Links for 8/27/10

Lloyd Armstrong

The question of whether or not the traditional non-profit world of higher education ultimately can compete with the new world being defined by the for-profits is a serious one. All of the red flags raised by Christensen are present: 1)The faculty – who make up the academic management of traditional higher ed – are broadly and actively hostile to the for-profits and their approach. They generally are convinced that the education being offered is second class and the approach is simply wrong... 2) Where such innovations as online learning are implemented, they are simply grafted onto existing structures and approaches. This leads to the oft heard- and completely incorrect- statement that creating and teaching an online class is more expensive than a traditional classroom one. It only seems more expensive because we accept as our baseline the very expensive infrastructure underlying the traditional classroom course…. 3) There is an oft-articulated fear that “online education will draw students away from our traditional courses”…

as traditional higher education institutions move into the for-profit space in search of increased revenues, they will have to seriously consider how they will change some of the traditional components of their brand and mission. Such considerations are likely to be quite contentious…

[for-profits] growth prospects and brands will obviously be harmed by the current mess, but their intention clearly is to fill the space that UC and other traditional universities are thinking of moving into in order to stabilize their revenue models. Many of the traditional universities clearly have much stronger brands at this point, but are they willing to make the changes necessary to achieve the kinds of market penetration necessary to balance their budgets? Only time will tell…

Anthony P. Carnevale , Michelle Melton and Laura Meyer

Like it or not, postsecondary education is already almost entirely occupational. All certificates and occupational associate degrees are intended to have labor market value… Only 3 percent of bachelor’s degrees are liberal arts, general studies, and humanities degrees -- the remaining 97 percent have an occupational focus…

The current scandal has arisen because of bad information… There is a real alternative to late-night infomercials that promise undeliverable outcomes. In fact, the detailed elements of such a system already exist -- including unemployment insurance wage records, transcript and program data, job openings data, and detailed information on occupational competencies.

It’s just a matter of putting them together effectively -- some states have already built the rudiments of such systems -- and making the information publicly available and in online, user-friendly formats...

While it is important that we not lose sight of the non-economic benefits of education…

The inescapable reality is that ours is a society based on work…