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The most significant part of the bill for many in the two-year sector is the American Graduation Initiative (AGI), $12 billion in federal grant funding for which community colleges can compete. Even though the bill would also pour tens of billions of dollars into Pell Grants and other programs, higher education leaders have generally been tentative in their support for the legislation because they have yet to see how various accountability provisions might turn out in the final version of the measure.
We will need tests---they will likely evolve into national tests---that are aligned with the new standards. That means changing the annual tests already used in some states, and overcoming the still widespread view that national testing undercuts states rights. I have talked to some influential governors who think it will take at least five years to have national tests, which they prefer to call common tests, in the hope of avoiding that federalism issue.
There's a lot of handwringing about the cost of higher education in this country. Well, one entrepreneur has come up with a proposal to bring that cost down to a manageable number: zero. University of the People is free — it's 100 percent online. Can this school survive?
Called "Ready or Not, Here They Come," the forecast was presented at a commission meeting in Sacramento. It is designed to provide short- and long-term guidance to the governor and Legislature as they assess funding needs for higher education. The commission is responsible for statewide education planning and coordination.
Their flexible methods of delivering instruction — and an enormous amount of advertising spending — are enabling for- profit schools to build their enrollment levels with students who otherwise might have chosen the traditional, nonprofit colleges that have called Northeast Ohio home for decades.
Access, accountability and an "output" based approach to higher education are the pillars of our model at the Academy of Art University, but just because this model is working for us doesn't mean it will work everywhere. Elements of this model can and should be considered by education leaders as part of a new approach to higher education. Our country desperately needs the system to be changed to fit the new 21st Century world we are living in. Our nation's economic future depends on it. The American Dream is riding on it.
To that end, several states – including Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Texas and Washington state – are or are proposing to base a portion of funding on degree completion, rather than enrollment. And to make diplomas a little easier to get, 17 states last week formed a pact to ensure that course credits can be transferred from one university to another when students transfer.
The poll was conducted online by Knowledge Networks for Harvard University's Institute of Politics from January 29 to February 22. It examined the opinions and political ideologies of more than 3,000 adults ages 18 to 29, including college students.
Over all, 60 percent of those surveyed said they are concerned about meeting their current bills and obligations. About 45 percent of four-year college students said they are concerned about their ability to remain in college because of the strained economy, while almost two-thirds of community-college students said so.
Further, the data in the report show that within universities, Bologna implementation has moved to a more comprehensive approach. Asked whether Bologna degree standards were in place for all departments, 77 percent reported yes, up from 55 percent just three years ago.
In both surveys and additional research done by the association with site visits, European academics reported that the significance of the shifts was not restricted to how long it takes to earn a given degree. Rather, they said that the “harmonization” efforts, in which the various countries have tried to be sure that degrees in the same field mean roughly the same thing, have led to all kinds of curricular changes.
Leaders of a Florida community college are planning to create an independent university offering baccalaureate and graduate degrees, arguing that existing four-year institutions in the region are not helping enough of the two-year institution's low-income and minority graduates continue their educations.