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Higher Education
For the second time in three years, Education Writers Association conducted a survey of higher education reporters across the country to examine and consider trends in higher education. The two surveys are part of a project, funded by the Lumina Foundation on Education, that aims to raise media awareness and knowledge of higher education issues.
View the survey report here
View a summary of the survey here
View the survey here
About one quarter of American adults hold baccalaureate degrees, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, while another 20 percent attended college for at least a year or received an associate degree. The 2000 Census, in fact, says that education attainment is higher than it's ever been. And it should be, according to economists, who warn that more and more of the American workforce must have some college education to thrive in today's economy.
The United States has rich variety in its institutions of higher education. A large city may be served by community colleges, public and private liberal arts colleges, and public and private universities with graduate programs and often research institutes. About 4,000 colleges and universities in the country enroll more than 15 million students. Their annual expenditures were more than $230 billion, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education 2003-04 Almanac, not including for-profit institutions. The nature of these schools, however, varies considerably.
There are three basic kinds of accredited colleges and universities:
- Public colleges and universities, both four-year and two-year, which account for 41 percent of the 4,197 institutions.
- Private, non-profit four-year and two-year institutions, which make up 40 percent
- Proprietary, for-profit schools, which make up 19 percent, up dramatically from a few years ago, when they made up only 9 percent of the total institutions.
Is it a "college" or a "university?"
What distinguishes a college from a university? Historically, university status was reserved for complex, research-oriented schools that offered extensive programs for graduate students. But increasingly, schools that cater primarily to undergraduates also call themselves universities because their administrators believe the term connotes prestige and, by extension, will attract money and students.
Public or Private?
Public institutions have traditionally been heavily subsidized by state governments, so their tuitions are relatively low. But as state budgets get tighter, less is available for state schools and tuitions have risen, although they are still a bargain They are run by state agencies with public governing boards, so reporters have relatively easy access to their meetings, data and records.
Community and technical colleges, which often also receive money from their local governments, are often overlooked on the higher education beat. But they offer a wealth of stories because they serve students from diverse backgrounds, from young mothers trying to get off welfare to retirees training for new jobs to precocious high-school students trying to get a jump on college.
Programs at these schools range from vocational training and continuing education to a freshman and sophomore curriculum that can be transferred to a four-year college and applied toward a bachelor's degree. Many states are building "school-to-work'' programs that link community colleges with high schools to provide more advanced vocational and academic training. Community colleges are one of the fastest growing sectors of higher education -- total enrollments almost doubled from 1972 through 1990. In 1999, more than 4.1 million students were enrolled in two-year community and technical colleges; about 40 percent were ages 25 and over.
These colleges continue to grow as they expand and build branch campuses. More growth is expected as tight budgets force states to look for more economical ways to educate growing student populations.
Most private colleges are non-profit institutions that rely on private donations and tuition to cover their operating expenses. They charge much higher tuition than public institutions, and their meetings and records don't fall under the same sunshine laws unless public money is involved. Like their public counterparts, these schools include research universities and two- and four-year colleges.
Notable among the private, four-year institutions are liberal arts colleges, which confer mainly bachelor's degrees and stress undergraduate teaching. Many private colleges were begun by religious denominations, but most have since broken those ties. The exceptions generally are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church or Protestant churches, often evangelical religions. Some private research universities are among the most prestigious in the country -- Harvard, the University of Chicago, Stanford, Rice and Duke, to name a few.
Proprietary, or for-profit, schools are another part of the beat that often are overlooked. But this fast-growing segment of higher education bears watching. Traditionally, these schools offered technical and vocational curricula, although some are expanding to offer bachelor's and master's degrees. Some of these schools, which once were owned locally, are being absorbed into large chains with central headquarters. And some are earning accreditation from the same well-regarded associations as public and non-profit colleges, giving their students more status when they apply to graduate schools. Proprietary schools often are targeted during discussions of student loan defaults -- although it's important to note that they don't all have high default rates. Like private colleges, proprietary schools often charge higher tuition than public colleges.
The distinction between public and private colleges has become a little blurry, a trend ripe for news stories. Increasingly, private colleges receive government research contracts, student aid money and in a few states receive state subsidies outright. Meanwhile, public campuses, wanting to supplement their state subsidies, are conducting aggressive fund-raising campaigns to build their endowments and affiliating with businesses to market the fruits of campus research.
Gender/Ethnic-specific schools
Other distinctions among colleges are the gender, ethnicity and, at times, physical disabilities of their students. Higher education was limited to men until 1833, when Oberlin College in Ohio began admitting women. Five years later (1837-8) the forerunner of Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts became the first women's college. Now, most schools are coeducational, although about 100 women's colleges and a handful of men's colleges still exist. Gender-specificity was a hot issue in the mid-1990s, when federal courts ordered Virginia Military Institute and The Citadel, two public military colleges, to accept women.
Another large, important group is historically black colleges and universities. Often shortened to "HBCUs," this group includes about 100 public and private schools, many of which were started in Southern and border states when segregation was legal. Lawsuits filed to desegregate public colleges in this region have led to recent controversial orders, and this battle is expected to continue for some time. While many historically black schools are very secure financially, some smaller and less well known colleges are struggling.
Another growing segment of ethnic-identified schools is the Hispanic-serving colleges and universities. This is a designation assigned by the U.S. Department of Education and based on the percentage of Hispanic-students enrolled. Qualifying schools often are targeted for special funds and grants. As the nation's Hispanic population grows, this source of money is increasingly important to colleges and universities in states such as California, Texas and Florida.
Other institutions with identifiable ethnic enrollments include tribal colleges, founded to serve Native Americans.
(Updated from original report by Holly Stepp, a former higher education reporter for The Miami Herald and former education editor for The State.)
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Education Colleges Cry Foul on Ratings
A nonprofit advocacy group is pushing colleges of education to participate in an effort to rate their teacher-preparation programs, but many of the schools are balking, arguing the project is flawed. Stephanie Banchero, Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2012
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Clashes of Money and Values: A Survey of Admissions Directors
Admissions counselors like to talk about finding the right "fit" for applicants -- a great match between a student's educational and other goals and an institution's programs. But a new survey of the senior admissions officials at colleges nationwide finds that this "fit" is, from many colleges' point of view, increasingly about money. Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 21, 2011
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The Shame of College Sports
With so many people paying for tickets and watching on television, college sports has become Very Big Business. When you combine so much money with such high, almost tribal, stakes—football boosters are famously rabid in their zeal to have their alma mater win—corruption is likely to follow. Taylor Branch, The Atlantic, Oct. 2011
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UC Takes First Steps Into Online Education
Going online to get a
college degree has been championed as a cost-effective way to educate
the masses and challenged as a cheapening of academia. Now, the online
classroom is coming to the vaunted UC system, making it the nation's
first top-tier university to offer undergraduate credit for
cyberstudies. Lisa M. Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, Aug. 17, 2011
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The College Payoff
A college degree pays off -- but by just how much? In this report, we examine just what a college degree is worth -- and what else besides a degree might influence an individual's potential earnings. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, August 2011
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Georgetown Study Links College Degree Attainment to Lifetime Earning Power
Women may dominate college enrollments, and may soon dominate the upper echelons of the U.S. workforce. But they need more degrees than men do in order to earn the same amount of money. Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, Aug. 5, 2011
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Student Teaching Across the Nation
Student teaching serves as a capstone experience for nearly 200,000 teacher candidates each year. In an effort to understand how to get student teaching "right," the National Center on Teacher Quality embarked on an ambitious effort to measure student teaching programs nationwide, assessing the degree to which they have the right pieces in place necessary for delivering a high quality program. Julie Greenberg, Laura Pomerance and Kate Walsh, NCTQ, July 2011
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Report Indicates Americans Are Undereducated
The United States has been underproducing college-going workers since 1980, according to a new report by Georgetown University researchers. Supply has failed to keep pace with growing demand, and as a result, income inequality has grown precipitously. Anthony P. Carnevale and Stephen J. Rose, Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, June 27, 2011
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3-year College Degree Programs Not Catching On
Reformers have hailed the three-year degree as the potential salvation of higher education: a rewrite of the academic calendar that lowers the price of college by compressing it into 36 months. But students have not responded, and most three-year degree programs have flopped. Daniel de Vise, Washington Post, June 15, 2011
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How Educated Are State Legislators?
It's a tension that dates to the founding of the country: In our representative democracy, should those who make the laws reflect the entire citizenry, or should they be chosen from an educated elite? Scott Smallwood and Alex Richards, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 12, 2011
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Concessions or a Cave-In?
After 10 months, more than 100 meetings with for-profit colleges and other stakeholders and 90,000 written comments, the Education Department today formally unveiled its second attempt to craft a new system for determining whether vocational programs prepare their graduates for "gainful employment." Libby A. Nelson, Inside Higher Ed, June 2, 2011
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The University Has No Clothes
The notion that a college degree is essentially worthless has become one of the year’s most fashionable ideas, with two prominent venture capitalists (Cornell ’89 and Stanford ’89, by the way) leading the charge. Daniel B. Smith, New York Magazine, May 1, 2011
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Higher Ed Research Claims Full of Mistakes
A provocative paper authored by a special research assistant to the University of Texas regents contains about two dozen errors, including quotes attributed to the wrong people, inaccurate citations and fuzzy data, according to an analysis by the San Antonio Express-News. Melissa Ludwig, San Antonio Express News, April 15, 2011
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Incentives Offered to Raise College Graduation Rates
In what amounts to a “Race to the Top” for higher education, the Obama administration is offering competitive grants and a new “tool kit” to help states increase their college completion rates. Tamar Lewin, New York Times, March 22, 2011
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Chicago Tribune wins privacy ruling against University of Illinois
A federal judge has concluded that a federal privacy act does not bar the University of Illinois from releasing information about hundreds of college applicants who appeared on an internal list of well-connected students, the basis for the Tribune's 2009 "Clout Goes to College" investigation. Antonio Olivo, Chicago Tribune, March 9, 2011
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Arabic, Korean and Chinese Fastest-Growing Language Courses at U.S. Colleges
Student enrollment in Arabic, Korean and Chinese classes is showing the fastest growth among foreign language courses at U.S. colleges, even though Spanish remains the most popular by a huge margin, a new study shows. Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 8, 2010
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A Stronger Nation through Higher Education
In 2007, 37.7 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 64 held a two- or four-year college degree. For 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, the number is 37.9 percent.While the proportion of Americans with college degrees increased between 2007 and 2008, the level of increase is not nearly enough to reach the Lumina Foundation's Big Goal. If the rate of increase over the past eight years continues, the U.S. will reach a higher education attainment level of only 46.6 percent by 2025, and the shortfall in college graduates will be just under 23 million.
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NCES Digest of Education Statistics
The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics created this compilation of statistical information produced by government and private sources on American education from prekindergarten through graduate school.
6/14/2007
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FEC's Campaign Finance Disclosure Data Search
Find out who's giving money to which candidates, read summary reports about the political parties and more at the Federal Election Commission's Campaign Finance Disclosure Data Search Web site.
6/14/2007
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U.S. Census Bureau Fact Finder
Web site offers tons of hard data and downloadable databases on education, families and related issues.
6/14/2007
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Admissions 101
This new Washington Post discussion board where people can "trade tips on winning the college admissions game" is led by education writer Jay Mathews.
6/11/2007
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American Council on Education
ACE serves as a consensus leader on key higher education issues and seeks to influence public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives.
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EWA 2005 Higher Education Survey pdf
For the second time in three years, EWA surveyed higher education reporters across the country as part of a long-term project that aims to raise media awareness and knowledge of higher education issues.
View a summary of the survey here
View the survey here
View the 2002 survey report here
6/20/2006
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Academic Pathways to Access and Student Success
The APASS project disseminates information about new and emerging academic pathways to help underserved students, particularly underrepresented minority, low-income, and first-generation students, make the transition to postsecondary education.
12/16/2005
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NEA Council for Higher Education
An independent organization for all higher education members of the National Education Association. Resources include various publications such as NEA Higher Education Advocate, Thought & Action and The NEA Almanac of Higher Education.
11/23/2005
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Higher Education Resource Hub
A comprehensive collection of information resources in the field of higher education.
11/23/2005
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EDUCAUSE
A nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.
11/23/2005
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Diversity Web
A compendium of campus practices and resources about diversity in higher education. This includes Diversity Digest, a periodical published by the Association of American College and Universities to provide campus practitioners with readily available information about successful diversity initiatives around the country.
11/23/2005
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Association for the Study of Higher Education
Promotes collaboration among its members, and others engaged in the study of higher education, through research, conferences and publications, including The Review of Higher Education.
11/23/2005
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Inside Higher Ed
Inside Higher Ed is an online source for news, opinion and career advice and services for all of higher education.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
A significant source of news and information on higher education, including a careers section that provides advice and job listings for college and university faculty and administrators.
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