The Right of Passage: A Day in the Life of a College Graduate

By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO of Educational Policy Institute and EPI International It’s 7:30am. We’re supposed to be at the Ohio Stadium to begin security screening for today’s commencement exercise for The Ohio State University. Before the afternoon is over, over 12,000 degrees will be conferred in front of approximately 70,000 people.  Over 70,000 people at Ohio State University’s Graduation, May 5, 2013. Today is … Continue reading The Right of Passage: A Day in the Life of a College Graduate

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

by Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO of Educational Policy Institute and EPI International This morning, an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, titled Why Professors at San Jose State Won’t Use a Harvard Professor’s MOOC, illustrates an upcoming shootout at the MOOC Corral. San Jose State University professors are rejecting a Harvard MOOC course that is being forced upon them by the administration. In a … Continue reading Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Why We May Not be the Envy of the World

 By Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy  Institute/EPI International Earlier this week, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria wrote a piece in Time Magazine (also in a segment on CNN) titled The Thin Envelope Crisis about US Higher education with consideration of the letters that are currently going out to over one million students regarding their acceptance or rejection. As Zakaria says, “For all the problems with … Continue reading Why We May Not be the Envy of the World

A Degree in Three Revisited

by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, President Emeritis, The George Washington University, and Gerald B. Kauvar, Research Professor of public policy and public administration, The George Washington University Because of increased financial constraints on all State supported and most independent colleges and universities one reads and hears more and more about the wisdom of fully utilizing existing facilities in order to lower costs and expand access.  Legislators and institutional … Continue reading A Degree in Three Revisited

Empowering Students and their “BigFuture”

By Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute/EPI International This week I was pleased to take in The College Board’s unveiling of BigFuture at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. BigFuture is a new, sophisticated, but-surprisingly user-friendly web interface developed by the Board in partnership with the Education Conservancy. There have been many career information systems and college search engines puttering around. Even … Continue reading Empowering Students and their “BigFuture”