Three years after U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling's national commission on higher education, and nearly a decade after No Child Left Behind revolutionized k-12 accountability, there is little agreement on what accountability in higher education should look like. While more students are enrolling in (and failing to complete)…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda seeking to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal, and administrative policies at the state and institutional levels. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, it is also…

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in the United States (the 50 states and the District of Columbia) and other jurisdictions, such as Puerto Rico. For IPEDS, a postsecondary institution is defined as an organization that is open to the public and has as its…

The authors find that college students are borrowing more and taking on riskier forms of debt than ever before. If tuition increases continue to grow faster than inflation and family income and grant aid fails to keep pace, the authors project that more students will be left with few choices beyond student loans--and, increasingly, private loans.…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional level. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, higher…

This paper identifies, examines and discusses higher education funding policy shifts that have taken place in Kenya. The paper argues that even though Kenya's higher education funding policy shifts, from free higher education to cost-sharing, and privatisation and commercialisation, are (to a greater extent) products of the country's encounter…

Congress has required that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report to policymakers about the progress of education in the United States. "The Condition of Education 2016" presents 43 key indicators on important topics and trends in U.S. education. These indicators focus on population characteristics,…

All private colleges and universities make strategic capital investments and consider the use of debt to fund those investments. From the commonplace purchase of photocopiers to the construction of new academic buildings or dormitories, investment decisions that yield long-term financial benefits must follow on the heels of careful analysis. To…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional level. At the center of these reforms is the need for more Tennesseans to be better…

This publication addresses the practical and strategic responsibilities that go with the position of board chair when both the chair and the chief executive are determined to raise the bar for their board as a corporate body. While the chief executive is primarily responsible for leading and managing the institution, the chair of the board is…

This study describes an investigation of the intellectual property policies of a stratified random sample of public and private Carnegie Doctoral Research-Extensive Universities. University policies were examined to determine whether or not they included provisions for distance education materials or courseware, what provisions were made for…

Access to higher education in Brazil is to a large extent restricted to the higher socio-economic groups. Public universities have limited places and entry is determined by highly competitive exams, thereby excluding those who have not had a high quality secondary education or attended an expensive preparatory course. There has been considerable…

A trustee identifies five lessons for governing boards based on six months' experience as acting president of Hamilton College (New York): (1) balance the membership of trustee committees; (2) seek, within limits, close encounters with faculty and campus leaders; (3) encourage critical thinking as well as cohesiveness; (4) encourage a systems…

This paper offers suggestions for ways in which private higher education institutions can work together toward common goals. The first part, "Common Framework," outlines a shared reform agenda. It identifies common commitments of independent institutions and stresses three shared goals: enhanced learning; a meaningful worklife for faculty,…

The 1990 Endowment Study of America's colleges and universities of which this is the executive summary covered a broad variety of endowment issues of concern to trustees and administrators. The survey was mailed to 450 institutions and 369 institutions (82%) responded. Results of the study showed that 367 institutions had endowment assets totaling…