Daniel Luzer

While there may be some, perhaps misguided, enthusiasm for the three-year bachelors degree, it looks like the popularity of the accelerated BA is increasing. The University of Texas system announced yesterday that it was offering what it called “Fast-Track Bachelor’s Degrees.” From the press release: The Bachelor’s Accelerated Completion (BAC) program will be offered entirely […]

While the College Guide is on the subject of college football, it’s worth taking a look at a recent piece at Higher Ed Watch. The publication annually looks at the graduation rates and academic progress of the country’s top college football teams. It’s pretty bad. According to the article, “only 55 percent of the players… […]

There’s an interesting piece in the latest issue of Democracy about Pell Grants and the state of higher education. Pell Grants, awards for higher education sponsored by the Department of Education, give money (actual money, not loans) to allow low-income students to go to college. But Pell is essentially a failure: Students are borrowing at […]

“Dismissing complaints from some members that Congress had more pressing matters,” as the Associated Press dryly noted in its article about the matter, earlier this month a House subcommittee agreed to legislation to create a formal college football playoff. The goal of the legislation is to force college football to move from an informal series […]

In preparation for next year’s renewal of the Workforce Investment Act, the federal job training law, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education is soliciting comments from citizens. Yesterday about 50 people came to Washington, most urging congress to consider greater alignment between the work and education programs. According to an […]

Many higher education critics have attacked colleges’ early decision programs for being elitist. The early decision process generally requires a student to enroll in his top school, if admitted. Because of this the practice tends to favor those with money, students and families who don’t need to consider different financial aid offers. At least in […]

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has announced new information about its investigation into gender bias at American colleges. According to the Associated Press: The probe by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is focusing on whether some colleges favor men by admitting them at higher rates than women, or by offering them more generous […]

One longstanding discussion in higher education has to do with the risk inherent in obtaining a humanities PhD. Unlike the situation in more, well, practical disciplines (engineering, math, the hard sciences) the jobs for people with academic degrees in the humanities just aren’t there. As Thomas H. Benton wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education […]

Earlier this week New York University announced that it had received a $1 million gift from actor and NYU alum Alec Baldwin. The money will be used to establish the Alec Baldwin Drama Scholarship Fund for students attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The Alec Baldwin scholars must demonstrate “an unwavering work ethic, development […]

As Barack Obama said when campaigning for the White House, his own daughters probably should have no special consideration given for their race when applying for college and “we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed.” […]