Hacking College : 2012 February

The way to save the shrinking middle class

February 29, 2012 By Dean

Over just the last year 41 states have cut spending for public higher education. That’s on top of deep cuts in 2009 and 2010. Some, such as the University of New Hampshire, have lost over 40 percent of their state funding; the University of Washington, 26 percent; Florida’s public university system, 25 percent.

Rising tuition and fees are making up the shortfall. This year, the average hike is 8.3 percent. New York’s state university system is increasing tuition 14 percent; Arizona, 17 percent; Washington state, 16 percent. Students in California’s public universities and colleges are facing an average increase of 21 percent, the highest in the nation.

The way to save the shrinking middle class.

Filed Under: Community Colleges, Debt, Globalization, Money, Using College to Succeed

Gender Equity on Science Faculties Might Have to Wait a Century, Study Finds

February 16, 2012 By Dean

It may be 2050 before 50 percent of new hires are female and at least another 40 years before the actual faculty population is 50 percent women.
Gender Equity on Science Faculties Might Have to Wait a Century, Study Finds

100 Years!! That just seems WRONG!

Filed Under: Science

Marriage Suits Educated Women

February 12, 2012 By Dean

TODAY women earn almost 60 percent of all bachelor’s degrees and more than half of master’s and Ph.D.’s. Many people believe that, while this may be good for women as income earners, it bodes ill for their marital prospects.

Marriage Suits Educated Women.

Filed Under: College Life

Stanford Raises $6.2-Billion, a Record for Higher Education

February 12, 2012 By Dean

In a five-year fund-raising campaign that concluded December 31, Stanford University raised $6.2-billion, the largest sum ever collected in a single campaign by a higher-education institution, the university announced on Wednesday.

The money will go toward a variety of university projects, including 38 new or renovated campus buildings, $250-million in need-based scholarships for undergraduate students, 130 new endowed faculty appointments, and 360 new fellowships for graduate students. More than 166,000 alumni, parents, students, and others made 560,000 donations since the campaign began in 2006, the university said in a news release.

Stanford Raises $6.2-Billion, a Record for Higher Education

Filed Under: Money, Private Colleges

Bankruptcy Lawyers Warn of Student-Loan ‘Debt Bomb’

February 12, 2012 By Dean

In the survey of 860 bankruptcy lawyers, four out of five respondents reported a “significant” or “somewhat significant” increase in potential clients with student-loan debt; nearly two out of five said they had seen their potential student-loan-client caseloads jump by 25 to 50 percent in the past three or four years, and about a quarter had seen caseloads jump by more than 50 percent.

Bankruptcy Lawyers Warn of Student-Loan ‘Debt Bomb’

Filed Under: Student Loans, Uncategorized

Harvard Seeks to Jolt University Teaching

February 7, 2012 By Dean

Too often, faculty members teach according to habits and hunches, said Carl E. Wieman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who has extensively studied how to improve science education.

In large part, the problem is that graduate students pursuing their doctorates get little or no training in how students learn. When these graduate students become faculty members, he said, they might think about the content they want students to learn, but not the cognitive capabilities they want them to develop.

Harvard Seeks to Jolt University Teaching

Filed Under: Brain, Research Universities, Using College to Succeed

The architecture meltdown

February 5, 2012 By Dean

One of the coolest creative-class careers has cratered with the economy. Where does architecture go from here?

The architecture meltdown

Filed Under: The New Normal

Smaller Colleges Rely on Paid Student Recruiters Overseas

February 5, 2012 By Dean

Green River Community College, 45 minutes south of Seattle, has no special overseas cachet, no global name recognition — but it has enrolled 1,400 international students this year, most of them recruited by overseas agents who get 15 percent of the $9,732 first-year tuition

Smaller Colleges Rely on Paid Student Recruiters Overseas.

Filed Under: Community Colleges, Globalization

Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong

February 1, 2012 By Dean

Taking notes during class? Topic-focused study? A consistent learning environment? All are exactly opposite the best strategies for learning. Really, I recently had the good fortune to interview Robert Bjork, director of the UCLA Learning and Forgetting Lab, distinguished professor of psychology, and massively renowned expert on packing things in your brain in a way that keeps them from leaking out. And it turns out that everything I thought I knew about learning is wrong.