The Albion College Board of Trustees has agreed to reduce its faculty by the equivalent of 15 full-time positions, despite objections from the American Association of University Professors over how the college has handled the move.
PBS broadcast a documentary on for-profit higher education last week, titled College, Inc. It begins with the slightly ridiculous figure of Michael Clifford, a former cocaine abuser turned born-again Christian who never went to college, yet makes a living padding around the lawn of his oceanside home wearing sandals and loose-fitting print shirts, buying up distressed non-profit colleges and turning them into for-profit money machines.
Laura L. Anglin, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, in New York, describes the budget troubles facing New York's private institutions—and makes the case for how those institutions can bolster the state's economic competitiveness.
By now, practically everyone in Iran has become aware of the long-simmering battle between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his rivals over the control and status of Azad University (AU). Since the day he took office, Ahmadinejad has covetously eyed the holdings of the largest private university chain in Iran -- and possibly the world. With an enrollment of 1.3 million students, 351 campuses, and more than $200 billion in known assets, there are few institutions in its league. By comparison, Harvard University's assets are estimated at $43.8 billion; the University of California system's, $60 billion.
Nonprofit colleges in financial trouble have options other than merging, shutting down, or, as was the case for institutions like the College of Santa Fe and Daniel Webster, Kendall, and Waldorf Colleges, selling themselves to for-profit higher-education companies.
Quite co-incidentally - or was it? - Danish corporation Lego announced it had advanced plans to establish a private university. Lego admitted to having discussed the idea with the minister on several occasions.
However, such programs could be hit hard by the proposed law, which would cap government support to subsidized private institutions such as Loja. The university, which has some 22,000 students, was founded in the 1970s during a government campaign to expand access to higher education in provincial areas.
The trustees of financially struggling Lambuth University, in Tennessee, have tentatively approved an investment firm's offer to acquire the private institution, the university has announced.
The company's foundation aims to help first-generation students graduate in two ways: through small private colleges and via minority-serving institutions.
Marc Bousquet, who blogs for The Chronicle of Higher Education, worries in his latest post that the harsh federal spotlight currently illuminating the excesses of for-profit colleges is missing similar problems at nonprofit institutions.
Especially alarming were the numbers for two-year and for-profit colleges, with 40 percent of students who borrowed loans to attend for-profit institutions defaulting since 1995. This data comes just when for-profit colleges are being subjected to federal scrutiny in part because of the amount of federal financial aid they draw and the amount they spend on expenses other than teaching. “While for-profits educate less than 10 percent of students, those colleges’ students received close to a quarter of Pell Grant and federal-student-loan dollars in 2008,” according to the Chronicle article.
El Viceministerio de Educación Superior realizará “visitas sorpresas” a las universidades privadas de todo el país, para verificar el cumplimiento de condiciones técnico académicas requeridas para su funcionamiento.Los equipos de seguimiento que realizan estas verificaciones, serán fortalecidos a partir de esta gestión, pues se tienen previsto efectuar evaluaciones periódicas a estas casas de estudios superiores, informó el director general de Educación Superior, Juan Carlos Carrasco Paniagua. Señaló que el Viceministerio debe ver las condiciones técnico-pedagógicas, de infraestructura y la organización de documentos, establecido en reglamento de funcionamiento de universidades.
S. Tramp, N. Heino, S. Auer, and P. Frischmuth. Proceedings of the EKAW 2010 - Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management by the Masses; 11th October-15th October 2010 - Lisbon, Portugal, volume 6317 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI), page 90--104. Berlin / Heidelberg, Springer, (October 2010)
S. Tramp, N. Heino, S. Auer, and P. Frischmuth. Proceedings of 7th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2010), volume 6089 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, page 436---440. Berlin / Heidelberg, Springer, (2010)
S. Tramp, P. Frischmuth, T. Ermilov, and S. Auer. Proceedings of the EKAW 2010 - Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management by the Masses; 11th October-15th October 2010 - Lisbon, Portugal, volume 6317 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI), page 135--149. Berlin / Heidelberg, Springer, (October 2010)
C. Stadler, M. Martin, J. Lehmann, and S. Hellmann. 6th Workshop on Scripting and Development for the Semantic Web Colocated with ESWC 2010 30th or 31st May, 2010 Crete, Greece, (2010)
T. Riechert, U. Morgenstern, S. Auer, S. Tramp, and M. Martin. Proceedings of the 9th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2010), volume 6497 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, page 225-240. Shanghai / China, Springer, (2010)
C. Rieß, N. Heino, S. Tramp, and S. Auer. Proceedings of the 9th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2010), Berlin / Heidelberg, Springer, (2010)
M. Martin, J. Unbehauen, and S. Auer. Proceedings of 7th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2010), 30 May -- 3 June 2010, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, volume 6089 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, page 304-318. Berlin / Heidelberg, Springer, (2010)
M. Martin, and T. Riechert. Catalogus Professorum Lipsiensis -- Konzeption, technische Umsetzung und Anwendungen für Professorenkataloge im Semantic Web, volume 21 of Leipziger Beiträge zur Informatik, chapter Werkzeuge zur Realisierung der Datenbank, Leipziger Informatik-Verbund (LIV), (2010)
M. Martin, and S. Auer. proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Semantic Processing (SEMAPRO2010) 25 October -- 30 October, Florence, Italy, (October 2010)