More on the College Bubble: Job Outcomes for College Graduates

By Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute/EPI International In a follow-up to last week’s commentary, an article in this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education reported findings from a Rutgers University study, which shows that recent college graduates are having trouble finding new jobs. The study of 517 students who graduated between 2006 and 2010 found that only 53 percent currently hold a … Continue reading More on the College Bubble: Job Outcomes for College Graduates

The College Bubble

By Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute/EPI International There is a great article on the Huffington Post this week by Amanda Fairbanks called Peter Thiel’s College Bubble Theory Gains Few Believers. Thiel is one of the founders of PayPal and an investor in Facebook. He argues that higher education is on the bubble, just like housing was, and it will quickly devalue. … Continue reading The College Bubble

Thank God for Charlie Sheen

By Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, EPI International/Educational Policy Institute I like him. Charlie Sheen. He’s a fun actor to watch. Of course, it must be easy to act in a sitcom about, well, your lifestyle and life. Nonetheless, he has done some great acting in Platoon and Wall Street and… Hot Shots… Major League… Scary Movie(s). I admit: this isn’t the most educational … Continue reading Thank God for Charlie Sheen

The Problem with Higher Education

This morning I sat in on the OECD Institutional Management in Higher Education Conference in Paris listening to a panel on the need to do more with less in higher education. The illustrious panel included representatives of Open University, Cisco Systems, and others, and was moderated by my friend and colleague, Peter Smith of Kaplan Higher Education. Continue reading The Problem with Higher Education

The Worst-Paying College Degrees

Yesterday, Yahoo Finance posted an article on the worst-paying college degrees in 2010 (see below). Among them are education ($35,100 starting; $54,900 mid-career), special education, child and family studies, and social work. For those of you that follow the trends on return on investment from advanced degrees, the stable outcome of the past decade-plus is that only advanced degrees, such as law, medicine, and other professional levels, are beating inflation. BAs are holding steady, but anything else, including the now-vaulted associate degrees, are losing ground. Continue reading The Worst-Paying College Degrees