Steven Pearlstein has a great article in today's (15 November) Washington Post about the Univeristy of Maryland system's "effectiveness and efficiency" project. As pointed out in the article, they were forced into this by "political and budgetary imperatives" but the fact remains that the program is working - without faculty revolt or a wave of student protests   

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/15/AR2007111502518.html

Apparently, the regents has seen through the fallacy of reflexively equating spending with qualtiy and have decided to concentrate growth on the campuses with the lowest costs.  The chancellor's big push for the current academic year is for each campus to redesign one course, going from the standard 'sage on the stage' lecture format to blend of CBT, taped lectures, individual counseling and small group discussions - all of which should remarkably familiar to those of us in distance learning "...earning 10% of their required credit hours outside the classroom through internships, independent study and semesters abroad."

Pearlstein concludes the articles with these two paragraphs:

"If, as a country, we were serious about holding down tuition, the best thing we could do would be to increase public support for those public universities that have a proven record of delivering high-quality education at a lower cost and are willing to expand.

"Probably the worst thing we could do is to feed the tuition monster by increasing the flow of federal support (or private charitable contributions) to expensive and inefficient universities, public or private, that raise their tuition 5 percent every year just because they can."

That's a shot off the bow for the Ivy League, eh?

Ironically, the measures they're looking at don't just cut the bottom line.  They're also things which may appeal to those traditionally disenchanted w/ the going to college. 

Thanks for the heads up, Henry. 

That's an important thing -- Title IV funding (i.e., Pell grants and guaranteed student loans) has made college a lot more accessible, but like any huge subsidy it's also made college a lot more expensive.

You know, sometimes I wonder whether one possible answer to the expense of college might be centers similar to Sylvan Learning Center but which concentrate on preparing students to pass CLEP tests.  No accreditation expense, no big campus to maintain, just a storefront with a few classrooms.

-=Steve=-