Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Opinion: The trouble with big name, big priced colleges: They’re not worth it

Vanessa Bertrand always intended to go to a big-name, out-of-state school. She made the decision as a little girl, watching Cliff Huxtable on a rerun of The Cosby Show argue the merits of Princeton, Yale, Howard, and his father’s favored alma mater, the fictional Hillman College, says the National Journal. The conversation that unfolded on that episode of the 1980s sitcom—a show whose run ended before she was even born—left a deep impression on the child, driving her to research universities before even reaching high school. And at 18, it informed the decisions she made about college applications and the way she ranked the most desirable universities.

“A school’s name opens more doors than many others,” Bertrand explains. “Not only did college open doors, but the school’s name did. So if you have Yale on your resume, it felt like an automatic yes, you’ll get a certain job. So I felt like Ivy Leagues would help me out more than certain colleges would.”

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Obama, GOP duel over rising college expenses

Romney says the government should spend less on higher education.

President Barack Obama would make tax credits for college expenses permanent and expand Pell grants for students from lower-earning families. The Republican team of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would emphasize the need to curb rising tuitions and federal education spending that are burdening families and the government.

The different approaches to coping with growing college costs highlight one way that Obama and the GOP ticket are competing for young voters. This important group leaned heavily toward Obama in 2008 and still prefers him, according to polls, though less decisively.

Tuitions and fees for four-year public colleges grew by 72 percent above inflation over the past decade, averaging $8,244 last year, according to the College Board, which represents more than 6,000 schools.…Read More

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College cost website raises questions about Romney’s higher-ed stance

Full Sail's CEO has donated nearly $50,000 in support of Romney's presidential campaign.

The for-profit Florida university that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney supports as a model for holding down college costs is one of the country’s priciest schools, according to a new Education Department (ED) website that helps prospective students compare tuition costs.

The College Affordability & Transparency Center, launched June 12, compares college and university net prices, or the tuition and fee costs minus grant and scholarship money given to its students. The federal website also lets students see where net college prices are rising at the fastest rate.

Full Sail University, a school based in Winter Park, Fla., has the third highest net price of all U.S. for-profit colleges, and it costs more for students than any public or nonprofit college, according to the Transparency Center’s online calculator.…Read More

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Bill would cut tuition by closing corporate loophole

Tuition for the University of California system is three times what it was a decade ago.

Democratic lawmakers are offering a way to help California’s middle class families cope with soaring college tuition: close a corporate tax loophole and use the money for scholarships.

But the “Middle-Class Scholarship Act,” which receives its first committee hearing this week, already is facing several obstacles.

Five out-of-state corporations are lobbying against it, and Republican lawmakers are promising to block Democrats from reaching the two-thirds majority vote they need in the Legislature.…Read More

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Calif. college votes to delay disputed 2-tier fees

The pilot courses would have attracted as many as 2,000 students, according to a school spokesman.

Trustees at a Southern California community college reversed course April 5 on a plan to provide classes using a two-tiered fee scale, voting to cancel a summer pilot program after students were pepper-sprayed at a board meeting this week.

Santa Monica College’s board of trustees voted 6-0 to halt implementation of the self-funded contract education program, which would have provided high-demand core courses at about four times the regular price. As a result, about 50 classes scheduled for this summer are now canceled.

The plan gained renewed attention this week after videos were posted online showing dozens of demonstrators struck with pepper spray April 3 as they tried to push their way into a trustees meeting. The issue served as a rallying cry for community college students across the nation who believe they should have a free education.…Read More

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California colleges, lawmakers turn to technology in face of budget crisis

Critics say Cal State Online is a waste of limited resources.

It now costs more to attend a public California college than Harvard University, and California campus officials are pushing for a centralized online learning repository and lawmakers are proposing a free open source textbook library that could all but eliminate students’ textbook costs, while state budget cuts threaten to make higher education even more expensive in 2013.

The open-source library – an idea that has long been pushed in educational technology circles – has become a serious public policy proposal just months after state schools raised tuition and fees as California faces steep budget shortfalls.

California State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, introduced a bill last month that would fund a comprehensive online library for the state’s 50 most popular public college courses. Students could access the books in the repository free of charge, or print a paper version for about $20.…Read More

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Obama takes tougher stance on higher education

Obama urges more transparency about the cost of an education and the success of graduates.

Access to college has been the driving force in federal higher education policy for decades. But the Obama administration is pushing a fundamental agenda shift that aggressively brings a new question into the debate: What are people getting for their money?

Students with loans are graduating on average with more than $25,000 in debt. The federal government pours $140 billion annually into federal grants and loans.

Unemployment remains high, yet there are projected shortages in many industries with some high-tech companies already complaining about a lack of highly trained workers.…Read More

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Obama to colleges: Keep costs down, or risk losing funding

“I intend to fight obstruction with action,” the president said.

In a State of the Union address that was as much a campaign speech as a call to action, President Obama challenged lawmakers to invest more money in education and research to “prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.” He also called on higher-education leaders to make college more affordable for Americans—or risk losing federal support.

Facing a deeply divided Congress, Obama appealed for lawmakers to send him legislation on a host of issues, including education, clean energy, housing, and immigration reform—knowing full well the election-year prospects are bleak but aware that polls show the independent voters who lifted him to the presidency crave bipartisanship.

The president contrasted the selflessness and teamwork of the American troops who took out Osama Bin Laden with the gridlock that exists in Congress.…Read More

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College tuition hikes fail to stop cutbacks on campus

The federal government has stepped in to help students from the lowest-income families, adding $17 billion to the Pell grant program.

America’s public colleges and universities have burned through nearly $10 billion in government stimulus money and are still facing more tuition hikes, fewer course offerings and larger class sizes.

Many college students are already bearing the brunt of the cuts in their wallets as they prepare for their future careers.

“This next academic year is going to be the hardest one on record” for cash-strapped colleges, said Dan Hurley, director of state relations for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.…Read More

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Americans worried by soaring tuition fees

The spectacular rise in US college tuition fees is becoming a serious problem for students and many American families as they grapple with the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, the AFP reports. In the past week Michigan State University announced a 7% tuition hike, Oklahoma State University raised its tuition by 4.8% and the University of Nebraska increased its prices by 5% for incoming undergraduates…

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