The "New England Journal of Higher Education" ("NEJHE") Executive Editor John O. Harney had the chance to catch up with Lasell College President Michael Alexander about the small Newton, Massachusetts, college's plans to challenge the higher education business model. The interview is presented in this article.

Like many of her classmates, the author was a first-generation student, but that meant something quite different in the late 1960s than it does now. When she attended, college, the jobs parents had with high school degrees allowed them to provide considerable support for college educations. Paying for college was difficult but not as difficult as…

In April 2013, "NEJHE" launched its "New Directions for Higher Education series" to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices. In this installment, DiSalvio interviews Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), an association of…

The problem facing American colleges and universities is larger than even the term "bubble" implies. A bursting bubble would force change on the more than four thousand postsecondary institutions in the United States, but something even more destructive is going to hit higher education, probably at the same time. The major sign that a…

After receiving his PhD in 1970, the author has spent almost 30 years conducting research on the economics of higher education, chairing faculty budget committees at Cornell, serving as a Cornell vice president and then as a trustee of both Cornell and SUNY, and being associated with innumerable national commissions and higher education…

Frequently overlooked in the discussion of whether there is or is not a higher education bubble are community colleges--despite the fact that this sector within public higher education represents 43 percent of first-time freshman and 44 percent of all undergraduates. For the most part, the "bubble" discussion has focused on whether the…

From the halls of Congress to the kitchen tables of American families, that long-simmering complaint--Why does college cost so much?--is getting louder and more urgent. As a slew of recent reports, public forums, and growing media interest suggest, the rising cost of college looms larger and larger as a personal and national concern. In this…

The public has become all too aware of the term "bubble" to describe an asset that is irrationally and artificially overvalued and cannot be sustained. The dot-com bubble burst by 2000. More recently the overextended housing market collapsed, helping to trigger a credit meltdown. The stock market has declined more than 30 percent in the past year,…

At least one private college, Bennington College (Vermont), has cut tuition, as part of a larger restructuring project. More may follow suit, in hopes of attracting more students. Guidelines to help institutions determine whether such a strategy could be cost effective for them are offered. (MSE)

Faced by growing inequality in American society and the stratifying aspects of early education, elite private colleges and universities that do not make a deliberate effort to open their educational experience to different kinds of individuals are disproportionately likely to enroll children from financially and academically privileged families.…

To avoid antitrust liability, private university administrators and counsel must limit the exchange of financial-aid and tuition information among their institutions and competitors. On a much broader scale, colleges and universities must strive to improve their images and regain public confidence and support. (Author/MSE)

Examines the recent decision by Williams College (Massachusetts) to freeze tuition. Notes effect of the booming economy on the value of institutional endowments. Suggests that the school's exercise of price leadership is unlikely to foster the needed discussion of college pricing, but rather will be seen by peer institutions as a brief misbegotten…

The origins and development of the free market theory of education are examined, and the problems in the trend toward increased privatization and reduced public funding of higher education are discussed, especially for the Australian system. (MSE)

Colleges charge different prices to insure that able students can have access to an excellent education, regardless of their families' incomes. Price discrimination, charging two different customers two different prices for exactly the same item only because the people differ in ability to pay, is discussed. (MLW)

The plight of private colleges that cannot pass inflation on to the taxpayer as the public institutions can is discussed. A proposal is presented that the four-year public sector be redefined as one that receives not more than a 50-percent tax subsidy. (MLW)