Women outnumber men in higher education at record levels. According to enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse, women comprised 59.5 percent of college students at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year. Men only made up 40.5 percent of college students. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, this enrollment gap between men … Continue reading “Did You Know? Large Enrollment Gap Between Men and Women”
While community colleges are known as a low-cost path to higher education, some might be shocked to learn that their enrollments took a steeper hit than the four-year sector in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Usually, economic downturns help the two-year sector’s enrollments when learners are attracted by the more affordable tuition and … Continue reading “To Survive, Community Colleges Need to Stay True to Their Mission”
Some student-athletes at UNC schools get admitted despite not meeting the minimum admission requirements. The university system counts these students as “exceptions.” The system’s universal minimum admission requirements—which are the same for athletes and non-athletes—have undergone some recent changes. In March 2020, the board of governors voted to temporarily change the minimum requirements (as a … Continue reading “Did You Know? Some UNC Student-Athletes Don’t Meet Minimum Admission Requirements”
In recent years, American universities have come under fire for frequent mistreatment of speech on their campuses. Often, this mistreatment is a result of restrictive or ill-defined speech codes—policies that stifle any speech that would otherwise be protected in general society. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has found in their annual speech … Continue reading “Federal Bill May Bolster Campus Free Speech, But Will it Go Anywhere?”
Many colleges and universities are closing or merging throughout the United States. Since 2016, 70 institutions have closed, merged, or are planning to close or merge in the coming years. Forty-eight of the 70 institutions closed entirely, while the other 22 merged with other institutions. Some consolidations of public institutions and all for-profit colleges were … Continue reading “Did You Know? College Closures And Mergers Since 2016”
As Oscar Wilde tells us, “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” This is especially true of bureaucracies on college campuses. Once their seeds are planted, their growth often continues without check. Administrative offices have been growing on college campuses since the 1980s, undoubtedly contributing to the increasing cost of a degree. Besides … Continue reading “Do Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Offices Achieve Their Stated Goals?”
Editor’s note: The following article was originally published at Legal Insurrection on August 8, 2021. On July 29, 2021, I gave a presentation on “Fighting Smart Against Critical Race Theory In Education” to over 100 state legislators at the American Legislative Exchange Council annual meeting in Salt Lake City. The invitation to speak grew out of the publicity generated … Continue reading “The Fight over Critical Race Theory in Education: A Fight for Our National Survival”
Conservative thinkers are mostly united on the need for reforming the American college system, but they’re divided on how to do it. It can be hard to pin down, exactly, what is to be done, as the Martin Center has previously reported. So it may be worthwhile to step back and look at what proposals … Continue reading “Renewing the University: A Pro/Con of Proposals”
Student debt isn’t necessarily always bad. For some, taking out the necessary amount of loans to fund one’s education may be a prudent decision. But before taking out a loan, students should consider how much they actually need to borrow, from whom they should borrow, and whether they will likely be able to repay the … Continue reading “North Carolina Aims to Halt Predatory Student Loan Lending”
State legislatures are taking up higher education reform. Sometimes higher education reform consists of attempts to regulate what happens on college campuses, such as laws that prohibit universities from requiring students to believe the tenets of critical race theory. Sometimes, as occurred recently in Idaho, state legislatures cut budgets or impose tuition freezes on universities taken … Continue reading “Academic Freedom Doesn’t Shield Universities From Oversight”