“While I still haven’t given up on state government’s role in supporting public higher education,” [Boise State University President Bob Kustra] said, “with each passing year I see more clearly that the funding of higher education as we experienced it in the past will not be replicated in future years.” Boise State needs to re-examine the business model universities use and construct a new one, according to Kustra.
On 08/24/2010,
in budgets, business side of he, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, new business models,
by Daniel Christian
On 08/23/2010,
in change, changing business models, disruption, future of higher education, higher education, leadership, strategy, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
HELIX Innovations Collection Press Release
A NEW, CROWDSOURCED RESOURCE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION PRACTITIONERS, RESEARCHERS, AND POLICY MAKERS HIGHLIGHTS POSTSECONDARY INNOVATION
The Higher Education Leadership and Innovation eXchange Launches the HELIX Innovations Collection
Boston, Massachusetts – August 19, 2010 – The Higher Education Leadership and Innovation eXchange announces the launch of their online, crowdsourced resource HELIX Innovations Collection at http://innovations.helixhighered.com. The Innovations Collection is intended to spark conversation about new ideas and promising practices for the next generation of higher education.
“The Collection invites higher education practitioners, researchers, and policy makers to make their voices heard and speak out about potential solutions to the challenges faced by the education field today,” said Jim Woodell, HELIX co-founder. “True innovation is open. We created the HELIX Innovations Collection to allow everyone concerned with improving higher education to share and comment on innovative solutions.”
Applying the interactive potential of Web 2.0 technologies to problems in higher education provides the opportunity to share innovations quickly, identify their potential, and refine them with the help of peers worldwide. Visitors to the Collection can suggest innovative solutions, comment on suggested ideas, and rate an idea’s potential to influence the field along several ‘innovation dimensions’.
“It is our hope that the innovations which receive broad support and fine-tuning by the ‘crowd’ will be picked up by practitioners in the field and discussed, piloted, and perhaps even implemented by their home institutions. We hope that true linkages between and among research, policy, and practice will be forged from such collaborative efforts,” said HELIX co-founder Greg Lamontagne.
About the Higher Education Leadership & Innovation eXchange (HELIX)
HELIX is a networking and information sharing resource for Higher Education research, policy, and practice. Founded in 2010 by Jim Woodell and Greg Lamontagne, HELIX is located in Boston Massachusetts. More information is available at http://www.helixhighered.com.
Traditional schools grow online — from boston.com by D.C. Denison
Students lured by cachet of brick-and-mortar schools’ reputations
The best-known online players include the University of Phoenix, Walden, and Capella University, with the for-profit Phoenix’s current enrollment of 476,500 students making it the biggest university in North America.
But the brick-and-mortar competition is catching up, from the likes of Northeastern University, Lesley University, and Boston University, while smaller institutions, such as Southern New Hampshire University, in Manchester, are promoting online programs, too.
“It’s hard to think of a college that’s not building its online capability,’’ said Carol Aslanian, a senior vice president of market research at EducationDynamics LLC, a marketing firm that specializes in higher education.
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.
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.
On 08/11/2010,
in budgets, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, higher education, Michigan,
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.
On 08/10/2010,
in business, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, economics, education, higher education, legislatures / government / legal,
by Daniel Christian
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.
On 08/09/2010,
in cost of getting a degree, future of higher education, higher education,
by Daniel Christian
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.
Back at the beginning of the summer, I had a column in this space in which I predicted that higher education is in a bubble, one soon to burst with considerable consequences for students, faculty, employers, and society at large. My reasoning was simple enough: Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. And the past decades’ history of tuition growing much faster than the rate of inflation, with students and parents making up the difference via easy credit, is something that can’t go on forever. Thus my prediction that it won’t.
But then what? Assume that I’m right, and that higher education – both undergraduate and graduate, and including professional education like the law schools in which I teach – is heading for a major correction. What will that mean? What should people do?
On 08/06/2010,
in higher education, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
— My thanks to Professor Paulo Ribeiro at Calvin College for this resource.
.
“The bottom line: study time fell within every demographic subgroup, for working students and those without jobs, for every major, and at every type of college. Further, students do not appear to have reduced study time to work for pay. Students appear to be studying less in order to have more leisure time.”
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.
On 08/05/2010,
in business, business side of he, ethics, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, using teams,
by Daniel Christian
“Shellacking the For-Profits” — from InsideHigherEd.com by Jennifer Epstein
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats made it clear Wednesday that their examination of for-profit higher education has only just begun, and that they plan to pursue legislation aimed at reining what they see as the sector’s dishonest — if not fraudulent — practices.
At a hearing on the “student recruitment experience” at for-profit colleges that began Wednesday morning and carried on through the mid-afternoon, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, outlined plans to hold more hearings on the sector, to collect broad sets of information from for-profit colleges, and to begin drafting legislation aimed at cleaning up the sector.
“Education is too important for the future of this country,” he said. “Facing the budget problems we have in the next 10 years, we just can’t permit more and more of the taxpayers’ dollars that are supposed to go for education and quality education … to be going to pay shareholders or private investors.”
From DSC:
Coming from a corporate background, I’m thinking this morning in terms of market share. If those of us in the more “traditional” institutions of higher ed were smart, we’d take this as major opportunity. The for-profits made a big mistake here — sacrificing integrity and reputation for building up their revenues; very bad move. I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who once said something like, “Glass, china, and reputation, are easily crack’d, and never well mended.”
The for-profits here seemed to have taken their cues from the casino we call Wall Street. Yet another example of cold-heartedness. This is an opportunity for those institutions of higher ed to take the legitimate, effective items of what was/is working for the for-profits and implement them with integrity instead…for example, implementing the use of teams.
Also relevant:
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:
- The Higher Education Bubble: It’s About to Burst
- Chart of the day: Is College Education The Next Bubble Set To Burst?
- Glenn Reynolds: Higher education’s bubble is about to burst | Washington Examiner
“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.”
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
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.