Pick a College and Graduate
The rising cost of college has been a serious issue in recent decades. Students everywhere are trying out different strategies as a result. Some are deciding not to go to…
Should English Majors Pay Less?
Institutions of higher education are bracing for a crunch, if they aren’t experiencing one already. Slowing population growth, mounting skepticism of academia, and various other factors have provoked college leaders—at…
How Do Work Colleges Work?
Warren Wilson College is a tiny university tucked away near Asheville, N.C. But it’s a crucial part of a distinctive yet underappreciated segment of the higher-education marketplace: work colleges. As…
Let’s Regulate Colleges Like Businesses
Colleges do not look like for-profit firms selling investments. After all, colleges are primarily nonprofits or state agencies, which, for our purposes, are treated equally. Nevertheless, colleges behave like for-profit…
How Long Can Universities Defer Maintenance?
You would think that the last thing colleges and universities need is more buildings—given declining enrollments, online classes, and changing attitudes about college. But that is not the way university…
How Workforce Education Can Boost Earnings and Fill Jobs
Republicans and Democrats alike agree about the importance of workforce training. They’re right: Despite a recent labor-market cooling, there are still 7.7 million unfilled jobs in the United States. Unfortunately,…
Blueprint for Reform: Surviving the Demographic Cliff
Blueprint for Reform: Surviving the Demographic Cliff is a strategic guide for state legislators and university trustees addressing the challenges posed by declining college enrollments and the anticipated demographic cliff—a…
Parents Aren’t Saving Enough for College
College has long been thought necessary for success later in life, and it is often assumed to be the best pathway for recent high-school graduates. While that may have been…
Thank a Taxpayer for UNC’s Low Tuition
Earlier this month, the UNC Board of Governors began an important conversation about possible tuition increases for some in-state undergraduate students in FY 2026-27. That shouldn’t overshadow North Carolina’s remarkable…
Colleges Are Wrong to Oppose Attendance-Taking
Are the men and women who staff America’s colleges rugged individualists determined to swat away the overweening hand of the state? Or are they simply greedy? An ongoing dispute over…