Warren Wilson College is a tiny university tucked away near Asheville, N.C. But it’s a crucial part of a distinctive yet underappreciated segment of the higher-education marketplace: work colleges. As … Continue reading “How Do Work Colleges Work?”
Patrick Bet-David is no wallflower. He says what he means, and he appears to mean what he says. A major critic of the education system, he wants you to know … Continue reading “As Universities Falter, Grifters Prosper”
With North Carolina’s primary election right around the corner, the Martin Center has put together a guide to the elected officials who impact higher education in the state. While it … Continue reading “How North Carolina’s Elected Officials Impact Higher Ed”
On April 3, the North Carolina House approved a proposed biennial budget, House Bill 259, which the Senate is now considering. The plan provides generous raises for state employees while … Continue reading “Reading the N.C. Higher-Ed Budget”
Recently, I argued in a Martin Center article that the fourth year of study for the bachelor’s degree is probably relatively unproductive and that enormous resources could be saved by … Continue reading “Higher Education and the Law of Diminishing Returns, Part II”
Early in the introductory college economics course, instructors talk about the Law of Diminishing Returns. An illustration: A farmer has a 100-acre field on which he wants to harvest wheat. … Continue reading “Higher Education and the Law of Diminishing Returns”
In the fall of 2020, Cairn University in southeastern Pennsylvania implemented a revised core curriculum that introduced, among other things, a new required course in civics and government. Reactions to … Continue reading “How a Private College Mandated Civics Instruction”
Higher education suffers from a multitude of flaws. University marketing departments habitually over-promise the benefits of their degree programs to unsuspecting high-school students. Mandatory “general education” classes extract sizable tuition … Continue reading “No, There Is Not a “Neoliberal” Poltergeist in Higher Ed”
Two thousand twenty-one was a hard year for colleges: admissions are down, revenues are diminished, and four-year degree alternatives are achieving greater market recognition. In such a climate, colleges need … Continue reading “Freeing the Soul from Ignorance: Why Students Should take Hard Classes”
Editor’s note: This is part two of a series of articles. The first part can be found here. As outlined in my previous article, the current dominance of DEI-based policies … Continue reading “Reforming Higher Education: Lessons from the Literature on Innovation”