Governance

University boards have the primary responsibility for ensuring fidelity to the institution’s mission, managing university finances, and setting personnel policies. The following articles expose poor governance practices and identify policies that keep boards accountable to the taxpayers, students, parents, alumni, and donors whom they serve.

Dec 23, 2019 · Jenna A. Robinson

Books We’d Like to See Under the Christmas Tree in 2019

One of my favorite projects at the Martin Center is the cultivation of our small-but-growing higher education library. So far, we’ve collected more than 600 books about higher education and…

Dec 18, 2019 · AnneMarie Schieber

How Medical Schools Are Polarizing Tomorrow’s Doctors

To be a successful doctor, it is no longer enough to make an accurate diagnosis and recommend an effective treatment. Today’s medical schools want their students to be well-versed in…

Dec 16, 2019 · David Randall

The Continual Creep of Social Justice into Higher Education

Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a December 6 speech at an event hosted by the National Association of Scholars and the Martin Center on social justice and identity…

Dec 11, 2019 · Richard K. Vedder

New Research Shows Federal Student Aid Is Worse than We Thought

For years I have railed against the dysfunctional federal student loan program. The availability of cheap federal student loans has enabled universities to increase tuition fees aggressively, helping fund an…

Dec 9, 2019 · Shannon Watkins

Battling the Red Guards of Red Pedagogy

As education goes, so goes nearly everything else: politics, culture, and social cohesion. And those who form the minds of teachers—who, in turn, instruct young minds—arguably wield even greater influence.…

Dec 4, 2019 · Andy Smarick

A New-Schools Strategy to Fix Higher Education

It would be easy to conclude, after a quick look at some topline findings about higher education in recent years, that a set of misguided practices and policies has distorted…

Nov 28, 2019 · Madeline Baker

Did You Know? The North Carolina Colleges with High Student Default Rates

When students take federal loans to pay for college, the government declares them to be in default if a student doesn’t make a payment for 9 months. According to the…

Nov 25, 2019 · Preston Cooper

The Majors that Pay and the Degrees that Don’t for Graduates

The College Scorecard, a Department of Education initiative that publishes data on student debt and earnings after graduation for thousands of schools, just got a major update. Previously, the Scorecard’s…

Nov 21, 2019 · Madeline Baker

Did You Know? The Biggest NC Endowments Keep Growing

A college endowment is a fund where an institution keeps its financial assets and donations and can invest that money for the college’s long-term stability. In North Carolina, the largest…

Nov 20, 2019 · Jonathan Butcher

Conserve Free Speech on Campus

Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from The Not-So-Great Society, published by the Heritage Foundation. Who cares that 20 students at the University of Wisconsin staged a protest in October…