A dozen higher education stories to chase

Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Ed, offered up a host of story ideas, along with a few trends worthy of a skeptical eye.

1. The new yield: It refers to the percentage of accepted applicants who actually attend a school. He says there is an increasing shift of institutions having multiple yields, based on the type of majors being pursued by students.

2. The newly competitive public university: Most students don’t go to Ivy League schools. Increasingly, it’s getting more competitive elsewhere. It’s interesting how many places are in the business of rejecting applicants, that didn’t used to be.

3. How to evaluate doctoral programs is about to become a hot issue: They are expensive. They determine prestige. And there is a lot of attention on them, as universities are considering trimming their programs. New rankings are about to come out – and could mean big things for schools around the country.

4. The completion agenda and community colleges: This is one of the most under-covered areas of higher education, Jaschik said. Community colleges take pride in being access institutions. There’s a big debate over how much tough love community colleges should provide. Some are starting to tighten up admission standards. Private colleges – particularly the smaller ones concerned about their own enrollment - are also starting to pay more attention to community college for transfers.

5. The non-public public: Schools desperate to cope with cuts in state funding are shifting away from their public roots by relaxing limits on out-of-state or international students to capture more dollars. It’s often cloaked as a diversity move, but it is money that is fueling the shift.

6. Fairness in budget cuts: There has been too little scrutiny of these cuts. Cuts are often done across the board. But is that really fair, considering the level of reliance of each school? Community colleges, for example, rely more heavily upon state appropriations than flagship four-year schools.

7. For profits: One of the big impacts of the recession has been a surge in for profit enrollment. Look at who’s going to these schools. How are they paying? They are not inherently bad. Many of them are doing good things. But there are some real abuses going on.

8. Non profit/for profit linking up: Look at the relationships forming between for profit and non profit schools.

9. Non-profit privates that are in trouble: There have long been predictions that economic troubles could force some schools to close. It hasn’t happened yet. But it could. For profits are now in the market to buy struggling non profits – chasing their accreditation.

10. Will the iPad change everything? For years, everyone has been predicting that some tech change would revolutionize higher education. Jaschik says the iPad could be significant.

11. Culture wars at religious schools: Tensions are rising on these campuses across the country – in part because Catholic colleges enroll a lot of non-Catholic students and hire a lot of non-Catholic faculty.

12. Grading: Teacher grading standards are under scrutiny. It’s a subject on which everyone has an opinion.

And here are three trends to be skeptical about:

1. The three-year degree: Most of the places offering them have had very little interest. There is a very small subset of students for which this works.

2. Out of state students are going to save us: Some of the states talking about it as a sure thing to fix their budgets may be disappointed.

3. Research excellence is going to transform the state: A lot of states are putting big money into their research institutions. There are too many puff pieces being written about it. The problem is that too many schools are overselling their ability to make it into the top tier of research schools.