What is a college degree truly worth? That is the question that a new report seeks to answer. And it does so by distilling college into a number, expressed in dollars. "The Earning Power of Graduates From Tennessee's Colleges and Universities" is the latest effort to precisely quantify the value of a degree. It identifies the payoff that…

The author is dismayed to find that the liberal-arts curriculum--the so-called "core"--is under attack, especially at two-year schools. It "is" under attack, from legislators with no understanding of the aims of higher education; from administrators focused short-sightedly on the bottom line; from chamber-of-commerce types who read "college" as…

It is, once again, fashionable to declare community colleges the answer to the serious problem of low college enrollment and graduation rates for African-American, Latino, and Native American students, and for low-income students of all backgrounds. Nearly all the national discussions that propose community colleges as the primary solution,…

This article presents an interview with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. In this interview, she talks about her tenure and some key higher-education issues. She explains how some colleges do not recognize that they are on an unsustainable path. She also discusses how Americans must get out of the mind-set that college is a traditional…

The California State University campus at Long Beach graduated 8,720 students last month. Each one got the opportunity to walk the stage, and F. King Alexander, the university's president, shook every hand. California State at Long Beach has made graduating a greater number of its 38,000 students its top priority. The slogan "Graduation…

The federal government's recent focus on making institutions prove their academic quality has left community colleges feeling vulnerable, uncertain about how to demonstrate their value to students and worried about losing crucial taxpayer support as their enrollments rise in a sagging economy. This article reports that community-college leaders…

The pursuit of institutional prestige has done little to improve the reputations of most colleges, and it may be causing many of them to become less distinguishable from their competitors, new research shows. In one study presented at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Kyle V. Sweitzer, a data-resource…

Educational exchanges and fellowships are not new; the best known, the Fulbright Program, is more than 60 years old. But the Community College Summit Initiative Program, as this fledgling effort is known, reflects a growing recognition among American government officials that the United States must do a better job in its public-diplomacy outreach…

The Education Department released a report last week, "Parent Expectations and Planning for College," that offers new insights into the factors influencing whether parents expect their children to enroll at four-year colleges. It suggests that many young people who could succeed at such institutions are not being encouraged by their families or…

Community colleges pride themselves on their open-door policies. For decades, access and enrollment, especially of traditionally underserved students, were their key markers of success. In recent years, lawmakers, accreditors, and the institutions themselves have begun demanding more. It is no longer enough for community colleges to get students…

Describes plans of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education to publish (Fall 2000) its evaluation of public and private colleges in all 50 states in terms of access, affordability, and economic and civic benefits. Critics claim higher education is too complex to grade, but proponents predict that "bad grades" will lead to public…

Reports that all six regional college/university accrediting agencies have rewritten, or are currently rewriting, their standards to place more emphasis on what students learn, accept the growth of part-time faculty members, develop ways to evaluate the effectiveness of distance learning, and let colleges tailor accreditation process to their own…

European educators concerned with international higher education are experimenting with assessment of educational quality within and across national boundaries, particularly for purposes of international educational exchange. More and better information on program quality is needed, and some would welcome institutional or program rankings. (MSE)

Study examining the earnings of students accepted by elite colleges but who chose to attend less-selective institutions finds that students do not enhance earnings by graduating from colleges with high average Scholastic Assessment Test scores, suggesting that admissions decisions fail to account for intangibles such as students' ambition,…

South Carolina is planning to base all appropriations to higher education on performance indicators rather than enrollments and facility needs. The new law gives financial incentives to improve, and outlines 37 criteria for judging institutional performance. Institutions fear the system will be biased against them or not take into account their…