On Aug. 19, The New York Times published an op-ed titled "Stop Colleges from Hoarding Cash," written by Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the University of San Diego. Fleischer's primary point is that very wealthy universities (he focused on Yale, and its $24 billion endowment) spend more money compensating their fund managers than they […]
For centuries, colleges and universities have been exempt from paying property taxes, and there's no good reason to change. But that's not stopping people from trying. From Connecticut to California, critics are questioning property tax exemptions while arguing that colleges are getting a free ride on the backs of taxpayers. With states and municipalities still […]
The Great Recession of 2007-08 had a profound impact on both public and private universities. In How the Financial Crisis and Great Recession Affected Higher Education (University of Chicago Press, 2015), Jeffrey R. Brown, a finance professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and co-editor Caroline M. Hoxby, a Stanford economics professor, examine universities […]
Andrew Hamilton, vice chancellor of the University of Oxford in England since 2009, has been named 16th president of New York University. Prior to Oxford, he was at Yale, as provost and as a professor of chemistry, molecular biophysics and biochemistry. Besides his presidential duties at NYU, he plans to maintain active in teaching and […]
Valerie Smith, current dean of the college at Princeton University, has been named the 15th president of Swarthmore College (Pa.). Smith has been the senior officer responsible for Princeton's undergraduate academic program, including all aspects of the curriculum, undergraduate research and the residential college system. She recently chaired a committee that studied the academic and […]
In 2008, former Yale professor William Deresiewicz wrote a scathing essay titled "The Disadvantages of an Elite Education." It quickly went viral, gaining more than 100,000 views in a matter of weeks (and many times that since). "The system manufactures students who are smart and talented and driven," he noted, "but also anxious, timid and […]
When David Perry patrolled the streets of Albany, Georgia 20 years ago, the relationship between his police department and the campus police force at his alma mater, Albany State College, was almost nonexistent. "It was a matter of 'You stay on your turf, we'll stay on ours,'" Perry says. Times have changed, as college officers […]
In terms of making money from inventions, New York University does pretty well. In 2013 it earned $214 million from intellectual property (IP) created through research, primarily in the schools of medicine and engineering and in the departments of computer science and physics. The institution developed the patents behind about 25 products on the market […]
Read just about any editorial page these days and you'll see a familiar refrain: "Is a college degree still worth it?" Wesleyan University (Conn.) President Michael Roth argues that not only is it worth it, but that it is more important than ever. Higher education admittedly faces many challenges over cost and access. Online instruction, […]
Admissions officers: Would more students enroll if you could bring your campus and its top-flight learning spaces along on recruiting trips? That technology—powered by YouVisit.com's online campus tours and a virtual reality headset called the OculusRift—is just over the horizon, now being tested by a small group of institutions. "It puts you right in the […]
