Meeting President Obama’s goal of making the United States the nation with the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020 will be difficult for colleges but possible. The greater challenge for higher education might be keeping up with the nation’s shifting political and economic landscape. To reach the president’s goal will require 3 percent to 4 percent annual growth in the number of degrees that colleges award… While researchers found a particular set of problems for each state considered in the study, a common theme was that in most cases there was little coordination among institutions, higher-education agencies, and elected officials. Washington State, for example, has a well-developed master plan, but the Higher Education Coordinating Board was dismantled by the governor this year and institutions were given greater authority to set tuition. Without coordination, the researchers conclude, the number of baccalaureate degrees is unlikely to improve, and institutional financial aid is likely to decline. That situation is similar to that of California, where Gov. Jerry Brown used a line-item veto to eliminate the state’s Postsecondary Education Commission, raising concerns that more than 30 years of data on student performance could be lost.

Read full article [here].
by Eric Kelderman, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: August 14th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.