In North Carolina, the golden ticket for resident college hopefuls is $1,000 yearly tuition at a handful of public universities. But while the offer looks shiny, the final receipt may stun new students. The General Assembly in 2016 made major tuition cuts at three University of North Carolina System campuses. The program, NC Promise, charges...
UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill expects to regain its clean standing soon. The flagship facility of UNC Health Care was placed on probation after receiving a preliminary denial of accreditation because of issues with psychiatric treatment. Its plans of correction have been accepted by the Joint Commission — an independent, nonprofit accrediting organization that certifies...
RALEIGH — The political interests of colleges and universities are adding to a growing list of problems for the schools over the past decade, and the free market will punish them accordingly, experts say. University cartels grasp for revenue and squelch accountability. The federal government is partly at fault for failing to publish data to help...
CHAPEL HILL — More than 10 years after the Commission on the Future of Higher Education assessed the plight of American universities, experts say the problems they identified remain entrenched, and new challenges strains educators even further. In 2005, then-U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, now president of the University of North Carolina, tasked the...
Pay increases that were awarded last week to seven UNC system chancellors reflect a national trend that tends to inflate salaries for public higher-education administrators, an expert on college affordability said. The UNC Board of Governors on July 29 voted to raise chancellor pay for the second time within nine months, a decision that system...
RALEIGH — Ten of the UNC system’s 16 universities were surveyed in the study covering 2010-14, and every one spent more than it collected in revenues — often much more. Of the 10 campuses, only UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University covered more than 85 percent of their athletic budgets with revenues from ticket and merchandise sales, financial donations, endowment profits, broadcasting rights, or sporting-goods contracts. The remainder came from subsidies, often paid with mandatory student fees.
RALEIGH — Markets tend to work better than government in helping to solve problems. That’s the idea economist Richard Vedder promoted to a group of North Carolina lawmakers during a recent visit to Raleigh. Vedder is a professor at Ohio University, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Vedder compared free-market and government policies during a conversation with Mitch Kokai for Carolina Journal Radio.
RALEIGH — People of all political persuasions have identified significant problems plaguing the American system of higher education. President Obama outlined some reform ideas during a back-to-school tour of New York and Pennsylvania colleges. But Ohio University economist Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, believes the president’s proposals fall short in some important ways. During a visit to the Triangle, Vedder discussed higher education challenges with Mitch Kokai for Carolina Journal Radio.
RALEIGH — Under the “high tuition, high discount” model, colleges charge high prices to some students while giving large discounts to students they hope to attract — generally brighter or more diverse students — while also increasing revenues. The idea has been around since the 1970s, but there are growing signs that it is unsustainable, and some schools are reversing direction.
RALEIGH — As faculty teach fewer courses, more of them are needed to handle the students who are enrolled. Nationally, teaching loads have been falling for more than two decades.
RALEIGH — Some pundits contend the United States needs more college graduates to maintain its position as a global economic power. PBS recently explored that argument with a panel discussion featuring former U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. While Spellings supported the notion that more Americans need a college education, George Leef, director of research at the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, offered a different argument. Leef discussed the debate and the topic with Donna Martinez for Carolina Journal Radio.
