A decrease in federal funding particularly affects research efforts in higher education. Federal support of basic research drives innovation. Only the federal government can make a strategic, long-term commitment to creating new knowledge that [could] to lead to new or improved technologies, goods or services,” said Julia Phillips, chair of the National Science Board’s science and engineering policy committee. “Basic research is the ‘seed corn’ of our US S&E enterprise, a global competitive advantage, and the starting point for much of our GDP growth since World War II.” The US global share of research and development has declined to 25%, according to the report. Asian countries are increasing their global share by focusing on rapid growth efforts in comparison to modest efforts by the US.

Read full article [here].
by Ashley Strickland, CNN.

Posted: January 17th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Senator and presidential contender Elizabeth Warren made headlines last spring when she announced a higher education plan that included student debt cancellation for 95% of student borrowers. That plan would—among other things—cancel up to $50,000 in student loans, scaling back that forgiveness for those individuals earning more than $100,000 annually. This morning, Senator Warren released a new plan that says she would be able to do this on day one of her administration. This new plan is built off of a legal theory proposed by some that under the Higher Education Act—the primary federal law governing higher education—the Secretary of Education can cancel debt under its “compromise and modification” authority.

Read full article [here].
by Wesley Whistle, Forbes.

Posted: January 14th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

A majority of voters said they support the idea of free state college and canceling student debt, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll released on Thursday. The survey found that 58 percent of registered voters said they would support a proposal that would make public colleges, universities and trade schools tuition-free. The same group also said they would back a plan eliminating all existing student debt.

Read full article [here].
by Staff, The Hill.

Posted: September 12th, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Christ became chancellor in 2017 and pledged to wrestle down the debt mainly by raising revenue, not cutting programs, a strategy that seems to have worked… Intercollegiate athletics still bleeds money, as it has for years. Football and other sports lost more than $19 million last year alone. But for the first time, campus officials say they’ll balance that budget… Not everyone is applauding. Leaders of the Berkeley Faculty Association, a watchdog group, say Christ is steering the public university too heavily toward private funding. “We applaud Chancellor Christ’s dedication and thoughtful leadership, but wish that she were a stronger advocate for restoring public funding,” co-chairs Wendy Brown, a political science professor, and Celeste Langan, an associate professor of English, said in a statement. “Public divestment from education has been bad for democracy, society, economy and the individual. On this issue, the chancellor seems out of step.”

Read full article [here].
by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: September 2nd, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC campuses from San Diego to Berkeley are reporting that Chinese students and scholars are encountering visa delays, federal scrutiny over their research activities, and new restrictions on collaboration with China and Chinese companies… The overarching fear is that Trump’s crackdown will drive away top Chinese scholars and jeopardize the kind of open international collaboration that has been a hallmark of higher education in the U.S., contributing to world-class research and scientific progress. Federal officials warn that China is exploiting America’s open academic environment to steal intellectual property and innovations.

Read full article [here].
by Teresa Watanabe, Don Lee, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: July 22nd, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In its latest effort to find a fair way to raise tuition — and avoid student protests every time it happens — the University of California wants yearly price hikes, but only for incoming freshmen and transfer students. The UC regents don’t yet have a plan to do that. But at the regents’ midsummer meeting in San Francisco on Thursday, university officials will float a trial balloon to see what the governing board thinks. Under that pricing system, tuition would remain flat as long as students are enrolled, perhaps up to six years. It’s called cohort-based tuition because prices would rise only for each group of new students.

Read full article [here].
by Nanette asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: July 17th, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

We will likely hear a lot of back and forth over the policy details during the Democratic primary race. Would the Sanders and Warren plans reach the neediest students? Wouldn’t debt forgiveness disproportionately help the middle class? Yet such criticisms, while well-intentioned, miss the emotional core of free college. The point, the red-hot sell, is that some things, like education, should be had by all — on equal terms. The debate over student debt is ultimately about our nation’s indefensible inequality.

Read full article [here].
by E. Tammy Kim, The New York Times.

Posted: June 30th, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Fees for the company that runs the digital learning platform ate up more than half of the online tuition revenue… 2U takes a 60% cut of online tuition from the social work program, and the contract carries onerous penalties if USC breaks the arrangement. People familiar with the agreement told The Times it contains a so-called poison tail that requires the university to continue handing over its revenue share for two years after canceling. Paucek, the CEO, has described the company’s agreements with universities as essentially “non-cancelable.”

Read full article [here].
by Harriet Ryan and Matt Hamilton, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: June 6th, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

A court case against the UC system over health benefits for retirees of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is expected to be heard by the Alameda County Superior Court almost a decade after it was first filed… “The retirees are on the verge of holding the University to account to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” Whitaker said in an email. He added that the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in 2015, when the first part of the case was tried. The profit that UC earns from the laboratory on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount that it would cost to provide health care coverage for the retirees, according to Sinclair.

Read full article [here].
by Kate Finman, The Daily Californian.

Posted: June 4th, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

“State support is critical for a state university, and nothing replaces that,” she said. “But state support has been decreasing for many years — decades really — and we are dependent more and more on philanthropy to provide the undergirding we need … to build the labs and buy the computers and equipment.” … Some question whether the growing reliance on philanthropy will inappropriately skew public university research priorities toward private interests. A $200-million donation by the Samuelis to UC Irvine in 2017 raised some concerns that it would be used to promote unproven alternative medicine. But the Samuelis did not specify how their new gift should be used other than to expand the engineering school, Murthy said. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said he does not believe the state will ever resume past levels of funding, which once covered nearly all costs of attendance.

Read full article [here].
by Teresa Watanabe, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: June 4th, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.