The Herald: University’s £1m plan to educate world’s poor
Glasgow University will offer a package of scholarships to some of the world’s poorest students as it marks the city’s status as host to the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
It is planned to support 53 students, one from every member state of the Commonwealth, with the largest bursaries going to the 14 students from the least developed countries. These include Pakistan, Uganda and Malawi.
Comments Off on Scotland: University’s £1m plan to educate world’s poor
Posted in Economics
The Guardian: Tuition fees favour the rich – new study
Children from poor familes say fear of debt deterred them from university
Teenagers from poorer families are turning their backs on a university education because of fears they will be saddled with thousands of pounds of debt, new research shows. The study on the impact of tuition fees reveals today that nearly two-thirds of pupils who decided not to seek higher education cited anxieties about money.
Comments Off on UK: Tuition fees favour the rich – new study
Posted in Economics
The Guardian: Marxist critic Eagleton faces axe at debt-hit university
Terry Eagleton, Britain’s leading Marxist literary critic, faces the axe at Manchester University, where he has been involved in one of the most ferocious literary spats of recent years with the novelist Martin Amis.
The New York Times: Endowments Widen a Higher Education Gap
Allan T. Demaree, a retired executive editor of Fortune magazine, gladly makes donations to Princeton University, his alma mater, even though he knows it has become one of the wealthiest educational institutions in the world. His son, who also went to Princeton, points to its endowment of $15.8 billion, and will not give it a penny.
Comments Off on Endowments Widen a Higher Education Gap
Posted in Economics
Christian Science Monitor: Rich colleges, poor students
Endowments at colleges and universities have ballooned. Senators rightly press the case for tuition relief.
Last week, two key US senators asked the nation’s 136 wealthiest colleges and universities for information on their tuition hikes, financial aid, and endowments. With those treasure chests rising rapidly, the lawmakers wonder if a college education can be made more affordable.
Comments Off on Rich colleges, poor students
Posted in Economics
Detroit Free Press: Universities save while students pay more
Endowments enrich colleges as tuition rises
With billions of dollars in endowments at Michigan’s universities, Treyvon Harlin just doesn’t get it: Why must he struggle to squeeze in a 40-hour work week between his Wayne State University classes to pay for tuition, rent, food and school supplies?
Comments Off on Universities save while students pay more
Posted in Economics
Tallahassee Democrat: Jobs, programs axed as FSU trims $30M
The Florida State University board of trustees approved a whopping $30 million in budget cuts Friday in response to the state’s dismal financial climate where public institutions are being asked to cut spending for the second time this fiscal year.
Comments Off on Florida: Jobs, programs axed as FSU trims $30M
Posted in Economics
Tallahassee Democrat: FSU professors believe budget cuts erode academic mission
Professors and associate professors warned Friday that one motto behind their flagship university could change as a result of repeated budget cuts.
Florida State University employees said FSU will no longer be able to boast of its “Pathways of Excellence” — a program with a mission to recruit top professors from throughout the country.
Comments Off on Florida: FSU professors believe budget cuts erode academic mission
Posted in Economics
Daily Telegraph: Graduates face bleak year on job market
Graduates have been warned of bleak job prospects next year as the credit crunch prevents firms taking on new staff.
A report published today says 2008 is likely to become “easily the worst year” for employment since Labour came to power.
Comments Off on UK: Graduates face bleak year on job market
Posted in Economics
The Australian: Uni funding must rise to match Oxford
AUSTRALIA will never have a world-class university such as Harvard or Oxford without dramatically increasing funding to the tertiary sector, the head of the nation’s elite universities has warned.
Group of Eight universities chair Alan Robson said the country could not compete at the elite international level unless campuses were funded on a similar scale to Harvard – which benefits from a private endowment fund of more than $34.9 billion.
Comments Off on Australia: Uni funding must rise to match Oxford
Posted in Economics
The Chronicle News Blog: Canadian Prosperity Is at Risk Without Higher-Education Strategy, Report Says
Canada’s lack of a national higher-education strategy is imperiling the country’s future prosperity, according to a report issued on Tuesday by the Canadian Council on Learning, a federally supported nonprofit group.
The report, “Post-Secondary Education in Canada,” looked at colleges, universities, and vocational programs, and concluded that Canada lacks national benchmarks and sufficient information on the sector. That dearth of national higher-education data is a growing issue among educators, researchers, and policy makers.
The report also recommended adopting a lifelong “unique student identifier” number that could track the academic progress of students who switch institutions or transfer from one province to another, helping efforts to monitor retention figures, graduation rates, and career-related education.
The proposal is similar to a controversial call last year by the U.S. Department of Education to create a “unit-record database.” A majority of Americans oppose the proposal, according to one poll, and members of Congress have repeatedly voted to forbid the database’s creation.
Los Angeles Times: Harvard to slash tuition for upper-middle-class families
Harvard University unveiled a financial aid program Monday that will let students from upper-middle-class families pay less than half the school’s tuition starting next fall.
The move lessens the financial burden on families that make $180,000 a year or less, a group that is increasingly unable to afford to send their children to Harvard, according to university officials.
Comments Off on Harvard to slash tuition for upper-middle-class families
Posted in Economics
The Chronicle News Blog: Economist Says U.S. Spends Too Much on Higher Education
A paper released today by Richard K. Vedder, a professor of economics at Ohio University and founder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, argues that, contrary to popular belief, the United States is too invested in its universities, and much of that investment is wasted. Mr. Vedder also says that most incremental appropriations to higher education lead to higher spending rather than lower tuition, and new funds often go to noninstructional purposes, such as administrative salaries, student services, fancy recreation facilities, intercollegiate athletics, and research.
Comments Off on Economist Says U.S. Spends Too Much on Higher Education
Posted in Economics
Austin American Statesman: UT panel recommends higher tuition
Officials say tuition increase is needed because of inadequate legislative appropriations.
Listen to this article or download audio file.
Dallas Morning News: UT-Austin proposes raising tuition by up to 22 percent over two years
Tuition and fees at the University of Texas at Austin could increase at least 13 percent over the next two years, adding hundreds of dollars to students’ bills, if a proposal submitted Tuesday is adopted.
Comments Off on Texas: UT panel recommends higher tuition
Posted in Economics
Education is worth more to UK exports than financial services or the automotive industry, according to a report published by the British Council today.
A total of £28bn in 2003-04 was earned from overseas students by a sector ranging from world famous universities to small English language colleges, from independent schools to publishers and broadcasters.
Comments Off on Education is worth more to UK exports than financial services or the automotive industry, according to a new report.
Posted in Economics
The New York Sun: Antioch College Will Close, Beset by Financial Woes
Antioch College of Yellow Springs, Ohio, known for its liberal ethos and strong liberal arts curriculum, will close next year because of financial difficulties.
The announcement by the college that low enrollment and a small endowment meant “the College’s resources are inadequate to continue providing a quality education for its students beyond July 1, 2008,” prompted sadness among New York-based graduates of the college.
Comments Off on Antioch College Will Close, Beset by Financial Woes
Posted in Economics
The New York Times: Massachusetts Governor Proposes Free Community Colleges
Community colleges in Massachusetts would be free to all students within 10 years under a proposal by Gov. Deval Patrick.
The plan would make Massachusetts the only state with no-cost community college. California’s system was free until 1984.
The plan is part of a broader 10-year proposal Mr. Patrick, a Democrat, unveiled Friday in a commencement address at the University of Massachusetts Boston. It calls for universal prekindergarten, full-day kindergarten and extending the school day and school year.
Comments Off on Massachusetts Governor Proposes Free Community Colleges
Posted in Economics
The Chronicle: Massachusetts Governor Calls for Tuition-Free Community Colleges
The governor of Massachusetts announced an ambitious plan on Friday to make two years of community-college study free for high-school graduates within 10 years.
The proposal is part of a larger plan to improve education that includes universal preschool, an extended day at public schools, and better teacher training and licensing exams.
“There will be those — there always are — who say we can’t afford this or this is too ambitious,” Gov. Deval L. Patrick, a Democrat, said on Friday, when he announced the plan during his commencement speech at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. “Failure is simply not an option.”
Massachusetts would be the only state in the country to make community college free for all high-school graduates, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.
Comments Off on Massachusetts Governor Calls for Tuition-Free Community Colleges
Posted in Economics
San Francisco Chronicle: Prisons’ budget to trump colleges’: No other big state spends as much to incarcerate compared with higher education funding
Inmates sleep in three-high bunks in a gymnasium due to o… Spending gap between prisons and higher education narrows…
As the costs for fixing the state’s troubled corrections system rocket higher, California is headed for a dubious milestone — for the first time the state will spend more on incarcerating inmates than on educating students in its public universities.
Comments Off on California: Prisons’ budget to trump colleges’
Posted in Economics, Government
The Boston Globe: College eliminates merit scholarships
Hamilton College said Thursday it will stop offering merit scholarships to incoming students in 2008 and use the money instead to provide more need-based assistance to low-and middle-income families.
Follow