Readers of Minding the Campus are familiar with the argument that universities produce far too many graduates in “impractical” humanities majors. This point applies especially to graduate education in the liberal arts, where today’s students are welcomed into a leftist fellowship with poor job prospects. Jordan Weissmann of the Atlantic claims to upend this narrative […]
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In his response to the President’s State of the Union address, Marco Rubio once again displayed his worrisome approach to higher ed policy. Though he rightfully lamented both tuition cost growth and the government’s bias against non-traditional institutions, his proposals did not address the heart of the matter. He suggested expanding federal student aid for students […]
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A sign of the times: Yale, Penn, and George Washington University are now suing their former students for defaulting on their student loans. The loans in question are Perkins loans, which are set aside for poor students and disbursed by colleges rather than the federal government and. This news broke shortly after the Wall Street […]
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It seems that higher education reform has found its voice. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor gave a speech earlier today at the American Enterprise Institute on the role of the federal government in creating economic opportunities for families, and he devoted a good amount of attention to the failings of our higher education system. He […]
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Sen. Marco Rubio spoke out again this week on the importance of higher education as a support for the middle class. Unlike many other high-profile proponents of higher ed reform, he believes Washington lacks an appreciation for technical education. So he proposed making federally-backed student loans available to those seeking technical degrees online as well […]
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Not Bhaskar Sunkara, the 23-year-old founder of Jacobin magazine. He’s marshaled allies from within the university to convince the American people otherwise. The New York Times recently featured a flattering profile of Sunkara, an alumnus of George Washington University who founded his magazine while on medical leave in his sophomore year. The piece, which notes […]
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As 2012 wound down, one piece of higher-ed news drew attention to a subject that matters to many college students: unpaid internships. On December 20, Charlie Rose’s production team agreed to pay a maximum of $250,000 to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by former interns. Led by Wesleyan alumna Lucy Bickerton, the group claimed that Rose […]
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It may be moral preening, but some students are trying to launch a campaign against colleges with endowment money invested in fossil fuels. The New York Times recently reported on one such effort by Swarthmore students. The Times seems to have thrown its weight behind the protesters by puffing them up as “the vanguard of […]
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The New York Times reported on Friday that the for-profit University of Phoenix will close 115 physical campuses, dispossessing around 13,000 students and putting 800 employees out of work. Why now? Tamar Lewin, the story’s author, suggested that competition from other for-profit universities played a role. But she also cited the “steady drumroll of negative […]
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As if you needed any more proof that the 2012 campaign will fail to take higher education issues seriously, the New York Times reported yesterday that President Obama is using his stops in swing states to assail Mitt Romney for his supposed views on financing college tution. Obama, the article notes, argued that Romney “would cut student loans and […]
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Today Professor William Jacobson (of Legal Insurrection fame) launched College Insurrection, a new website devoted to higher education. The site, according to Professor Jacobson, will help “conservative/libertarian students…find out what is going on with like-minded students on other campuses, and understand that they are the many, not the few, no matter what they are told.” […]
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The Atlantic recently declared that the 2012 presidential campaign is “no longer about the economy”; that is to say, given the dire economic straits in which we still find ourselves, it is surprising how much attention the candidates are giving to peripheral issues such as Medicare, welfare, and most importantly for our purposes, student loans. […]
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The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions released a massive and negative report today on the for-profit college industry. In explaining why more than half of students leave for-profit colleges after a median of four months, the report’s main contention is that “Congress has failed to counterbalance investor demands for increased financial returns with […]
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MTC contributor Richard Vedder punctures many myths about American universities in his new report, “Twelve Inconvenient Truths about American Higher Education.” Among other issues, he investigates whether a college degree guarantees success, if students actually make good use of their time in college, and whether freedom of expression truly exists on American campuses. It’s a […]
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Over at NRO yesterday Jay Hallen proposed a few solutions to easing the student-loan bubble. Though his impulses are correct his recommendations fall flat. Hallen first proposes that the Department of Education move to a “risk-based pricing” system in which it would consider a student’s high-school GPA or intended major in determining the loan price. […]
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The New York Times piece John Leo referenced earlier cites a startling statistic: while almost 40% of births to college-educated women are out-of-wedlock, the figure for women who haven’t graduated college is over 90%. Another figure from same study indicates that though a third of women who hold only a high school diploma have had children with […]
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From MyBudget360, a sobering reminder of explosive student loan growth:
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Today the law firm of Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan (FSS) released its report on Penn State’s negligence in the case of Jerry Sandusky’s extensive abuse of minors. After a seven-month investigation, The Freeh Report assigns greater blame to Joe Paterno than was originally assumed, claiming that in conjunction with Penn State’s President, Senior Vice-President for Finance and […]
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