Bowen: Universities suffering from near fatal “Cost Disease:”
1- Competition exists in elite universities, and top-tier schools will do whatever it takes to ensure the best educational experience. This has led to many American research universities serving as the some of the best in the world, but do you think there is too much competition brewing? Is this beneficial?
2- It is stated in the article that students do not always go to the right school for themselves, aiming either too high or too low. How can colleges and universities better accommodate the needs of the students in a cost-appropriate fashion?
3- How can we continue to promote innovation in colleges and universities, when we cannot afford all of these research universities? Where is the balance?
Dinapoli: The Economic Impact of Higher Education in New York State
1- How is it that the education sector has grown rapidly during good and bad economic times, and even continued to expand during the current recession? Furthermore, why is it that the number of jobs in higher education has been growing more rapidly that employment in the rest of the economy?
2- Among the states, New York has the 3rd largest higher education employment in the nation (7.7% of all such jobs nationwide). Moreover, through the licensing of technologies, more than $380 million for New York schools was generated, and 42 start-up companies were created to use technology licensed from NY schools. It appears that NY is revitalizing and diversifying its economy phenomenally through higher education, so how can we best extend this vast economic development observed in NY to other states?
Jaschik: Study casts doubt on idea that spending more per student leads to better educational outcomes:
1: Do you think it would be a plausible, cost-effective idea to replace full-time faculty with part-time faculty members, and save money by increasing courseloads?
2: Higher education institutions at the high and low end of per-student spending showed similar levels of good practice with regard to education (“similar scores on the educationally valuable practices”) and there was only a VERY small relationship between spending on education and the quality of the educational experience. Therefore, where is all of the money going in the more expensive colleges, such as private residential institutions? Is it that they are simply charging more for prestige, or is there more to the story?
Guskin and Marcy: Dealing with the future now.
1: Taking into account the dire budgetary circumstances, if a new higher education institution was created, what would it look like?
2:What would happen to the faculty work life and student learning if budget reductions continue to exert their negative effect on education? How can we preserve it?
3: Considering the way in which the “muddling through” approach can undermine the nature of the academic profession (i.e. cut salaries to the point where they are not competitive with other forms of employment, increase workload for faculty, cause loss of the best faculty members…) is the “muddling through” approach, a feasible one? Or is it destined for failure?
4. The first transformative action states that an assessment of common institution-wide student learning outcomes should be established as a basis for an undergraduate degree. What would these assessment tests look like? Would it be similar to any student assessment exam already in place (such as the SAT, GRE…)?
5. In the article, one particular area that needs internal restructuring and an assignment to a more prominent role in education delivery is the library, so that students and faculty members can use it as a portal to access global network information and to become a true learning center. Are there other specific areas on university campuses that are in need of internal restructuring to help promote education delivery?
Johnstone: Financing Higher Education
1- How can costs of colleges and universities be effectively reduced without damaging academic qualities?
2- Should public aid be based on a student’s academic performance and or family financial aid?
3- In the public sector, should the taxes we pay be used to hold down tuition or toward expanding need-based aid (and “have public tuitions raised closer to the full average costs of undergraduate instruction”)?
4- The National Center for Education projects an enrollment growth for the decade 2008 t o 2018, and this expansion will occur unevenly, since most of the growth will be concentrated in states of the West, Southwest, and South. Why is it the case that the growth will be concentrated in those regions?
5- While some schools such as Wheelock, UMass, Boston, may be cheaper per student than Harvard, we cannot say that they are less efficient or less productive than Harvard, since we do not have a measure of output to judge this fact. Can you think of a way to effectively and objectively measure the output of different universities in a way that many would agree on?
6- What is the best method to divvy up the financing of higher education between the four parties (taxpayers, parents, students, philanthropists)? Should it be split up equally or should one party have a greater responsibility over the others?
7- How long should parental financial responsibility continue? Should they be responsible for their child’s education only during the undergraduate years or should it continue into the mid-twenties (such as when they finally settle into a steady career path)?
8- From article: Do you think tuition should reflect differences in instructional costs; should tuition be higher in research universities than in four year or community colleges? “Should they reflect differences in individual program costs, as between, say, engineering and sociology? Or should tuitions reflect market demand, as between a more selective and a less selective public college?”
9- Why has there been a shift in the cost burden from the taxpayer to parents and students?
10- Do you agree with this statement in the article, “a higher-priced public higher education might discourage ambivalent, ill-prepared students, who advocates of high tuition-high aid assume are taking up space in and wasting precious resources of our public colleges and universities?” And how do you suggest we get these students motivated to attend school and make the most of its resources?
Kiley: Moody’s report calls into question all traditional university revenue sources.
1-In a collective way, the model that has been employed in higher education since the 1960’s is being called into question by external factors, and colleges are going to have to rely more on strategic leaders. Who are these strategic leaders they are referring to?
2- The article mentions that strategic leaders will address the financial challenges through the better use of technology to cut costs, create efficiency in their operations, demonstrate value, reach new markets, and prioritize programs. What would happen if faculty members and/or institutional constituents disagree with the efforts of these strategic leaders? How would educational reform best be handled in that case?
3-Some reports have noted that alternative sources of revenue, not mentioned in the Moody’s report, include the educational sector partnering up with the private sector, since this has worked well in the past. How can this be implemented? What would this partnership look like?
4-Is there potential for online courses (such as MOOCs) to completely overhaul the traditional system of higher education that has been in place for years?
Lexington: Higher Education: Is it really the next bubble?
1- Peter Thiel states that higher education is overpriced, people are not getting their money’s worth, and that people take on such enormous debts when they g to college because that’s what everyone’s doing. Conversely, Professor Grubb states that education has not stopped delivering its expected returns. Not in terms of income or unemployment. It is because a BA is no longer sufficient for profession or managerial occupations, that there is an education inflation of middle-class students going for MA and professional degrees. Who’s stance do you agree with?
Kirp: This little student went to market, ch. 8 in Hersh, R. H. and Merrow, J. Declining by degrees: Higher Education at Risk.
1-It appears that schools at the top of the ladder battle unscrupulously to maintain their elite position. For example, staff members at Princeton’s admissions office went as far as to hack into Yale’s admission website. Some universities have even unethically manipulated the system by inflating students’ SAT scores and the proportion of alumni donors, just to make their school look more selective. How do we prevent this type of immoral behavior carried out by prestigious institutions of higher education?
2-Is the statement “money follows money, not need” applicable to institutions of higher education?
3-Institutions of higher education appear to be heavily influenced by the competitive marketplace, (trying to attract students with prestigious-sounding names, fancy amenities on campuses, exotic international trips etc.) to the point where students are applying to certain colleges for the prestige and not for the caliber of education. How can this type of behavior be reduced?
4- Do you think the No Curriculum system employed at Brown University, which allowed students to go straight into learning what interests them, could be implemented in public institutions of higher education today?
