CCAP in the News

From CNN Money:

College students are spending too much time drinking and having sex. The solution? A grade-inflation tax on colleges. [Center for College Affordability and Productivity]

Diverse Issues in Higher Ed:

“We don’t measure them,” Vedder said. “How do we know what students at the University of Virginia knew last year, compared with [what they knew] 10 years ago or 20 years ago? We don’t know.”

“If we mindlessly push students into college, we will have more students with debts taking $10-an-hour jobs and failing,”

Vedder and Leef argued that a college degree has become a commodity that has lost its value. The two also argued that the U.S. is producing more college graduates than it needs.

“We have too many people getting degrees. There are not enough jobs for them

“There is a disconnect between training in college and labor market needs

Press Citizen:

Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, recently noted that, "There is becoming a critical shortage of people skilled in occupations that do not require a college education."

The National Press Club:

Vedder…said that colleges and universities do play an important role in the country, but the issue is whether they should be expanded. Vedder added that 15 percent of mail carriers have college degrees now, but only 3 percent did in 1970.

Vedder and Leef argued that expenditures on higher education do not necessarily create highly skilled jobs. Leef said, “Supply does not create its own demand.”

Vedder said that people entering highly skilled professions such as medicine, law, and engineering do need college educations; he said he is concerned that adding more graduates would not mean adding more highly skilled graduates. He and Leef claimed standards have fallen and that graduates are not well educated. Vedder noted half of college students do not graduate in six years. He said increasing enrollments would increase dropouts. He questioned the costs at a time of national deficits.

The Philadelphia Inquirer:

"There's a market out there, particularly since the cost of college has grown so much," said Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington. "It's starting to get on the radar screen."

Vedder said smaller private colleges with higher tuition bills than public schools seemed to be leading the way, and business-minded students less interested in a full undergraduate experience were supplying the market."

There are an awful lot of people for whom college is a serious business of getting a degree to increase employment prospects," he said.