Aligning Education with Work
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY There is a persistent mismatch between North Carolina’s higher education outputs and the state’s workforce needs. In order to address this gap, policymakers must prioritize and incentivize ways…
Where Are All the Men?
The majority of students sitting in college classrooms today are female. Decades-long efforts to increase female representation in academia appear to have worked—perhaps too well. Women carry two-thirds of all…
Charting a Better Collegiate & Workforce Education Course
This policy brief analyzes North Carolina’s experience launching Project Kitty Hawk, a nonprofit project of the UNC System that works with North Carolina’s public universities to “build pathways for adult…
Policy Brief: From Empty Classrooms to Efficient Campuses
Executive Summary Colleges and universities across the country are burdened with inefficiently utilized facilities, leading to unnecessary costs, wasted space, and misplaced financial priorities. This policy brief, authored by economist…
Policy Brief: How Universities Should Choose Their Next Accreditor
Accreditation is one of the three tickets that every college in America must punch if it wants access to federal student aid (FSA) programs for its students. The current regulatory…
Policy Brief: It’s Time for More States to Sack SACS
Getting and keeping accreditation is critical for almost all colleges in the United States. Accreditation is third-party validation that a college meets minimum standards. Not only is institutional accreditation required…
Policy Brief: Higher Education After COVID-19
Before COVID-19, universities were already beginning to experience an enrollment decline, mostly fueled by demographic changes. The current crisis will raise existential questions for small and mid-tier institutions. Only universities…