Earlier today, Elyse Ashburn of The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote about the cost of higher education in her piece, News Analysis: Higher-Education Misperceptions, Myths, and the Media. In the article, Ms. Ashburn discusses recent findings from Jane Wellman’s group, the Delta Project. Continue reading Myths on College Costs and Prices? I Don’t Think So…
By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute This was one of those weeks. Started in Miami on Sunday morning talking with the Council on State Governments on the new US Common Core Curriculum Standards that are going through in the US. Moved on to New Orleans, where I met at the AACRAO conference to discuss higher education ranking systems, and ended up in … Continue reading Nights in Columbus
By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute I know it sounds like an Onion piece, but this is the major finding in this week’s release of The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2009 (see the related Chronicle article). Specifically, the Chronicle noted the following: About two-thirds of freshmen said they were either somewhat or very worried about their ability to finance their college … Continue reading Major Survey Finding: University is Really Expensive
By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime recently the US Higher Education System passed away, quietly in its sleep, of causes undisclosed to the public. The System, which leaves behind an over-bloated four-year system, an underdeveloped and underskilled two-year system, and an illegitimate proprietary system, had not been well for quite some time. To those … Continue reading The American Higher Education System: May it Rest in Peace
By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO, Educational Policy Institute Yesterday, the Education Sector released a new analysis of federal financial aid data (National Postsecondary Student Aid System/NPSAS) illustrating trends in loan burden and other statistics over the years. As one might expect, the news, while illuminating, wasn’t particularly “good.” The big conclusions in the analysis are that (1) more students are taking on more debt … Continue reading Drowning in Debt?
The Swail Letter on Higher Education 