Kay Cunningham's List: Higher Ed and the Economy

'Raising tuition hasn’t proven the panacea for public universities, the survey notes. While more than 90 percent of all responding institutions raised tuition and fees, half of those surveyed said education revenues -- the sum of net tuition dollars and state appropriations -- still declined. Consequently, universities have reduced services that benefit students even as they’ve required them to pay more. Indeed, 55 percent said student support services were “harmed” by state cuts, and 54 percent said their ability to maintain academic programs and course offerings had been hampered by the reductions.'

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higher_education economic_downturn on 2009-11-12

'With the academic year in full swing, 26 states have now seen budget shortfalls that total $16 billion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Adding the initial and midyear budget shortfalls together, the collective budget gaps in 48 states total $178 billion or 26 percent of state budgets -- the largest gaps on record, the center reports.'

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higher_education economic_downturn states on 2009-11-02 and saved by 2 people

'A provision in this year's economic-stimulus law aimed at preventing states from cutting their education budgets may be having the opposite effect, according to a new memorandum by the Education Department's Office of Inspector General.
Under the law's "maintenance of effort" requirement, states that receive a share of the law's $54-billion in education aid must provide as much money for education in each fiscal year through 2011 as they did in the 2006 budget year. Struggling states that can show they are spending the same percentage of revenue on education as they did in the previous year can apply for a waiver from the requirement.'

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higher_education states economic_downturn stimulus_package on 2009-10-06

'Amid worse-than-expected job losses and an unemployment rate that hit 9.8% last month, new Labor Department data Friday showed the 21-month recession is taking a greater toll on college graduates than high school dropouts.
You're still far more likely to be employed with a bachelor's degree than if you're a high school dropout. But in a telling sign of the breadth of the recession, the latest data also indicate that the numbers of unemployed jobseekers are growing fastest among Americans with higher education.'

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higher_education college_graduates dropouts economic_downturn on 2009-10-06

"The fiscal crisis in California, the world's eighth largest economy, seems destined to jeopardise the integrity - and future - of higher education in the state."

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higher_education economic_downturn California on 2009-08-30

'At least a dozen states are reducing award sizes, eliminating grants and tightening eligibility guidelines because of a lack of money. At the same time, the number of students seeking aid is rising sharply as more people seek a college education and need help paying the tuition bill because they or their parents lost jobs and savings during the recession.'

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higher_education economic_downturn on 2009-08-12

'What's more, under the state budget compromise reached earlier this month, which slashed funding for the state's Monetary Award Program in half, no student at any Illinois school will receive aid for the second half of the 2009-2010 school year.'

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higher_education economic_downturn financial_aid Illinois students colleges community_colleges on 2009-07-31

'A forthcoming working paper by a Cornell University graduate student, Douglas Webber, and Ronald Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute, found that in certain instances, graduation and persistence rates are linked to greater expenditures on student services. The research findings show a higher positive correlation between graduation rates and spending on student services -- including things like student organizations, additional educational tools, and health and registrar services -- than between graduation rates and instructional or research spending.'

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students higher_education graduation_rates services on 2009-07-29 and saved by 3 people

'Many reported that over the last year, they have curbed their spending, seen a drop in conference attendance, and scaled back their programs and staff. The extent of the damage varies from significant to small, but on the whole, the losses add up to a shrinking resource in postsecondary education.'

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higher_education economic_downturn budget_shortfalls on 2009-07-29 and saved by 2 people

'As a result of unprecedented student demand and a dwindling state budget, small classes have become a thing of the past. Sections at American River with fewer than 22 students have been eliminated, and professors are expected to pack as many students into their classes as the building’s fire code will allow.'

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California higher_education economic_downturn budgets on 2009-07-21

'UC Berkeley will see recruitment of faculty drop from the normal 100 positions a year to 10. At 28,000-student UC San Diego, also ranked with Berkeley and UCLA among the world's top 20 research universities, recruitment has been halted. More than 300 UC scientists have issued a white paper warning Schwarzenegger that the sharp reduction endangers the 10-campus system's position as the premier public university in the United States and could have a negative impact on California's future economic growth. According to UC officials, the cut in state funding brings the "amount of state investment in the University down to $2.4 billion — exactly where it was in real dollars a decade ago." During the same time period, spending on state prisons has more than doubled to $11 billion.'

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higher_education economic_downturn California on 2009-07-19

"The California Faculty Association, which represents 23,000 faculty members, from part-time lecturers to tenured professors, will finish voting Monday on whether to take as many as 24 unpaid furlough days to help fill the university’s $584 million or 20 percent state budget gap. A “no” vote is sure to spell significant layoffs, but faculty complain there’s no guarantee the furloughs will preserve all jobs, either."

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economic_downturn higher_education California faculty adjunct_faculty on 2009-07-17

"Drew Gilpin Faust started as Harvard's president when the university's prosperity seemed limitless. With its ballooning wealth, Harvard planned almost frenzied growth, from a building boom into Boston to vast increases in student financial aid."

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higher_education economic_downturn economy Harvard university_presidents on 2009-07-05

"Expanding research may be a worthy goal in higher education, but doing so comes with significant costs that aren’t recovered by grants alone, according to a study published in Academic Medicine this month."

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research costs hidden_costs higher_education grants on 2009-01-07

"A National Science Foundation report released Thursday confirms their thesis, finding that federal spending on research and development declined in real terms from 2007 to 2008 and that 2008 funds for basic research dropped to the lowest level since 2002

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higher_education federal_spending research on 2009-02-07

"iTunes University, a website with downloadable educational podcasts, can provide students the opportunity to obtain professors’ lectures when students are unable to attend class. To determine the effectiveness of audio lectures in higher education, under

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podcasts education higher_education universities technology on 2009-02-23 and saved by 9 people

"Administrators at public colleges and officials in state higher education agencies were probably relieved that the compromise legislation would deliver a total of $53.6 billion in new aid to states over the next two years."

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stimulus_package higher_education colleges universities states on 2009-02-13 and saved by 3 people

"A compromise amendment worked out by moderate Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate late Friday slashed billions of dollars that would have flowed to colleges and universities in the Senate’s original version, with the biggest cuts coming in educa

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economic_downturn stimulus_package higher_education colleges universities Senate on 2009-02-09

"But cuts of $40 billion for state and local governments in the Senate version were a big disappointment for college leaders. House-Senate negotiations will determine whether education aid to the states is relatively modest or massive — and how much gets

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economic_downturn stimulus_package colleges universities on 2009-02-08

"The AUCC secretariat has compiled public statements made by our members concerning their institution’s economic situation and regional media coverage of this issue."

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higher_education economic_downturn Canada on 2009-06-23