyers think what they’re buying will appreciate in value, making them rich in the future. The product grows more and more elaborate, and more and more expensive, but the expense is offset by cheap credit provided by sellers eager to encourage buyers to buy.

Buyers see that everyone else is taking on mounds of debt, and so are more comfortable when they do so themselves; besides, for a generation, the value of what they’re buying has gone up steadily. What could go wrong? Everything continues smoothly until, at some point, it doesn’t.

Yes, this sounds like the housing bubble, but I’m afraid it’s also sounding a lot like a still-inflating higher education bubble. And despite (or because of) the fact that my day job involves higher education, I think it’s better for us to face up to what’s going on before the bubble bursts messily.”

Outsourced Ed: Colleges Hire Companies to Build Their Online Courses

On 07/28/2010, in budgets, business side of he, higher education, online learning, using teams, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Here’s an article that gets at the use of TEAMS of specialists:

Outsourced Ed: Colleges Hire Companies to Build Their Online Courses — from The Chronicle by Marc Parry

Game-changing environment continues…

On 07/28/2010, in budgets, business side of he, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, by Daniel Christian

Some recent postings from Ray Schroeder’s “Recession Realities in Higher Education”

University plans for budget reduction – Catherine Threlkeld, Daily Reveille
Every university in the LSU System is preparing for a 23-percent budget reduction for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Before its meeting Friday, the Board of Supervisors members listened to each chancellor from the system give a detailed plan of how a budget cut this great would affect that particular university. “These projections are all the result of our discussion with the legislature,” LSU System President John Lombardi said. “We’re trying to be very clear to ourselves and our constituents about the consequence of the reduction of state revenues.”
Arizona Universities: More than 2,900 positions eliminated as a result of cuts – Molly Kissler and Sarah Macdonald – Phoenix Business Journal
Area institutes of higher education plan for deep budget cuts (TX) – Jared Janes, The Monitor
Now the state has asked agencies to trim another 10 percent for the 2012-2013 biennium. The total reduction in state funding is estimated at $21.8 million at UTPA, which will collect $111.6 million in general fund revenue over the next two years
Tuition increases at UT spark talk of accessibility – Megan Boehnke, Knoxnews.com
Tuition keeps rising and the University of Tennessee keeps advertising its lower-than-average comparative sticker price. But when it comes to the everyday family making the median income in the state, UT is less affordable than other public schools across the South. Those families making the median household income of $39,702 would have to fork over 18.5 percent of it to send their child to the state’s flagship college.

Education as we know it is finished — by Christensen & Horn

On 07/15/2010, in budgets, business side of he, dangers of the status quo, disruption, education, education technology, elearning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, innovation, K-12 related, online learning, by Daniel Christian

Education as we know it is finished — from forbes.com by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael B. Horn (emphasis below from DSC)
Classrooms are giving way to online learning–forever.

School budgets are continuing to tighten, as the drop in state and local revenues has not abated and there likely will not be another $100 billion in federal stimulus funds coming any time soon. Even if the economy rebounds, the situation for public education will remain bleak. With baby boomers set to retire en masse, state and local governments, which provide the majority of school funds, will face mounting retiree health care and nonpension benefit obligations for which they haven’t made proper allowances. And local districts haven’t yet felt the full pain of the housing crisis in reducing revenue from property taxes. In other words, we have only seen the beginning of the red ink.

But others are seeing the hardship of the moment as an opportunity to transform what they do with the implementation of online learning. Pressured by not only widespread cuts but also increasing demands for accountability, these innovative leaders recognize that online learning is a key reform for doing more with less.

For example, the people who run many schools realize that they can save considerably by cutting back on traditional classroom versions of non-core courses–advanced placement, foreign language, economics and so forth–and instead offer them online, thereby aggregating demand across many school districts. Likewise they can cut back on the number of periods during which they offer certain classroom courses and still affordably meet student demand by offering those courses online.

The adoption of online learning is much more than just a cost-saving move for school districts. It has the potential to transform schooling more broadly by allowing students access to a wide range of high-quality offerings and teachers, regardless of where they live. Some students whose classroom courses have been replaced with online versions will be thrilled to find out that they now have access to not just one provider’s online courses but a whole marketplace of high-quality options, in a naturally technology-rich environment quite compatible for them.

Online learning also allows students to study unburdened by the usual constraints of time, proceeding at a pace that works best for them. The current system forces all students to learn the same material within the same time frame. That stalls the progress of advanced students while leaving others behind. This is one of the reasons online learning has been shown to produce better results overall than traditional face-to-face instruction.

From DSC:
Consistent readers of this blog and my former website will know that I’ve been saying we are in a game-changing environment for some time now — K-12 and higher education will never be going back to “business as usual.”

Learning Ecosystems