In about five years, postsecondary proprietary education has grown from a sleepy sector, best known for trade schools, to a $3.5-billion-a-year business increasingly dominated by companies building regional and national franchises. Shares of a dozen higher-education companies are traded on major stock exchanges. However, some are considered…

Applications to law schools have slipped steadily since 1990-91, and current applicants have a 70% chance of admission. Faculty are seeing more students with mediocre skills in writing and analysis. Institutions are providing more academic support, and some are cutting enrollments. However, law schools often are a prime income source for their…

College faculty at many institutions feel sidelined as others decide major issues. Some blame trustees, administrators, and the need for rapid decision making; others find faculty are not taking an active enough role in governance. Faculty senates are reviewing their governance documents to make improvements, and are trying to rally more faculty…

The National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education has rejected calls for federal intervention to reduce college costs, but warned that if institutions do not control costs, the government will be forced to intervene, which could destroy academic quality. While colleges appreciate the panel's sensitivity to college autonomy, some observers…

Princeton University (New Jersey) is planning to replace loans with grants for students with annual family incomes under $40,000, and will stop considering the value of the family's home in determining need for most families with incomes under $90,000. The move will likely give the institution a competitive advantage in attracting low- and…

According to a recent study, about 43% of women faculty at all college types have never published a journal article, compared to 23% of male counterparts. At universities, the gap narrows only slightly. A number of factors are cited as reasons, including type of faculty assignment, fewer mentors for women, and different approaches to work…

Social scientists, who frequently complain that the federal government spends too little on them, are passing up what scholars in the physical and natural sciences see as the government's best give-aways: free access to supercomputers. Some social scientists say the supercomputers are difficult to use; others find desktop computers provide…

State legislatures' 1998 sessions have produced an array of new laws and programs intended to improve access to college: by overhauling higher education systems, particularly two-year colleges; creating or expanding scholarship programs; increasing appropriations substantially so public colleges can hold down tuition; and helping students avoid…

The provost of the California Institute of Technology has urged faculty to inform journal publishers that faculty articles about research done on campus could be published only if the authors and university retained copyright to the material, a radical departure from conventional practice. Doing so would enable researchers to distribute their work…

The City University of New York (CUNY) New York City Technical College (New York) piloted an "immersion" developmental-studies program for CUNY applicants who failed one or more of three admissions assessments (reading, writing, mathematics). If successful, the program may serve as a case study for remediation reform. The program increases student…

Community-based research projects, a minute portion of the total amount government, industry, and foundations spend money on, are beginning to generate attention among policymakers because of their power to meet the needs of ordinary citizens, especially the disadvantaged. Currently, the incentives for researchers and institutions to pursue such…

A report based on a study of 45,184 students entering 28 selective colleges in 1976 or 1989 is the most comprehensive look at how students benefitting from racial preference in college admission fared during and after college. The authors say the findings disprove the claim that black students with low test scores are better off at less selective…

Backers of Western Governors University hope it will revolutionize the ways colleges compete for students, professors teach, and education is measured, and believe the virtual university can help contain the costs of educating growing numbers of students in the 16 participating states. However, the administration faces challenges in areas of…

In the process of trying to preserve Internet history by archiving it, a company has developed a powerful Internet search engine that provides information on Web site usage patterns, which can act as a relatively objective source of information about information sources and can link sources that a researcher might otherwise miss. However, issues…

Several elite private colleges have announced additional financial aid sources for middle class students, because enrollment patterns suggested previous policies attracted proportionately more low- and high-income than middle-income students. One college feels the new policy encourages families to save for college. Critics say the institutions are…