October 30, 2012
Proposed Income-Based Loan Repayment Plan Helps Wealthy, Not Low-Income Borrowers
The New America Foundation recently released a report on impending changes to the federal Income-Based Student Loan Repayment Program (IBR). The report claims that these changes will benefit high-income, high-debt borrowers, not low-income students with moderate student loan debt (note that the current average undergraduate debt load is $26,000). IBR is a system in which borrowers…
October 29, 2012
California’s Prop 30 Loses Ground in the Polls
Last week, a Los Angeles Times/USC poll found that support for Proposition 30 is dwindling. Only 46 percent of registered voters now approve the California ballot initiative designed to deflect almost $1-billion in state higher-education cuts—a 9-point drop over last month’s poll by the same organizations. Meanwhile, 42 percent of respondents oppose the proposition. If…
October 24, 2012
Largest U.S. For-Profit University Closes Half Its Locations
The New York Times reported last week that the University of Phoenix will be shutting down 115 of its 227 locations over the next year—25 main campuses and 90 learning centers. The roughly 13,000 students affected by the closings (4 percent of the total student body) will have the option of either transferring to the…
October 23, 2012
Average Student Debt in 2011 reaches $26,600
The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) recently released a report detailing average student debt amounts for the class of 2011. Of the students that earned a bachelor’s degree that year, two thirds held student debt amounting to $26,600 per student on average. The highest levels of debt were found in the Northeast and…
October 18, 2012
Universities Propose Innovative Deals in Attempt to Stabilize Tuition Rates
A recent Insider Higher Education article describes the inventive deals that a handful of public universities are pursuing in an effort to keep tuition rates from rising. By offering tuition freezes in exchange for either (1) increased state funding or (2) individual student efforts to graduate on time, universities hope to meet public demands to…
October 16, 2012
New Study Suggests Liberal Arts Colleges Are Disappearing
A landmark study from 1990 classified 212 US institutions as liberal arts colleges, but new research shows a 39 percent decline in that number—only 130 institutions currently meet the original study’s classification criteria. Of the 82 institutions no longer classified as liberal arts colleges, a handful were subsumed by larger institutions, while about half had…
October 12, 2012
Overall Higher Ed Enrollments Drop, But Four-Year Public School Enrollments Continue to Rise
For the first time in 15 years, fewer students are enrolling in higher education overall. Enrollments at public four-year and private non-profit institutes actually increased, but falling for-profit and two-year enrollments pulled down the average. According to preliminary data released this week by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, colleges and…
October 11, 2012
Supreme Court Justices Hear (and Question) Arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in the landmark affirmative action case Fisher v. University of Texas (UT) (please see our previous blog for more information). Four Justices will need to support UT if it and, potentially, public colleges across the nation are to continue using race and as a factor in admissions decisions….
October 5, 2012
University District Livability Partnership Underway
Staff from OPB in partnership with staff from Regional and Community Relations are participating in a community-wide effort known as the University District Livability Partnership (UDLP) – a four-year strategic initiative to encourage investment for a vibrant, walkable University District Community. The UDLP involves University District residents, business, social service providers, congregations, the Greater University…
October 4, 2012
Getting Teenagers Hooked on Computer Science
The Association for Computing Machinery estimates that, from now until 2020, 150,000 new jobs in computer science fields will open each year. Despite such high demand for computer science skills, just 40,000 American students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (CS) in 2010. While the technology industry in Seattle has boomed in the…
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