Without Financial Transparency, Colleges Mislabel Research Spending as Instructional
Public colleges spend public money, but college officials are reluctant to make information about their budgets easy to understand. That aversion to transparency makes it easier to pass non-instructional expenses…
The True Cost of a PhD: Giving Up a Family for Academia
In 2012, CBS noted the bleak future that awaited PhD graduates. From 2005 to 2009, American universities graduated 100,000 new PhDs but only created 16,000 new professorships. The average PhD…
Did You Know? UNC System Grads Carry Less Student Debt
Most students rely on loans to pay for college; colleges raise their prices, and student debt increases. Now, about 44 million students collectively owe $1.6 trillion in student debt. In…
No, Academia, Title VI Funding Is Not for Your Pleasure
A letter from the federal Department of Education has sparked yet another controversy on the campuses of Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This time,…
Did You Know? Repaying Student Loans Isn’t Onerous for Most Graduates
College students have taken on so much debt that many political leaders are declaring a “student debt crisis.” Certainly, many former students are facing a crisis as they struggle to…
Why South Korea Can’t Quit College
More advanced societies tend to have more educated citizens, which is one reason why politicians of all stripes call for sending more students to college. One country has taken that…
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Spends the Most on Athletics of All?
Fans in the Carolinas are crazy about college sports. Six schools in the Carolinas boast membership in the “Power Five” Atlantic Coast or Southeastern Conferences, and they often perform quite…
What We’re Reading: Western Culture, Groupthink, and Queer Criminology
Jenna A. Robinson, President Jacques Barzun’s magnum opus, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, has been a revelation—of my own inadequate history education. As the title says,…
Which Country’s Higher Education System Is Best?
Many Americans crow that our higher education system is “the envy of the world,” even though it’s nearly impossible to point to any proof of that. In truth, however, some…
The Mess of Federal Funds Is Changing the University
The modern American university has changed almost beyond recognition from the form it had even 100 years ago. It is larger, more “diverse,” more of a business, and more industrialized…