Office of Planning & Budgeting

Higher Ed Policy


January 5, 2011

WA Higher Education Task Force Report Released

Last summer, Governor Gregoire created a Higher Education Task force, comprising both public and private leaders, and charged them with proposing a new funding strategy for public higher education, as well as new ideas for increasing institutional accountability. The Task Force released its report yesterday, January 3rd, recommending three major reforms to higher education policy…


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 9, 2010

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…


December 8, 2010

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 24, 2010

Elevating the College Cost Debate

As we reported last month, two economists at the College of William and Mary have published a new book called Why Does College Cost So Much?. We are almost finished reading this very well written and researched book and will provide our own assessment soon. In the meantime, the book continues to generate passionate discussion–see…


November 10, 2010

Should Federal Government Support a Regional Approach to Public Higher Ed?

The Center for American Progress released a new report, Easy Come, EZ-GO: A Federal Role in Removing Jurisdictional Impediments to College Education, that presents a bold argument for the creation of Education Zone Governance Organizations (EZ-GO), which would provide federal resources to help ease barriers to higher education for citizens of metropolitan areas that cross…


November 4, 2010

Emphasis on STEM Degree Production

Hi, my name is Anja Speckhardt, and I am a student assistant here at the Office of Planning and Budgeting, as well as a freshman at the UW. As a part of my job at OPB, I have been given the privilege to occasionally post to the blog about interesting topics Iā€™m researching. Today, I…


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,…


October 28, 2010

New Federal Higher Ed Regulations Published Today

Having weighed tens of thousands of public comments, the US Department of Education released today a final set of regulations governing various aspects of higher education. While primarily aimed at what are widely seen as abuses within the for-profit higher education system, the regulations apply to all institutions and are driven by the federal government’s…


October 27, 2010

Berkeley Report Provides Roadmap for ‘Smart Growth’ in Higher Ed

John Aubrey Douglass of UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education has issued a new report on the current status of higher education, and potential paths for growth and change into the future. In Re-Imagining California Higher Education, Douglass argues that the existing model for higher education in California (here representative of higher education…



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