HIGH TUITION/HIGH AID: CLASSIC ARGUMENTS PRO: 1. Increasing tuition is good public policy 2. States charge students less than what it actually costs to educate a student 3. This creates a subsidy for students regardless of need or family ability to pay 4.This is: a)Inefficient – because a large number of students and families who … Read more
The need to underscore this nexus of illuminating reception and constructive evaluation by the Arts and the Humanities is all the more urgent given the historical moment we face, a moment characterized by economic, military, ecological, religious and technological challenges of mighty profile. We therefore judge re-articulation of the extraordinary promise of the Humanities to … Read more
[Post by Steve Maurano] In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education piece, “Why STEM Majors Need the Humanities,” Neal Koblitz makes the point that more and more courses, especially entry-level courses, are being taught online. Koblitz notes that, while this may be good for an institution’s bottom line, it is usually not good for the student. … Read more
This is a three-part blog post; Part I covers the opponents, Part II the proponents, and Part III some examples of programs at peer institutions. Using a list of peer institutions and searching for other Core Curriculum programs, I discovered that many places have a one year interdisciplinary program that uses a liberal arts/humanitites approach. … Read more
This is a three-part blog post; Part I covers the opponents, Part II the proponents, and Part III some examples of programs at peer institutions. Part II: Proponents There are many articles readily found about the benefits of a more defined curriculum to prepare students better for advanced coursework no matter what their declared major. … Read more
Many of our peer institutions have been reexamining or redesigning how Western Civilization or Culture is taught. In particular, how it is defined as part of the core curriculum. There are books, studies and articles, both scholarly and in popular literature, on both sides of the argument as to the relevance of teaching Western or … Read more
[Post by Janet Castleman] “Making the Case for Liberal Arts Colleges,” an Inside Higher Ed piece by Scott Jaschik, summarizes findings by Richard A. Detweiler, the president of the Great Lakes Colleges Association. Detweiler has been involved in extensive research to document the positive impact of a liberal arts education. Based on interviews with 1,000 … Read more
According to a 2014 EAB (Education Advisory Board) White Paper, some large companies are turning the search for well-roundedness into a formulaic process. Employers like IBM, IDEO, and Cisco are spearheading initiatives to hire what are being called “T-shaped professionals.” T-shaped professionals are said to possess soft skills or universal competencies (e.g., communication and collaboration … Read more
2026, The Decade Ahead, divided into three sections, provides a picture of changes ahead for higher education over the next ten years. Section one examines the demographic changes coming to campuses. It points out that the supply-demand problem will be particularly acute in the Northeast and Midwest, which are home to a greater concentration of … Read more
