Kiva begins offering education microloans — from wired.co.uk by Duncan Geere
Crowdsourced microlending service Kiva has begun offering educational loans to students in three countries around the world, with the objective of expanding its successes with small businesses into encouraging the spread of learning.
Price of attendance and degrees conferred (PDF) — from The National Center for Education Statistics via Academic Impressions
The National Center for Education Statistics has issued this report detailing trends in enrollment, tuition increases, and degrees conferred, based on IPEDS data.
Campus technology leaders: Before and after — from InsideHigherEd.com by Joshua Kim
| Before | After |
| Implements Strategic Vision | Develops Strategic Vision |
| Reports to a Top Academic Official | Is a Top Academic Official |
| Background in Technology | Background in Education or Libraries |
| Focus is on Systems and Technology | Focus is on Learning |
| Supports Faculty Teaching | Enables Active Learning |
| Manages Local Technology Infrastructure | Manages Cloud Based Technology Infrastructure |
| Manages Enterprise Systems | Manages Integration of Enterprise with Consumer Systems |
| Technical and Managerial Intelligence | Social and Emotional Intelligence |
| Has To Do More with Less | Has To Do More with Even Less |
| Focus is on Implementation | Focus is on Implementation and Experimentation |
| Presides Over Expensive Services | Key Driver of New Revenues and Increased Productivity |
| Manages Technology Infrastructure | Evangelizes Potential of Technology for Educational Transformation |
.
From DSC:
This caught my eye because I am a firm believer that all decision-making boards at each and every college and university (across the entire world) must now have a visionary, informed technology leader on them — as such technologists will be able to provide important strategic direction to their organizations. It’s not just about keeping the systems running anymore (which is a tough enough job by the way) — it’s also about setting strategic direction and using technology to increase the number of students one can assist/develop (while aiming to decrease the price of such offerings).
Academic Bankruptcy – NY Times Opinion — by Mark Taylor, Chairman of the religion department at Columbia University and the author of the forthcoming “Crisis on Campus: A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities.”
With the academic year about to begin, colleges and universities, as well as students and their parents, are facing an unprecedented financial crisis. What we’ve seen with California’s distinguished state university system — huge cutbacks in spending and a 32 percent rise in tuition — is likely to become the norm at public and private colleges. Government support is being slashed, endowments and charitable giving are down, debts are piling up, expenses are rising and some schools are selling their product for two-thirds of what it costs to produce it. You don’t need an M.B.A. to know this situation is unsustainable.
With unemployment soaring, higher education has never been more important to society or more widely desired. But the collapse of our public education system and the skyrocketing cost of private education threaten to make college unaffordable for millions of young people. If recent trends continue, four years at a top-tier school will cost $330,000 in 2020, $525,000 in 2028 and $785,000 in 2035.
BlackBerry crumble: Why RIM is in trouble — from cnn.com
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.
.
Two professors examine the American higher education system and explain how students and parents can get the most for their money.
Andrew Hacker
Professor of Political Science at Queens College, New York, and co-author of “Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids – And What We Can Do About It”
Mark Taylor
Chair of the Department of Religion at Columbia University, professor of philosophy of religion at Union Theological Seminary, and professor emeritus of humanities at Williams College. His latest book is titled, “Crisis on Campus: A Bold Plan for Reforming our Colleges and Universities.”
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.
Education ‘the economic issue of our time,’ Obama says in UT speech — from statesman.com by Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
President Barack Obama said in a speech at the University of Texas this afternoon that education “is the economic issue of our time.”
Addressing a friendly and appreciative audience in Gregory Gym, the president sought to underscore the link between long-term economic prosperity and a better-educated population.
“It’s an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have gone to college,” he said. “Education is an economic issue when nearly eight in 10 new jobs will require workforce training or a higher education by the end of this decade. Education is an economic issue when we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow.”
Obama said his administration is pursuing a three-pronged higher education strategy: making college more affordable, ensuring that college students – especially those at community colleges, the fastest-growing sector – are prepared for a career and boosting graduation rates.
Online-Only Western Governors University could be new model for education — from govtech.com by Jessica B. Mulholland [via Ray Schroeder]
The need for affordable and flexible education rings truer today than ever before. According to the College Board’s 2009 Trends in College Pricing report, the cost of higher education is rising: Tuition for in-state residents at public four-year institutions was about $7,020 for the 2009-2010 academic year, bringing the total cost for one academic year to more than $19,000 when books and living expenses are included. This means a four-year degree at a public university costs nearly $80,000, and according to the same report, a private four-year degree costs twice that — $160,000.
And governors will continue cutting higher education budgets, which will drive further increases in tuition costs, said John Thomasian, director of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices. The lack of affordability combined with the complexity of student financial aid threatens higher education’s accessibility, said David Breneman, the Newton and Rita Meyers professor in economics of education at the University of Virginia. “To find out what the actual price of college is going to be is not trivial in this country,” he said. “The kids who are coached know how to run the financial aid system if they are eligible, while the kids from less sophisticated families — I think a number of us worry that they sort of get lost at the starting gate.”
Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Further thoughts on the higher education bubble — from the washingtonexaminer.com by Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee.
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.”
From Spring 2010
…
From DSC:
Most certainly, not everything that Thomas Frey says will take place…but I’ll bet you he’s right on a number of accounts. Whether he’s right or not, the potential scenarios he brings up ought to give us pause to reflect on ways to respond to these situations…on ways to spot and take advantage of the various opportunities that arise (which will only happen to those organizations who are alert and looking for them).
***Check out this announcement:***
Straighterline and Assumption College Continuing and Career Education partner to offer adult learners an exceptionally-flexible and affordable way to earn a business degree
Alexandria, VA – StraighterLine (http://www.straighterline[dot]com) announced today that the Assumption College Continuing and Career Education (www.assumption.edu/cce), a leading provider of quality online education, has joined StraighterLine’s expanding partner college network. Assumption College — a not-for-profit New England College — has provided education and student enrichment since 1904. StraighterLine partner colleges are all regionally accredited institutions that award post-secondary credit upon transfer for successfully completing its online college courses. Assumption College is StraighterLine’s first Massachusetts partner college and its first Catholic College.
Through this partnership, students who successfully complete StraighterLine distance learning courses may transfer their courses for full credit when they enroll with Assumption College Continuing and Career Education, Online Business program. Students can use these transfer credits towards the completion of their associate and bachelors degrees.
Students can take freshman and introductory-level classes from StraighterLine and save thousands of dollars on a four-year college degree. With StraighterLine, students pay only $99 per month plus $39 per course started and can move as quickly or slowly through the material as they like.
StraighterLine courses have been evaluated and recommended by the American Council on Education (ACE)’s Credit Recommendation Service and have met or exceeded the Distance Education and Training Council’s standards for online course quality.
From DSC:
Is this “The Forthcoming Walmart of Education?” Quite possibly at maximum, but at minimum, a sign of what’s coming down the pike.
And by the way, when I say “Walmart of Education”, I am not speaking derogatively. I mean no disrespect at all. In fact, quite the opposite. The disruptions taking place now — and continuing in the near future — will create opportunities to learn better and more efficiently, but at far less expensive prices.
Congrats to StraighterLine on their pursuit of making a tangible, concrete impact on reducing the cost of getting a degree! For the rest of us, we had better take note and develop a range of options, pricing, etc. We need to respond to the disruption being caused by the Internet — and take advantage of it, not shy away from it or stick our heads in the sand and pretend that it’s not happening. We don’t want to go the way of the Blockbusters of the world who minimize/discard the impact that technology brings to the table.
