1. What is the advantage of paying so much more towards tuition for certain private schools when according to the results, there is very little to show that spending more per student leads to better educational outcomes?

2. One of the reasons that tuition is high in certain schools is that the faculty is “the best” and they must be payed a higher salary. Are funds being misused in order to pay teachers high amounts instead of helping students pay for college?

3. Should funds be allocated to keep tuition down or to increase the number of programs and classes offered at an institution?

4. Should students and parents have a hand in where schools are allowed to spend their money?

5. Is it more important to look at saving now in order to make future investments or is it better to make investments now that will have future benefits?

1. Bowen stated that there is a need for the reengineering of higher education. Where do we start?

2. Gardner says that universities should “cut the frills” when it comes to residential life to reduce the cost of higher education. From my own experience, many students use the condition of the dorms and residential life as one of the deciding factors when choosing a college. Will “cutting the frills” and making dorms simpler and less homely or luxurious result in less applicants and/or dormers? Will students who live close enough decide to commute instead?

3. Tenured professors are protected and have rights to academic freedom, but should they be evaluated every few years to ensure that they are doing their jobs, teaching students meaningful material, and treating them fairly?

4. If states are granting more than half of their financial aid on need rather than merit, what will keep students striving to do their best if they are not rewarded?

1. Do you think that it is possible for colleges to remain competitive in terms of resources and research

and still cut costs to allow the brightest students access?

2. Moody’s notes that more students are opting to, “enter the workforce without the benefit of a college

education.” Do you think such a move would weaken the global economic competitiveness of the United

States with that of  other nations, especially because the bulk of our GDP consists or highly skilled

services?

3. To what extent should the government intervene and subsidize college education? Should college

education be viewed as a public good especially now that it is practically required for most entry level

jobs and therefore should it be completely subsidized by the tax payers, like the public school

system is ?

4. Why do you think that the seemingly corrupt, exorbitant administrative fees in many colleges, like the

University of Colorado, are seldom  challenged by students?  Do you think information flow may

be a problem?

5. Many sates are moving away from need based aid.  What do you think is an equitable balance in

which a college can have the best  students attend, but also have disadvantaged students attend?

Perhaps the disadvantage students have just as high a potential as the more qualified students, but

were merely disadvantaged in their education and time commitment available  for education.

6. Is it even ethical for someone who is born more intelligent and is also wealthy enough to afford a

college education to be given an even larger economic advantage through merit aid?

1. Does having college-wide standards hurt the colleges themselves and their autonomy? Does it create new problems?
2. I really like idea of enlisting other campus professionals to help improve the educational process but how does this wok practically?
3. The writer mentions a CD-Rom, which is clearly outdated. How relevant is his advice today? It is interesting that he is giving outdated practical advice, especially since he advocates long-term solutions.
4. Interesting that change come as result of economic trouble – what else could galvanize people to change? The issues that are a problem now in higher education didn’t suddenly pop up, but they’re a big issues when money is involved.
5. Kirp seems to be blaming students for promoting and/or encouraging this consumerism. Is that what he is doing? Is he correct that students play an important role here?
6. Kirp contends that there are some schools where teaching still matters – is it true that in most schools it doesn’t? According to his standards, yes, but is there an objective measure by which one could say teaching matters or doesn’t matter to the faculty?
7. Which one is causing the steep tuition rise – Administrative costs of professors?

What should state universities do if governments keep decreasing their assistance in terms of funding the schools?
What does the gold standard mean? What should institutions such as CUNY do in order to reach this gold standard?
Will lowering the amount of research institutions make it more possible for public universities to maintain their tuition costs?

Do private education institutions in New York provide for more jobs than public institutions?
In is interesting to note the trend: for Texas  and California more of the jobs come out of public institutions rather than private institutions. However for New York City, more jobs come out of private institutions. Why do you think the trend differs for NYC? Might it have to do with the fact that California and Texas have stronger systems of public higher education?
Is receiving an undergraduate degree enough to make a decent living in this economic recession? 
Do students end up providing for most of an institutions economic needs or does a bulk of this assistance come from endowments?

Does the government neglect the amount of money needed to support higher education institutions? Do they tend to spend their money on other parts of American life which they deem as more important? 

Will faculty want to continue working in these institutions if they have such heavy workloads and wage cuts?
Instead of increasing existing faculty member’s workloads, should universities hire graduate students to teach classes?
Will eliminating small classes allow for curriculum audit?
How does a university make sure that their budget plan is followed thoroughly?
Which services and functions can be taken out of institutions in order to lower costs?

Do you think that students at lower cost universities can receive just as excellent of an education as more expensive universities?
Can universities still hire great faculty and not maintain such high tuition costs?
Can the part time faculty provide for as great of a learning experience as full time faculty?

Are online degree courses offering competition for residential colleges?
How do universities convince students to pay higher tuition if they can get the same quality of education for a fraction of the price?                                                                                             Can a good quality education be supported by lower tuition costs?

Do some institutions function more as businesses rather than as institutions of higher education?
How do public institutions support themselves in a recession? Do they have any choice but to raise tuition for students?
Do some research universities “cop out” by using graduate students to teach their freshman and seniors at the same time expecting their students to pay high tuition?
Are cheaper universities just as “efficient” as Harvard?
Are middle class families the ones who suffer the most in terms of the aid their children receive? The wealthy have the money to pay for college and a majority of the time, the poor receive a generous amount of aid so what does that leave for middle class families?
Johnstone claims that regional universities are in the most financial trouble. Should these universities cut back on research to relieve some financial burden?                                         These articles made me think about the recent claims that NYU gives an unnecessary amount of its money to its faculty members (for covering their expenses on things as mortgage or car insurance). Why do private colleges feel the need to spend so much of its money on paying professors?

1.What is a faculty audit?
2. Do you feel colleges spend too much on dorming luxuries and other useless “frills”? Give examples from your or a friend’s experiences.
3. Should very small classes be eliminated, although they may have a dedicated core of students interested in the topic?
4. Does a person really need a PhD to be a professor? What role do graduate student/teachers play in shifting the original notion of a phD being necessary?
5. What may happen in the future if tuitions continue to increase?
6. Will the value of a degree decease if less students go to college?

According to ‘Cost Disease,’ too much money is being taken out of students’ tuition to cover one type of cost, which leaves an insufficient amount to cover other types of costs, which is highly inefficient. What if tuitions were reevaluated; instead of a total number plus student fees, what if there were 10 sections to a students tuition that added up to a total tuition, and the people at the college responsible for spending money could only spend up to the amount collected for that area from the student’s tuition? That would probably lead to greatest spending efficiency, maybe.

“Dealing with the Future Now” has a part where they discuss refinancing debt. Instead of focusing on dealing with the debt once it becomes an issue, why not request a loan when the interest rate is very low (even if the university doesn’t need it at the moment), so that there will be a cash reserve in the future? This way, the money that the college would need in the future would have been bought in advance at a lower interest rate with a lesser overall cost to the college.

Why would a college opt to spend more money to maintain their “brand” as opposed to significantly cutting costs and risk losing their  “branding prestige?” If the studies from the insidehighered.com (Jashik, S) article are accurate, and the same level of education can be offered with larger class size, then wouldn’t that make branding a moot point?

The Moody’s article proposes that schools become more specific, and cut certain programs that aren’t bringing in the desired revenue. Wouldn’t it be even more financially beneficial to institutions if they offered schools that adhere to one discipline? For example, a school for doctors that offers a purely medical education for students from undergraduate to graduate. That way, all their money can be focused on one discipline and the same students will be retained for longer than four years, which increases the amount of guaranteed tuition.

1. The Johnstone piece indicates that there is a fourth force that determines the economic achievement of higher education organizations, “the ratchet”. They define “the ratchet” as the competitive race for prestige between colleges. Is this a direct result of colleges wanting to “be like Harvard,” or is it a product of American ideals/society? Is there any way of decreasing the amount of prestige to focus instead on the proper education of students?

2. It seems that the rising cost of higher education is also due to expensive research. Should the United States higher education system try to focus on advancing academics and education before research to combat these rising costs, or should research expenses just be capped or limited? Is it even possible to cap or limit research costs, when every college is trying to outdo one another?

3. The Johnstone article also addresses the cost of tuition at colleges usually leading students to the same outcome. Even though this may be true with regards to a degree, Johnstone fails to mention that more prestigious colleges usually have more opportunities available (through affiliated organizations and businesses) for their students to succeed after graduation. Do you believe that it is possible to grant all colleges the same types of opportunities? Do you believe it is the college’s job to have those opportunities available, or should it be the students who work to network and create their web of opportunity?

4. To add on to question 3, the Jaschik article highlights that paying more for college does not necessarily increase productivity outcomes. Is paying more for higher education solely for the name of the college and the possible network connections, or are there other benefits to attending more expensive universities and institutions?

5. The Moody article states that college cost and tuition is rising a lot faster than national inflation rates. If this does not stop or slow down, many students of poorer socioeconomic status may never get to attend college. Should more faith and credit be given to online courses and degrees due to their relatively cheap cost? Online degrees would allow a great variety of people of all socioeconomic backgrounds to experience educational opportunities without the rising cost of maintaining a university campus, research lab, library, or other paid services.