Stats Watch

Both employers and employees struggle with health insurance costs. While most people think of doctors' visits when they think of health insurance, mental health and substance abuse treatment fall under the same umbrella. A recent study by a group of Harvard researchers from the Cambridge Health Alliance, found treatment coverage for medical school students is on the low end of the scale. Of the 115 med schools analyzed, fewer than 22 percent provide students with complete coverage, without co-pays or coinsurance, for mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Rare is the college or university that benefited from generous state funding in the first half of this decade. But for the first time since before the September 11 attacks and the dot-com bust of 2001, enough public dollars are flowing into IHE coffers to exceed the effects of booming enrollment growth and inflation.

There is a new weapon in the ongoing attempt to understand the young people lurking around, or who have just left campus. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has released a new survey charting the views of "Generation Next," those in the age range of 18 to 25. They are money hungry, relatively happy, and plugged into technology.

A new report suggests that if hidden campus costs are not carefully tracked, they could lead to dire straits for institutions of higher education.

"We're number one" was once an accurate claim among U.S. education leaders. That is clearly no longer the case, according to "Measuring Up 2006: The National Report Card on Higher Education," released this fall from The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

The potential applicant pool for colleges and universities is going to grow significantly in some states between now and 2014, according to data gathered by the National Center for Education Statistics. The center reports that the number of public high school graduates is expected to increase in 23 states over the next eight years. Further, all four major regions of the country will be graduating more high school students, but the real boom will be happening in the West and South regions.