Richard Vedder is a higher ed heretic. At a time when virtually everyone is pushing for more kids to go to college, the director of the Center for College Affordability & Productivity argues the traditional college deal is not what it used to be. With college graduates plentiful and jobs scarce, a diploma from a […]
Eastern Michigan University
Posted inTalent & Education
Remediation: Higher ed's expensive 'bridge to nowhere'
More than a third of incoming college students in Michigan take high school-level classes on campus — essentially repeating material they should have learned before they got their diplomas. Those remedial classes may cost students, schools and taxpayers more than $100 million a year, and often don’t lead to a degree; many of the 23,000 […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Racial grad gaps at Mich. public universities
There is a 22-percent gap between white and black graduation rates atMichiganpublic universities – significantly wider than the national public university racial gap of 16 percent. Wayne State University has the largest racial graduation gap in the state, and the largest in the nation among public universities. Here are rates for 2009, the most recent […]
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EMU prez: Tuition is 'safety valve' for state budget
Legislators know universities are going to make up lost state revenue by raising tuition. In fact, that’s what makes cutting funds to higher education so easy, says Eastern Michigan University President Sue Martin. Martin knows what she’s talking about. She has a Ph.D. in accounting. She was deputy state treasurer under Govs. William Milliken and […]
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'College tax' varies by campus
Michigan has 15 public universities (though three are technically part of just one university system — the University of Michigan). Students attending 12 of these 15 schools are paying a “college tax” — meaning that the annual net cost to them is higher than the average cost found at peer institutions in other states. The […]