College athletics is big business. And head coaches of successful teams have the salaries to prove it, particularly in football and men’s basketball. Although sports are canceled, for now, it’s worth taking a look at spending on coaches’ salaries. Across the UNC system, the average pay of head coaches varies widely. The table below shows … Continue reading “Did You Know? The Highest Coaching Salaries in the UNC System”
Education has lost one its most important disruptors: Clayton Christensen, PhD and distinguished professor at Harvard Business School. After a successful career as the CEO of CPS Technologies, Christensen returned to school at age 40 to earn his PhD in business from Harvard University. He became a well-known scholar, particularly for his key contributions to … Continue reading “American Education Just Lost a Great Champion of Innovation”
College sports are a gigantic entertainment business that have nothing to do with the missions of the schools. Frequently, the highest-paid employee of a school is the football or basketball coach, and the athletics budget is hugely subsidized by fees paid by financially strapped students. Players who read and write at a middle-school level (if … Continue reading “How College Sports Turned into a Corrupt Mega-Business”
Once a hot degree, the MBA is now being questioned by more and more people. Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler, for example, recently wrote that “the cost is prohibitive.” As a professor who teaches in the now questionable program, please allow me to provide some insight. Before I go on, here’s your disclaimer. I … Continue reading “Some MBA Programs Are an Overpriced Credential, but Others Give Real Value”
Editor’s note: This is an abridged transcript of a speech Richard Vedder gave at a Martin Center luncheon on January 30, 2020. I will concentrate today on the economics of higher education—why it is so costly, and a few things we can do about it. When I entered Northwestern University over six decades ago, the … Continue reading “American Higher Education: Beset with Problems, but Solutions Exist”
North Carolina public universities are more than just institutions of higher learning. They are each small cities of young adults with Olympic-level athletic franchises, massive dining and fitness clubs, and special interest hobby communities supported by extensive human and physical infrastructure. To fund the many perks and benefits of university life, schools charge extra fees … Continue reading “The Ever-growing Costs of Mandatory Student Fees”
It’s been a couple of months since Randy Ramsey became the chairman of the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors. Since his appointment in October, Ramsey’s tenure has been enveloped in the ongoing saga surrounding the Silent Sam monument. But even though the monument consumes headlines, many other important issues go before the … Continue reading “A New Chapter in UNC Board Governance”
The federal government has grown in importance for higher education for decades. The most long-lasting effect could be its status as the lender of first resort for student loans. The vast majority of federal spending on colleges and universities comes in the form of making loans, dwarfing all other activities. Of the $120 billion supplied … Continue reading “Did You Know? Majority of Federal Funding for College Is for Student Loans”
Campus Food Insecurity Matters Food insecurity among American college students is a significant problem. While outdated stereotypes of higher education presume that undergraduates live on campus, receive stipends from their parents, and gorge themselves in campus dining halls, the facts suggest the opposite. Only 15.6 percent of today’s students reside on a college campus, at … Continue reading “Pro/Con: Is Food Insecurity on Campus a Problem?”
Private colleges that compete with public schools are scrambling to find a way to keep attracting students. To do so, freezing or lowering tuition rates have grown in popularity to bring in cost-conscious young people. Colleges such as St John’s in Maryland and New Mexico, Wells College in New York, and Utica College in New … Continue reading “Did You Know? As Tuition Goes Up, Some Colleges Freeze or Cut Prices”