The state’s higher education budget is usually a mixed bag of “the good, the bad, and the ugly,” and this year’s is no exception. However, the legislature should be commended for addressing a number of important issues that traditionally have been neglected or overlooked.
The extent to which innovations such as open textbooks, textbook reserves, and skirting textbooks altogether and sticking to primary sources will disrupt the cartel-like textbook market is still unknown. But the speed at which new means of delivering written information are appearing suggests that textbook publishers’ best days are behind them.
Today, given the evidence we have of substandard learning outcomes, the longstanding assumption that colleges are adequately preparing students for life and work should be called into question by those who oversee our universities. If universities wish to avoid micromanagement of curricula, they must provide more information about learning outcomes. If they don’t do so voluntarily, pressure from legislators, governing boards, employers, students, and parents will likely force them to act.
Going forward, new technology will likely bring out the best in traditional universities by forcing them to justify their existence. If brick-and-mortar schools offer nothing better than the digital sphere does, they will be finished.
So far, Mitch Daniels has managed to skillfully navigate the treacherous waters of academic politics and actually get some things accomplished. By really leading, instead of following the pack, he may be paving the way for other non-traditional university presidents at a time when the status quo is no longer enough.
Today’s Pope Center commentary presents arguments by two distinguished writers on an age-old question: can entrepreneurship be taught or is it hard-wired into us? The first argument, by former university president and economist James V. Koch, suggests that entrepreneurship is primarily a matter of our inherent gifts. The second argument, by Buck Goldstein, Internet entrepreneur and “Entrepreneur in Residence” at UNC-Chapel Hill, suggests that entrepreneurship is more a “habit of mind” that can be developed.
Today’s Pope Center commentary presents arguments by two distinguished writers on an age-old question: can entrepreneurship be taught or is it hard-wired into us? The first argument, by former university president and economist James V. Koch, suggests that entrepreneurship is primarily a matter of our inherent gifts. The second argument, by Buck Goldstein, Internet entrepreneur and “Entrepreneur in Residence” at UNC-Chapel Hill, suggests that entrepreneurship is more a “habit of mind” that can be developed.
There is a powerful lesson in the emergence of companies like Uber for those who wish to reform higher education. All the focus tends to be on political and policy debates, but meanwhile innovators are busy working around the status quo without waiting for permission or consensus.
Higher education is often an ignored issue in presidential campaigns. The 2016 campaign, however, may be different. The focus on higher education looks to be unusually strong, with issues such as student debt affecting many millions of potential voters and receiving multiple mentions in campaign speeches and interviews on both sides of the aisle.
The Pope Center asked four distinguished academics who have been involved with the peer review process as editors, participants, or critics for their opinions about peer review. Here are their responses.
