August 27, 2012
Washington Monthly National Universities Ranking Released
Today, the Washington Monthly released its 2012 national university rankings. Unlike the better known U.S. News & World Report survey, which considers only “widely accepted indicators of excellence [such as] freshman retention and graduation rates and the strength of the faculty”, the Washington Monthly focuses on schools’ “contribution to the public good”. It rates schools…
August 9, 2012
New Employment & Financial Aid Data Released
Yesterday, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) published a report summarizing fall 2011 employment data and academic year 2010-11 student financial aid data submitted by all Title IV institutions to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Here are some of the findings: ON EMPLOYMENT: Public institutions offered more employment opportunities to graduate students…
August 7, 2012
Another Depressing State Budget Forecast
Yesterday, Governor Gregoire’s budget office issued a lackluster four-year revenue and expenditure outlook for the state’s near general fund. The coming 2013-15 biennium (FY14 & FY15), for which the Governor will release a budget in December, comes up short on anticipated revenue and long on expenditures. Before accounting for required increases in K12, across-the-board salary…
July 31, 2012
Credit Agencies Release Reports on the Financial Health of the Higher Education Sector
Late last week, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s released a revised assessment of the financial health of the higher education sector. Not surprisingly, both agencies noted that the sector’s financial risks have intensified since January: state budget appropriations continue to fall, operating expenses are outpacing tuition revenue growth, and diminishing family net worth could affect…
Harkin Issues Damning For-Profit Higher Education Report
Senator Harkin (D-Iowa) released a much anticipated for-profit higher education report today, detailing the sector’s disproportionate use of federal funds, predatory recruitment tactics, insufficient student support programs, and dismal student outcomes. The lengthy report contains alarming evidence that the colleges included in the two-year investigation – with few exceptions – engaged in behavior to maximize…
July 18, 2012
New Report Suggests State Budget Woes Will Continue
A new study from the State Budget Crisis Task Force concludes that in many states, anticipated revenues will be insufficient to cover mounting Medicaid enrollment caseloads, underfunded pension commitments, and local government budget obligations. The authors focused their investigation on California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Virginia. They predicted that anticipated revenues (from…
July 17, 2012
MOOCs, Plus a Sign Off
I’m moving on from the UW and wanted to leave a note here on the blog about how much we appreciate any and all readers and to say that you can look forward to even more authors and topics in the near future! As I exit, the news of the UW linking up with Coursera has…
July 12, 2012
New IPEDS Enrollment, Price of Attendance & Completions Data Released
Today, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) published a report summarizing enrollment, price of attendance, and completions data submitted by all Title IV institutions to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) in fall 2011. Here are some of the findings: Between 2009-10 and 2011-12, the average undergraduate tuition and required fees at 4-year…
More on College Affordability
The Institute for Higher Education Policy recently published a brief addressing the complexity and confusion surrounding the issue of college affordability. Written by Sandy Baum and Saul Schwartz, Is College Affordable? In Seach of a Meaningful Definition succinctly addresses several familiar issues: The conflation of increased or high prices with low affordability (where the former is…
June 25, 2012
Federal Report Makes Economic Case for Higher Ed
The US Departments of Treasury and Education teamed up to analyze higher education and economic data, and released a short report that highlights the following familiar points: Education is correlated with higher earnings: median weekly earnings for a worker with a BA degree are now 64% higher than for a worker with only a high…