Waubonsee Community College

American higher education in crisis?, what everyone needs to know, Goldie Blumenstyk

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-182) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

American higher education in crisis?

bibliography

879527842

Goldie Blumenstyk

What everyone needs to know

what everyone needs to know

American higher education is at a crossroads. Technological innovations and disruptive market forces are buffeting colleges and universities at the very time their financial structure grows increasingly fragile. Disinvestment by states has driven up tuition prices at public colleges, and student debt has reached a startling record-high of one trillion dollars. Cost-minded students and their families - and the public at large - are questioning the worth of a college education, even as studyafter study shows how important it is to economic and social mobility. And as elite institutions trim financial aid and change other business practices in search of more sustainable business models, racial and economic stratification in American higher education is only growing. In American Higher Education in Crisis?: What Everyone Needs to Know, Goldie Blumenstyk, who has been reporting on higher education trends for 25 years, guides readers through the forces and trends that have brought the education system to this point, and highlights some of the ways they will reshape America's colleges in the years to come. Blumenstyk hones in on debates over the value of post-secondary education, problems of affordability, and concerns about the growing economic divide. Fewer and fewer people can afford the constantly increasing tuition price of college, Blumenstyk shows, and yet college graduates in the United States now earn on average twice as much as those with only a high-school education. She also discusses faculty tenure and growing administrative bureaucracies on campuses; considers new demands for accountability such as those reflected in the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard; and questions how the money chase in big-time college athletics, revelations about colleges falsifying rankings data, and corporate-style presidential salaries have soured public perception. Higher education is facing a serious set of challenges, but solutions have also begun to emerge. Blumenstyk highlights how institutions are responding to the rise of alternative-educational opportunities and the new academic and business models that are appearing, and considers how the Obama administration and public organizations are working to address questions of affordability, diversity, and academic integrity. She addresses some of the advances in technology colleges are employing to attract and retain students; outlines emerging competency-based programs that are reshaping conceptions of a college degree, and offers readers a look at promising innovations that could alter the higher education landscape in the near future. An extremely timely and focused look at this embattled and evolving arena, this primer emphasizes how open-ended the conversation about higher education's future remains, and illuminates how big the stakes are for students, colleges, and the nation

Facts and figures on American higher education -- Introduction : is higher education in America in crisis? -- Part One : Students -- Who goes to college in America? -- How does the United States stack up internationally? -- Why are there so many "goals" for raising the nation's college-going and college-attainment rates, and who sets them? -- How competitive is college admission? -- Why do some analysts call higher education an "engine of inequality"? -- What is the effect of merit scholarship programs? -- Is American higher education racially and economically segregated? -- Where do community colleges fit in this picture? -- Are for-profit colleges also affected by this race and class divide? -- Haven't affirmative action efforts over the past few decades helped make colleges more diverse? -- Will the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin case make it less likely that colleges will actively recruit minority students? -- What is "undermatching," and what role does it play in higher-education diversity? -- How many students come to college prepared to do college-level work? : what happens to those who are not prepared? -- Are distance-education courses or "alternative-education" approaches effective for students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds?Part Two : Costs, spending, and debt --How much does America spend on higher education, and how has that changed over time? -- Besides tuition, what are other sources of income for colleges? -- What impact do donations have on college revenues? -- Don't most public colleges get the majority of their support from their states? -- Why do people say states have "disinvested" in public higher education? -- How have tuition prices changed over the past few decades? -- So how expensive is college? -- Is this why people talk about colleges having a "sticker price" and a "net price"? -- Don't middle-class and even upper-income families struggle to pay for college, too? -- In the past, students would work their way through school. Why can't they just do that today? -- How big is the student-loan burden? -- What steps are being taken to address this debt burden? -- Which sectors produce the highest rates of student-loan defaults? -- What is the significance of a default rate? -- What is the difference between the price and the cost of college? -- Are the factors that drive prices at private nonprofit colleges different from those at public institutions? What about for-profit colleges? -- What is a "discount rate," and why is the rise in this rate a concern? -- Are some colleges in such financial trouble that they are in danger of closing, merging, or being acquired? -- Do for-profit colleges pose a competitive threat to traditional colleges and universities? -- Does distance education make money for colleges? -- Do projected changes in the population of the country pose a threat to colleges' financial health? -- Why have some public colleges emphasized recruiting of out-of-state and international students? Will this help their financial picture? -- Don't multimillion dollar broadcast contracts for football and basketball games and apparel-licensing deals produce big windfalls for colleges? -- Does intercollegiate athletics pay off for colleges in other ways? -- Do universities make money on the drugs and other inventions that they patent and license? -- What is the prognosis for revenue strategies that rely on "profits" from master's programs or law schools, or similar approaches based on internal cross-subsidies? -- Are salaries of professors to blame for higher spending by colleges? -- So what about the spending on these noninstructional costs? Is "administrative bloat" a factor in rising prices? -- Do those "lazy rivers" and other elements of the "amenities race" drive up college costs? -- What about colleges' debt? -- What other things contribute to rising college costs? -- Are there financial threats from other looming costs, like deferred maintenance?Part Three : Who's in charge? Leadership pressures--from within and without -- How are colleges run? Is their unusual practice of "shared governance" in danger? -- What role do adjunct professors play in this system? -- How do the faculty models at large for-profit colleges compare with those of traditional institutions? Are these "core faculty" models catching on in traditional higher education? -- What concerns have been raised about the future of the college presidency? -- Do American colleges face international competition? -- What do people mean when they talk about the "accountability movement" in higher education? -- Is the accountability movement having an impact? -- Do the reports and measures actually say much about what students learn? -- Is the federal government also looking to hold colleges accountable? -- Might these "accountability" pressures make their way into federal law? -- Why is there interest in changing what accreditors do? -- What other kinds of organizations are calling for a new direction in higher education? Is this kind of attention new? -- What role are big foundations playing in shaping the national higher-education agenda? -- Have nonprofit universities been "corporatized? -- Is the "higher-education industry" attractive to investors?Part Four : What's ahead -- What does "disruption" mean when it comes to the future of higher education? -- What are MOOCs? -- Are there proposals for new low-cost or even no-cost models of higher education? -- What are "open educational resources," and might they reduce college costs? -- Has the "big data" movement made an impact on college teaching and other aspects of higher education? -- What are "badges" and "stackable credentials"? Might they replace traditional college credentials? -- What are competency-based degrees and is there momentum behind them? -- What other alternative-education options are there for earning college credits? -- Are American colleges adopting a German model of apprenticeships? -- So does all this emphasis on career-focused degrees spell doom for a traditional liberal arts education? -- How widespread is distance education and how is it evolving? -- Will online education eventually make campuses obsolete? -- Conclusion : Should we be optimistic about the future of higher education in America?