Changing student demographics, COVID-19 ramifications, and political pressures all underscore the need for organizational change sooner rather than later. While higher education has successfully resolved a number of challenges, it continues to be stymied by areas where needed change has not materialized. Even after repeated efforts, these changes…

Historically, it has been difficult for students and their families to compare how different colleges and programs improve students' chances of landing a desirable job and earning a good salary. The U.S. Department of Education's 2015 release of student earning data was a major step toward remedying this problem. The data offered by the College…

In response to rising college tuition and student debt over the past three decades, some institutions, localities, and states have implemented a range of tuition-free promise programs to promote college access and success. Programs vary widely in their design features, including eligibility stipulations and award structure. I explore the growing…

Tuition prices, as well as the living expenses students must cover, have risen rapidly while household incomes have grown slowly or even declined except for those at or near the top of the income distribution. As incomes have stagnated and the savings rate has declined, students have come to depend more and more on financial aid from federal and…

Recent headlines have brought attention to the effects that unfavorable demographic and fiscal conditions are having on postsecondary education institutions. Among those most acutely feeling the pressures are likely to be institutions located in rural communities that are seeing more rapid population declines and lagging median income. This…

Since the Great Recession, a number of public colleges and universities have become operationally vulnerable. In this article, the authors point to two related processes leading to this crisis in public higher education. The first is the recent deterioration of operational conditions for a number of public colleges and universities. The second…

The rising price of a year in college looms large on the American political landscape. Calls to make college free, or at least debt free, will figure prominently in policy and political debates going forward. To make sense of this debate, an understanding of the forces that have been driving the price of a year in postsecondary education upward…

College-provided scholarships, or tuition discounts, are in the news. The National Association of College and University Business Officers recently estimated that the average discount for full-time, first-year undergraduates at private nonprofit colleges and universities hit 50 percent in the fall of 2017. In other words, these institutions…

Substantial investments by states dramatically increased the scale and scope of public colleges and universities beginning in the early 20th century and provided subsidized post-secondary opportunities across institutions ranging from community colleges to research universities. Nearly 50 years ago, economists Lee Hansen and Burton Weisbrod opened…

What happens to public colleges and universities when confidence in the value of public institutions wanes? Nothing good, to judge from two new books whose titles telegraph the tale: "The Great Mistake," by Christopher Newfield and "Austerity Blues," by Michael Fabricant and Stephen Brier. This article discusses how the authors…

Community colleges and universities have traditionally functioned independently, serving their respective markets and offering different programs and credentials. Growing populations and workforce needs have inspired institutions of higher education to challenge their traditional roles to provide added pathways and opportunities for students. One…

Previously in "Change," William Doyle has argued that higher education leaders must face up to what has been called the "new normal": decreased state funding for higher education on a per-student basis and a prediction that funding will not recover to levels seen in the past. In this article, Doyle states that we have now…

As tuition levels rise, predictability is an increasingly important consideration of college financing. In this article, the authors explore contemporary policy tools intended to enhance tuition predictability. They specifically consider guaranteed tuition plans. The authors begin their discussion by considering the prevalence of guaranteed…

For many years, higher education institutions have been harvesting the low-hanging fruit when it comes to budget reductions and adjustments. Easier changes have often been made--such as cutting administration, using more adjunct faculty, contracting out inefficient or non effective auxiliary operations and so forth. Until recently such strategies,…

After two centuries of public higher education in the United States, the covenant between public colleges and universities and the public that created and funded them is under strain. In a time of scarce resources and changing policy in many corners of the country and around the globe, privatization has emerged as a possible replacement for the…