Office of Planning & Budgeting

Higher Ed News


January 4, 2011

Recent Grads Affirm Value of College Education

Mirroring previous findings, the American Council on Education (ACE) released results from a survey of recent college graduates that confirms a high level of satisfaction with the quality and utility of American higher education, but also reflects a growing sense that students and families should take more responsibility for paying for higher education. Among the…


December 15, 2010

Op-Eds Call for Increased Flexibility for Public Higher Ed in WA

Three op-eds published recently by local newspapers outline the changing relationship between Washington State and its public higher education institutions. All three op-eds call for the state to increase institutional flexibility in the face of large budget cuts. Phyllis Wise, Interim President, UW: The new normal State public university students will bear bigger share of…


December 10, 2010

Americans Believe Higher Ed Drives Economy, Unwilling to Pay More Taxes

The results of a Stanford University/AP education poll conducted in September were released yesterday. The representative group of respondents confirmed earlier data on the same topic, mainly that Americans believe strongly that higher education is a vital economic engine and that more Americans should participate in it, but that they are not very willing to…


December 9, 2010

Protests Continue as Britain Approves Sharp Fee Increases

The Chronicle reports that British Parliament has approved controversial higher education reforms that are expected to skyrocket college prices by as much as three times current rates (see previous post: Britain Rethinks Higher Ed Financing). Elsewhere, the Chronicle details ongoing student and faculty protests across Europe in response to these and similar proposals in other…


UC Commission Proposes Familiar Strategies for Cutting Costs

The University of California Commission on the Future recently released its final report addressing potential solutions for keeping public higher education in California vibrant in the face of declining resources. A group that included regents, administrators, faculty and students, the Commission’s 50 page report recommended a host of actions for UC to consider, including: Expand…


Federal Scrutiny of For-Profit Colleges Turns to Recruitment of Veterans

Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the US Senate HELP Committee, has released another report on the practices of the for-profit higher education industry, this time focusing on whether or not such institutions are taking advantage of US veterans in an effort to capture newly increased GI Bill education benefits (read our earlier posts on this…


December 8, 2010

Loss of Federal Stimulus Funds About to Hit State Budgets Hard

The National Conference of State Legislatures released their November 2010 State Budget Update today. While the report notes that many states are experiencing some level of stabilization in revenue collections, and beginning to be more optimistic  about the general revenue outlook, they are at the same time facing unprecedented pressures on the demand for services…


Federal Maintenance of Effort Requirement Makes State Financial Aid Programs Vulnerable

Both the American Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 and the 2010 Education Jobs Fund provided federal funding for education. In exchange for accepting federal funds, both fiscal relief vehicles came with Maintenance of Effort (MOE) provisions requiring states to continue financial support for higher education institutions at certain minimum levels. However, some forms of state…


November 30, 2010

California Projects Annual Deficits of $20b Through 2016

A new report from California’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), California’s Fiscal Outlook, details current California state budget projections through at least 2016. The LAO projects that CA will have to solve at least a $25.4 billion deficit for 2011-12, and will continue to face budget gaps of at least $20 billion per year through…


November 2, 2010

APLU Releases Regional Meetings Report

In advance of the 123rd annual meeting in Dallas on November 14, The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) has released the final report resulting from five regional meetings to discuss key concerns about the future of public research universities, one of which took place at UW Seattle on April 26, 2010. The report,…



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