Experts suggest ways to lower college costs

Panelists agreed that higher education must become more affordable and attainable.

Simplifying the student aid process, requiring colleges to share in the risk from student loan defaults, and using technology to keep costs down were some of the ideas discussed at a recent summit addressing college costs.

Higher education must become more affordable, accessible, and attainable if the United States hopes to increase its global competitiveness, said a group of policy specialists, government officials, and higher-education stakeholders at the College Savings Foundation’s 2012 Summit, a gathering to address the ever-increasing college cost conundrum.

“What you do in policy depends on what you think the underlying factors are,” said Art Hauptman, a public policy consultant who specializes in higher-education finances. “Is this a cost-push or a demand-pull inflation?”…Read More

Survey suggests need for campus innovation

Campus leaders must think outside the box to keep U.S. higher education ahead of the rest of the world and also control costs, survey respondents said.

A majority of Americans still believe that college is very or extremely important in order to experience the “American Dream,” according to a national survey that paints a picture of how higher education is viewed today. But 83 percent of respondents also believe that U.S. colleges and universities must “innovate” to remain globally competitive and keep down costs.

Last October, Northeastern University asked FTI Consulting to conduct 1,001 telephone interviews across the country to examine Americans’ views of college today. The survey, “Innovation Imperative: The Future of Higher Education,” revealed that nationally, 70 percent of Americans think that college is either extremely important or very important, and three out of four older Americans think that college degrees are more important today than in previous generations.

“Higher education is not standing still. When you hear higher education is not moving fast enough—think again,” said Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern University.…Read More

Pondering the future of MOOCs: What will they ultimately achieve?

In a field known for glacial change, MOOCs have landed like a meteorite in higher education.

In 15 years of teaching, University of Pennsylvania classicist Peter Struck has guided perhaps a few hundred students annually in his classes on Greek and Roman mythology through the works of Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus, and others—”the oldest strands of our cultural DNA.”

But if you gathered all of those tuition-paying, in-person students together, the group would pale in size compared with the 54,000 from around the world who, this fall alone, are taking his class online for free—a “Massive Open Online Course,” or MOOC, offered through a company called Coursera.

Reaching that broader audience of eager learners—seeing students in Brazil and Thailand wrestle online with texts dating back millennia—is thrilling. But he’s not prepared to say they’re getting the same educational experience.…Read More

Universities team up to offer students more course options

“These courses will expand curricular options for students,” said Daniel Linzer, provost of Northwestern University.

A consortium of 10 well-regarded universities has launched an innovative program called Semester Online that will allow undergraduate students to take online courses for credit through other universities within the group.

Current consortium members are Brandeis University, Duke University, Emory University, Northwestern University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University, Wake Forest University, and Washington University in St. Louis.  More universities are expected to join before Semester Online’s anticipated launch in fall 2013.

Delivered through a virtual classroom environment, Semester Online was developed by 2U, formerly known as 2tor, a company that partners with elite universities to deliver select for-credit graduate programs online; Semester Online is 2U’s first venture into online undergraduate coursework.…Read More

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