Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
MAE 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 5 (July)
Private Colleges to Face Economic Challenges
Despite generally stable enrollments at most institutions so far during the economic downturn, Moody’s Investors Service affirmed its unfavorable financial projection for private colleges in a recent analysis. Major problems include “weakened balance sheets and reduced institutional wealth,” as well as “the likelihood of weakened net tuition revenue for private colleges in fall 2010,” affirmed the creditrating agency.
In a report earlier this year, Moody’s predicted that fundamental stresses—enrollment uncertainties, tuition revenue and diminishing private donations— on private colleges and universities would lead to adverse impacts. The resulting loss of tuition revenue is “manageable for one to two years,” recognizes the report, but over time it will take its toll. The prospect of raising tuition to alleviate shortfalls is complicated by heightened public scrutiny of such increases and the lingering effects of the recession among families of college-bound students.
Copyright Provisions to Take Effect
In a letter to colleges and universities, the U.S. Department of Education stated that the copyright provisions attached last fall to the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 will take effect in July. The provisions, which are aimed at curbing the illegal sharing of copyrighted material such as music files on campus networks, require institutions to educate their students on what constitutes illegal sharing, deter them from engaging in such sharing, and develop alternative plans to legally access desired materials.
“It is left to each institution to determine relevant assessment criteria,” the letter stated. “No particular technology measures are favored or required for inclusion in an institution’s plans, and each institution retains the authority to determine what its particular plans for compliance will be, including those that prohibit content monitoring.”
The department cited such technologybased deterrents as bandwidth shaping, traffic monitoring, accepting and responding to Digital Millennium Copyright Act notices, and commercial products designed to reduce or block illegal file sharing. Looking ahead, it said it expects institutions as well as national associations and commercial entities to develop and maintain up-to-date lists that may be referenced for compliance with this provision.
The law mandates that information regarding institutional policies and sanctions related to the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material be provided upon request to prospective and enrolled students. This information should explicitly inform its students that unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including peer-to-peer file sharing, may subject a student to civil and criminal liabilities. The information should also include a summary of the penalties for violation of federal copyright laws and describe the institution’s policies with respect to unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing, including disciplinary actions that are taken against students who engage in illegal downloading or unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials using the institution’s information technology system.
Degree Shortfall Projected to Disadvantage U.S. Work Force
According to a recent analysis of jobs data by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, the U.S. economy is in serious danger from a growing mismatch between the skills that will be needed for jobs being created and the educational backgrounds of would-be workers.
By 2018, the economy will have jobs for 22 million new workers with college degrees, but there will be a shortage of 3 million workers who have some postsecondary degree (associate or higher) and of 4.7 million workers who have a postsecondary certificate, the study projects.
The U.S. is “on a collision course with the future,” the study recognizes, because far too few Americans complete college. “This shortfall will mean lost economic opportunity for millions of American workers.”
The study emphasizes a shift over time in the likelihood that people without postsecondary education can join the middle or upper income classes. Today, over 60 percent of the middle class have had a postsecondary education. Forty years ago, only 26 percent of this demographic went to school after high school. In addition, in 1970, only 44 percent of the upper class had achieved a postsecondary education, compared to 81 percent today.
The colleges that most students attend “need to streamline their programs so they emphasize employability,” pointed out Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown center. Such a shift would welcome “a dual system,” in which a select few receive an academic college-level education and most would receive career preparation. “We are all offended by [career] tracking,” he said, but the current system isn’t doing a good job with preparing students for the work force.
Impact Survey Points to Quality
A majority of prospective applicants indicated that the overall quality of a given higher learning institution is a major factor in the selection process, according to the 2010 College Decision Impact Survey. The variety of courses in fields of interest, the strength and availability of academic facilities, the percentage of graduates employed after graduation and graduation rates carry significant weight when it comes to choosing a college or university.
About two-thirds of prospective applicants said the economy had “greatly” or “somewhat” influenced their decision about where to apply to college, and a large number of individuals who were surveyed said they were interested in attending a public institution. Yet almost 40 percent of prospective applicants that had achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or higher expressed an interest in private college (compared to 29 percent last year).
The survey, which included responses from more than 800 students, also revealed that students who preferred private colleges were less likely to report that the listed tuition, or “sticker price,” would affect whether they would submit an application. ♦