http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html I commented on this piece because I’m afraid it missed the point. Here is what I wrote. (If you have read TeacherTeacher competency exams for holding UNIVERSITIES accountable and It Starts in the18th Grade you already know the essence of what I wrote in my comment.) As a math professor with over two decades teaching […]
Why many Americans aren’t getting jobs. WSJ Article…Visa Demand Jumps
April 2, 2013 by
(This post is closely related to my previous post WSJ Article: …Grads May Be Stuck in Low-Skill Jobs) This is from my comment on the article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324883604578396680112980530.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories While it may be true that in some cases the employer is seeking lower costs, the evidence clearly points to the fact that in too many instances, companies […]
Why Ph.D’s don’t get jobs as professors
March 21, 2013 by
I just posted an explanatory comment to: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/how-many-phds-actually-get-to-become-college-professors/273434/ The article was by Jordan Weismann Here is my comment. (The data I refer to shows that not many Ph.D’s get jobs as professors.) This data only substantiates what we in the business of higher education have known for years, “…universities give Ph.D.’s for reasons other than that […]
If even Harvard faculty are afraid of speaking out on issues of higher education, who will?
March 12, 2013 by
The following revealing quote is from an article in today’s New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/education/harvard-search-e-mail-accounts.html?_r=0): “…Most professors who agreed to discuss the matter … insisted on anonymity, not wanting to run afoul of the administration…” This is both revealing and worrisome. That’s because “the matter” that these (probably mostly tenured, highly compensated) professors don’t want to be on the record as […]
Article on Jobs and Degrees in Chronicle of Higher Education
March 5, 2013 by
The Chronicle of Higher Education (www.chronicle.com) does an excellent job of reporting. There is a recent article that describes employers views of the product colleges are, in general, producing. That “product” is, of course, college graduates. (I know that people aren’t products, but that just makes it sadder.) Here is a link to the article: […]
Student Debt
January 25, 2013 by
Yesterday’s Financial Times had an article today on student debt: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/74773c6e-5a49-11e2-a02e-00144feab49a.html#axzz2IuFScTqr The article notes that, in the past decade, student debt has risen over 40% – to more than a trillion dollars. I’m worried that there is a bubble – at the very least, a large misallocation of resources. We have an unfortunate combination of content deflation and tuition inflation. […]
Are Trustees Too Focused On Investments to the Detriment of the Educational Mission?
January 10, 2013 by
Here is a link to an article about university endowments, followed by my comments and some interesting links. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/dartmouth-controversy-reflects-quandary-for-endowments/ What worries me the most about the size of university investment funds and its effects on Board members is not just that there may be conflicts of interest, but that some university endowments have become so huge that […]
Great post on The Atlantic Site about Law Schools
Here is the link: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-jobs-crisis-at-our-best-law-schools-is-much-much-worse-than-you-think/274795/ Here are more disturbing numbers. The salaries of those who reported full time jobs are extremely bimodally distributed – with well over 60% making less than $65,000/yr and 14%making about $160,000/yr and not a lot in between. (From the website of The Association of Legal Career Professionals. See their Salary […]