Increasing college costs and decreasing employment opportunity have produced an avalanche of studies regarding the value of college degrees. Sometimes more information is not better. A āback to basicsā understanding would be valuable to all. āNowadays people know the priceā¦
Real leadership liberates, never limits: it unleashes people to work with passion. Effective universities recognize that strength in academic programs exists on the ground, with engaged faculty, staff, and students working towards common university goals. Good managers empower their employeesā¦
Public university boards, and the presidents or chancellors they appoint, have a delicate line to walk between the political realities of contemporary higher education and the academic realities of effective universities. The nexus of politics and academics is not alwaysā¦
We have begun to hold a readily visible evidence of education, the degree or certification, as valuable in and of itself. But these are emblems too often having little to do with knowing something or having the ability to doā¦
Universities, especially public universities, have a responsibility to leave ideology behind and focus on ideas. This does not mean that ideology is not valuable to individuals, but it should take a back seat to ideas at universities. In too manyā¦
Fourth in a Series on Research Research creates interest and value for a university and its locale. “This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact: it is invested with allā¦
First in a Series on Research Learning creates ideas grounded in the past but hopeful for the future. History is the basis for discovery, and it relentlessly repeats itself absent new ideas and insight: Forward focused investigation and research. Whenā¦
Universities systematically misrepresent the value of a degree. All degrees may have some value, but how much, to whom? University leadership should help students decide what works for them and why. The idea that any degree under any circumstances hasā¦
Service from universities to the extended community always has value. The best universities have codified a service imperative into their mission statements and are committed to providing insight and ideas to the community through individual students, faculty, and staff. “Theā¦
The work of higher education is fairly simple. Teachers teach, students learn and benefits accrue; individually, corporately, and socially. As student abilities, backgrounds, needs, and aspirations change, so too must our approaches to teaching. Or, there will be no learning.ā¦
Governance — leadership in a word — in the froth of forces at work in a contemporary public university seems unattainable. The job of mayor and Governor is becoming more and more like the job of university president, which Iā¦
Tenth in the series, Follow the money From Boston to Austin and Oxford, Mississippi, to West Lafayette, Indiana, big and small, prosperous or starving, universities are married to communities, for better or worse. When one hurts, both do. āThe relationshipā¦
Our universities exist to educate and separate. Education is essentially a process of separation. Ignorance is separated and eliminated through insight. Students willing to submit to the process of an education should have the opportunity. This is a social obligation,ā¦
Seventh and final in a series on state funding for higher education Value in higher education will make more thoughtful and careful students out of those in attendance.Ā People will be asking why ever more frequently.Ā Leadership better have goodā¦
Sixth in a series on state funding for higher education If we measure the value of an educational institution solely by the number students enrolled, the number of degrees produced, the research dollars garnered, the books written, the paintings orā¦
Fifth in a series on state funding for higher education Chester Dunning, an acquaintance of mine, understands the value of faculty work in a free society.Ā He is quoted in a WSJ piece, Putting a Price on Professors: Mr. Dunningā¦
Fourth in a series on state funding for higher education The human drive to create profit, the Internet and other technologies, are endeavoring to transform higher education.Ā And in part, they have.Ā But digital interaction alone will never be aā¦
Third in a series on state funding for higher education Addressing how the Monetary Assistance Program (MAP) is affecting the students of Illinois, the IBHE Task Force observed:Ā The first issue is the increasing demand for financial aid. More studentsā¦
Second in a series on state funding for higher education Historically, while state contributions to the total operating budgets of universities have increased as a percentage of all spending, tuition has remained a roughly stable percentage of all operating costs.Ā ā¦
First in a series on state funding for higher education A fear held by many is that decreasing state support will lead effectively to privatizing state universities.Ā And while a few million dollars is a pittance to a large researchā¦
