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| How College Became a Commodity [subscription required] | Neoliberalism was a diverse but coherent and influential body of theory championed by neoclassical economists and politicians — including, of course, the authors’ own intellectual progenitor, James Buchanan. The reimagining of education as a commodity purchased by individuals, rather than a universal public good provided by the state, was an explicit project of neoliberal economists and politicians on both the right and left as they moved to slice and reorganize the welfare state along leaner, more punitive lines. Neoliberalism hardly explains everything about contemporary higher education, but it explains a lot. [Exhibit A — Nearly every article in this week’s news digest speaks of higher education almost exclusively in terms of the private benefits (or burdens) of college education.]Continue Reading

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| Happy New Year, Higher Ed: You’ve Missed Your Completion Goal | It’s barely the beginning of the new year and higher education has already missed its “moonshot,” the goal of making the United States the world leader in college attainment by 2020… [that] President Barack Obama issue. [Note: American higher education’s adherence to the status quo is perhaps the most pressing historical question when considered in a transnational perspective for the early 21st century (see article on China and India above).]Continue Reading

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| Half in U.S. Now Consider College Education Very Important | About half of U.S. adults (51%) now consider a college education to be “very important,” down from 70% in 2013. Over the same period, the percentages rating college as “fairly important” and “not too important” have both increased, to 36% and 13%, respectively.Continue Reading

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| Best of 2019: A crisis in confidence in the Board of Regents (This Viewpoint was originally published in CT Mirror on April 25, 2019.) | In the last two months, 11 academic senates or faculty and staff governing bodies have voted to endorse an online petition opposing the BOR’s plan for the consolidation of Connecticut’s community colleges — or have passed their own statement opposing consolidation…Readers should understand this for what it is: faculty and staff from across the state attempting to speak out—in the only way remaining to them—against a plan that they find deeply flawed and dangerous for students and the state.Continue Reading

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| A Cash-Strapped University Bet on Student Success — and Grew | A major investment in undergraduate support, close attention to data, and a shift in the way it allocates resources gave the University of Rhode Island a lot to celebrate. [Higher education journalism’s lament: Why can’t more universities be like University of Rhode Island!]Continue Reading