Posts Categorized: Commentary

Reflecting: Perspectives on the College Presidency

Following are perspectives from Stephen J. Nelson, who recently wrote his fifth book about college presidents, College Presidents Reflect: Life in and out of the Ivory Tower. Nelson is associate professor of Educational Leadership at Bridgewater State University and senior scholar in the Leadership Alliance at Brown University. NEJHE has published his thoughts on previous occasions: Tales from ...

Higher Ed Can Be Market-Smart and Mission-Centered

The cost and the value of higher education, the short- and long-term impact of student debt, the role of career preparation, and accountability for student outcomes are the subject of intense and increasing examination and debate. Every higher education professional I know is acutely aware of shifting demographic and business models in our industry, and the need to explicitly provide, and show,...

Another Brick in the Wall? Increased Challenges Face the Physical Campus

Presidents, trustees and senior administrators at New England colleges and universities all feel the pressures: keep tuition down, be competitive academically and make sure the physical campus draws talent from a shrinking pool of traditional high school graduates and new nontraditional students. Given resource limitations, something’s got to give and, for many campuses, investment in facilities...

New Directions for Higher Education: Q&A with Matthew Sigelman on Reading the Labor Market

In April 2013, NEJHE launched its New Directions for Higher Education series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices. Past installments of the series featured Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing & Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviewing: Carnegie Foundation Presid...

Striking a Bargain?

Impacts of MOOCs on intellectual property rights and collective bargaining ... Massive Open Online Courses (“MOOCs”) are free, online courses offered by institutions of higher education to individual users across the world, and in the vast majority of cases, without any admissions criteria. MOOCs are popular with individuals because they offer unprecedented, free access to the best ...

A Four-Step Plan to “Right-size” the Curriculum

Since the beginning of the 21st century, there’s been a growing concern about the escalating cost of an undergraduate education. With those concerns have come questions as to the real value of the education. Numerous writers have examined the return-on-investment (ROI) of an undergraduate degree; some writers, referencing the increased unemployment rates of recent college graduates, have com...

Wallflowers at the Revolution: Evolving Faculty Perspectives on Online Education

For the past decade, we have been mired in generalizations in debating online education. Broad, often anecdotal and generally unsubstantiated comparisons have been made about the virtual and physical classroom–often taking the worst of one in contrast to the best of the other. But the range of what falls under the rubric of online distance learning is now far too vast to support simple and sweep...

Federal Ed Official Briefs NE Higher Ed Audience on Obama College Ratings Plan

More from the NEBHE and Davis Educational Foundation Summit on Cost of Higher Education ... NEBHE and the Davis Educational Foundation convened more than 200 higher education leaders in Boston on Oct. 21 for a Summit on Cost in Higher Education. Jamienne S. Studley, deputy under secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, explained the Obama administration's proposals to rein in college p...

Lesley Models New Undergrad Tuition Strategy to Fight Sticker Shock

Since the bottom dropped out of our economy in the fall of 2008, family income has declined and, five years later, shows few signs of recovering. Nearly all net income gain over this time has gone to the top 1%-2% in the country. Unemployment, underemployment and anxiety about job stability continue to trouble millions of American families. University presidents rightfully argue that a college edu...

A Partner from Healthcare Speaks to Higher Ed

More from the NEBHE and Davis Educational Foundation Summit on Cost of Higher Education ... The more NEBHE and others focus on the "cost disease" in higher education and new business models to treat it, the more similarities with another sector arise. Like higher ed, healthcare is marked by always-rising costs and prices, complicated subsidies, varying quality, stubborn inequity, and hidden ine...