budgets

Moving the cliff — from InsideHigherEd.com

On 04/15/2010, in budgets, funding / grants, higher education, legislatures / government / legal, universities, by Daniel Christian

Moving the cliff –– from InsideHigherEd.com

As state legislators around the country craft their budgets for the 2011 fiscal year, public college officials are afraid that they are about to be thrown off “the cliff” — the steep drop in available funds once the tens of billions of dollars that the federal government made available through last year’s economic recovery legislation run out.

But like a movie character whose vehicle magically grinds to a halt just before it goes over the edge, public higher education could catch a break, in the form of legislation introduced Wednesday by several Democratic senators that essentially move the cliff. The none-too-subtly titled “Keep Our Educators Working Act of 2010,” sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and others, would provide $23 billion to extend for a year the fund in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act that gave states money to ward off budget cuts and tuition increases.

Tagged with: budgetary • higher education • legislation • universities

Tagged with: budgetary • funding • future • K-12

Academia in crisis: Brian Hawkins addresses the NITLE Summit — NITLE

On 04/04/2010, in budgets, business side of he, change, colleges, consortiums, future of higher education, game-changing environment, liberal arts, by Daniel Christian

Academia in crisis: Brian Hawkins addresses the NITLE Summit — NITLE

Brian L. Hawkins, co-founder of the Frye Institute and the first president of EDUCAUSE, gave an impassioned presentation “The Information Resource Professional: Transformation, Tradition & Trajectory” to an engaged group of conference participants at last week’s NITLE Summit. He didn’t mince words: along with institutions in all other sectors of higher education, it is urgent that liberal arts colleges invent a new future together, working in true collaboration. Today’s uniquely dire higher education fiscal environment is the driver. Institutional failures to respond energetically will result in the institution not surviving (emphasis DSC).

Hawkins based his argument both on astute observation of the current milieu and on comparisons with the trajectory of events and transformations he observed during his long and distinguished career of higher education leadership (emphasis DSC). Drawing on his experience in roles ranging from Senior Vice President at Brown University to EDUCAUSE leader, and returning to his many publications and presentations throughout that career, Hawkins delineated the current environment, painting an unsettling picture: (emphasis DSC — which I call a game-changing environment).

Public universities, once beneficiaries of state support, are increasingly competing for the same tuition and research dollars as private institution, and public funding will likely not return.
Private institutions are increasingly priced beyond the means of most American families.
Smaller colleges and universities are as vulnerable to environmental stresses as fish in small fish tanks.
The model of higher education that has obtained in the US for 130 years “is broken and no longer works.”
Because of the constrained fiscal environment we face as a nation, higher education has lost its traditional political supporters in state and federal government. Politically “we have no allies.”
Institutions are dysfunctional: resistant to change, slow to adapt, fraught with “special interests,” mistaken that they can return to an earlier time, and precluded by their own distinguished and complex histories from “starting over.”
The “new normal,” as delineated by Cornell president David Skorton in the opening plenary (PDF) at NAICU’s annual meeting this part January, includes lost endowment income, weakened fund raising, smaller tuition increases, and more demands for financial aid, moving forward.
The global information environment has evolved far more quickly than have educational institutions.

…Hawkins further stressed the critical importance of genuinely transformative inter-institutional collaborations: “We have to stop thinking of collaboration as an avocational approach…… it is the only means of competitive survival.”

Tagged with: colleges • consortiums • game-changing environment • liberal arts

UC panel outlines drastic reforms – The Huffington Post — via Ray Schroeder

On 04/02/2010, in budgets, business side of he, changing business models, game-changing environment, higher education, strategy, by Daniel Christian

UC panel outlines drastic reforms – The Huffington Post — [via Ray Schroeder, and his comments below]

The University of California Commission on the Future met today to discuss a host of major changes to the school system, including substantial student fee hikes and three-year bachelor’s degree option. According to the Daily Californian: Recommendations from the group include the implementation of online courses in order to increase student access to courses, decrease the time necessary to acquire a degree and reduce the costs of education to both students and the state. The report recommends “the pursuit of the pilot project being coordinated by the Office of the President which … will develop and deliver up to 40 online undergraduate courses, evaluating their quality, learning effectiveness, workload impacts (and) costs.”

Tagged with: game-changing environment • higher education

More changes/financial pressures in higher ed

On 03/30/2010, in budgets, business side of he, future of higher education, game-changing environment, by Daniel Christian

Some recent items from Ray Schroeder’s Recession Realities in Higher Education Blog highlight the financial pressures colleges and universities are now really beginning to feel:

Added on 4/1/10:

Lecturer layoffs could hit University of Michigan campus come fall – Juliana Keeping, AnnArbor.com

Layoffs could be on the way for the largest college at the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus. Departments in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts are considering scenarios that would include laying off members of the lecturers’ union to meet savings goals, officials confirmed. Individual departments’ savings plans could also include the consolidation of some classes and having tenure-track faculty teach more classes. If implemented, scenarios like these would result in fewer lecturers being needed, U-M spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said.

Tagged with: budgetary • business side of he • change • future of higher education

Tagged with: educational technology • grants • K-12

An idea to reallocate where federal funding is invested — from DSC

On 03/26/2010, in budgets, legislatures / government / legal, policy, by Daniel Christian

Reallocating funds to decrease costs -- from Daniel S. Christian

Tagged with: budgetary • financial aid • legislation • policy

Improving quality AND reducing costs — from Tony Bates

On 03/26/2010, 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, higher education, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

Improving quality AND reducing costs — from Tony Bates
Bassis, M. (2010) Changing the equation Inside Higher Education, March 25

This article, by the President of a private college, Westminster College, in the USA, challenges the notion that reducing costs of teaching reduces quality. Some interesting quotes will give you the flavour of the article:

So we started searching the literature for instructional designs that require fewer resources and result in high levels of student learning. The ones we found shared certain characteristics. They were driven by clear learning goals and involved extensive assessment and feedback to students. They stressed active learning and took maximum advantage of technology. In each design, faculty spent less time lecturing and more time coaching, proactively asking and answering questions with groups of students. And faculty were assisted in their coaching role by teaching assistants or peer mentors. Finally, economies of scale helped to produce significant cost savings….

I pulled together a team from our school of business and told them that the goal was to develop an undergraduate degree completion program in business that produced more and better learning at half the cost of our traditional program (emphasis DSC).

From DSC:
This is right along the lines of what I have been saying will happen — and is already starting to happen with Straighterline, University of the People, and other organizations. What are YOUR plans to deal with these trends?

Tagged with: budgetary • cost of getting an education • costs • Walmart of Education

International perspectives on higher education funding structures — from GlobalHigherEd.com

On 03/24/2010, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, global / globalization, higher education, by Daniel Christian

International perspectives on higher education funding structures — from GlobalHigherEd.com

Tagged with: cost of getting an education • global • higher education

Illinois official has innovative ideas for higher education — via Ray Schroeder

On 03/24/2010, in budgets, business side of he, changing business models, colleges, higher education, leadership, policy, traditional / tradition, universities, by Daniel Christian

Illinois official has innovative ideas for higher education – Dolph C. Simons, Jr., Lawrence Journal-World

“Stanley Ikenberry, interim president of the University of Illinois, on how students, families and the university all could save money and, at the same time, maintain the quality and integrity of his institution. Ikenberry said a shorter college career, an “accelerated program” that could be in place by fall 2011, would raise revenue for the school while cutting tuition and letting students enter the work force sooner. The president said a combination of distance learning or online courses, placement tests for college credit, high school participation in some programs and, especially, use of summer school could shorten a student’s stay at one of the three campuses.”

From DSC:
I’m not sure what I think about all of the possibilities, but clearly, the environment is pressing us for change. The status quo is no longer an option.

Tagged with: budgetary • game-changing environment • leadership • policy

Higher education budgets and the global recession: Tracking varied national responses and their consequences — from cshe.berkeley.edu

On 03/23/2010, in budgets, business side of he, change, changing business models, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, policy, by Daniel Christian

Higher education budgets and the global recession: Tracking varied national responses and their consequences — from cshe.berkeley.edu

Excerpt from the Abstract:

States have very limited ability to borrow funds for operating costs, making the federal government the last resort. In short, how state budgets go, so goes US higher education; whereas most national systems of higher education financing is tied to national budgets with an ability to borrow. Without the current stimulus funding, the impact on access and maintaining the health of America’s universities would have been even more devastating. But that money will be largely spent by the 2011 fiscal year (Oct 2010-Sept 2011), unless Congress and the White House renew funding support on a similar scale for states that are coping with projected large budget gaps. That now seems unlikely.

Original posting from George Siemens — Higher Education Budgets and the Global Recession

Tagged with: budgetary • business side of he • policy

SXSW 2010 Presentatation: Universities in the “Free” Era — by Peg Faimon and Glenn Platt

On 03/17/2010, in accessibility / UDL, budgets, business side of he, change, changing business models, consortiums, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, disruption, economics, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, expectations, face-to-face, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, innovation, interaction design, interface design, internet, leadership, learning ecosystem, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, open courseware and systems, social learning / networks, staying relevant, student-related, traditional / tradition, universities, by Daniel Christian

From:
http://www.slideshare.net/glenn.platt/universities-in-the-free-era-sxsw-2010-presentation

Also see:
Links for SXSW 2010 Presentatation: Universities in the “Free” Era

Glenn Platt, Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies
Peg Faimon, Miami Design Collaborative — Miami University

Other food for thought:

Public college tuitions spike 15%, even 30% — from money.cnn.com

On 02/24/2010, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, game-changing environment, global / globalization, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:

This is not sustainable…tuition increases are going to drive folks to look for much cheaper alternatives. Whoever can be the institution that gets it right, they will be huge — and will make a worldwide impact!

Tagged with: costs

Interesting question here…

On 02/24/2010, in budgets, business side of he, change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, policy, strategy, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
One of the questions mentioned on this posting from learn.5tein.com (which was focused on higher ed), was Question #2:

What do we provide them that they can’t get anywhere else?

Great question for all of us in higher education to be able to (continually) answer. Also, I would add another question:

How does my organization of higher education keep from becoming a commodity? What distinctive value is my organization bringing to the table?

Tagged with: future of higher education • game-changing environment • higher education

A new foundation for 21st century learning [2011 budget]

On 02/23/2010, in budgets, education technology, funding / grants, K-12 related, by Daniel Christian

The 2011 Budget makes a strong commitment to technology that transforms how educators teach and how students learn. The President strongly believes that technology, when used creatively and effectively, can transform education and training in the same way that it has transformed the private sector. It makes a broad array of Department of Education programs, including the $500 million “Investing in Innovation” Fund, eligible for technology-related investments, encouraging the infusion of educational technology across a broad range of programs in order to improve teaching and learning, and build the capacity at the State and local level to support better uses of technology for efficient and effective transfer of knowledge.

Potential for Transformative Impact:
Last year, the President released A Strategy for American Innovation, highlighting the role of technology in educating the next generation. The strategy outlined the role that educational technology could play to improve our quality of life and establish the foundation for the industries and jobs of the future. For example (emphasis below from DSC):

Online learning can allow adults that are struggling to balance the competing demands of work and family to acquire new skills, and compete for higher wage jobs, at a time, place and pace that is convenient for them. It can also improve access to a quality education for students in underserved areas.
Digital tutors can provide every student with immediate feedback and personalized instruction, providing them with the information needed to diagnose and correct errors, and providing challenging instruction.
Digital learning environments can generate a large volume of data that, if analyzed properly, will support “continuous improvement” by providing rich feedback to learners, teachers, curriculum designers, and researchers in the field of learning science and technology.
“Games for learning” that are compelling and engaging have the potential to increase the attentive time on task that students engage in learning. Massive multiplayer games can support the social and team-based dimensions of learning.
Simulations, such as a flight simulator for pilots or a “digital human” for medical professionals can allow students to engage in hands-on learning.
Open educational resources can be shared, adapted, re-mixed, and re-used.
Technology can increase parental involvement, provide new opportunities for students with disabilities and for English Language Learners, allow teachers to participate in “communities of practice,” and enlist professionals and retirees as online mentors.

Tagged with: budgetary • educational technology • government • K-12 • online learning • policy

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