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Overlaying a vast ocean of oil-rich prosperity, 2.1 million acres in West Texas generates billions of dollars for the exclusive benefit of only a select few public universities. Over a century ago, Texas constitutionally dedicated these lands to the Permanent University Fund--currently the nation's largest public education endowment--to establish a first-class university. However, despite falling behind in national education rankings and an apparent need for more equitable funding, the state continues to favor these select universities to the detriment of the public good. Accordingly, the state's favoritism and the fund's exclusivity must change. Unfortunately, however, practical issues surrounding the traditional methods of altering the inequitable funding prevent such change. The constitutional amendment process is inherently flawed due to political influence and citizen bias. Similarly, the mechanics of education-based claims of inequality under the Equal Protection Clause prevent successful judicial intervention because of the simplicity in passing rational basis review. However, a remedy may exist under the theory of intrastate economic protectionism, which holds mere economic protectionist regulations-- favoritism of a few to protect them from the competition--as illegitimate government interests. Similarly, Texas's inequitable funding is, in essence, a form of favoritism towards a discrete group of universities. Despite an apparent need for change, such favoritism has negatively impacted students, universities, and local economies. Thus, without more, the Permanent University Fund's exclusivity violates both federal and state equal protection rights and, if properly framed, fails rational basis review because it furthers an illegitimate government interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to understand the formative experiences of new students admitted in a Psychology course installed by the Program to Support a Restructuring and Expansion Plans of Federal Universities (REUNI) in a public university in the inland of Brazil. According to a semi-structured script, nine students were interviewed. The empirical phenomenological method of Amedeo Giorgi was used to analyze the data. The experiences led to the following meaning axes: proximal relationships between students and teachers; understanding of the course curriculum matrix; university locality and its relation with the capital. It is considered that these experiences highlight, mainly, a micro and macro-political field that refers to the discussions about the effects of the higher education expansionist politics, despite the peculiar experiences of graduation in Psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broad empirical literature asks if social policies designed to provide benefits to low-income families also affect family formation patterns. While most of the evidence suggests that family formation effects are small at best, and often nonexistent, recent research argues that policies that alter budget constraints considerably should have greater family formation impacts. We tested this hypothesis by investigating the Social Security Student Benefit Program (SSSBP), a program designed to provide large higher education subsidies for the children of disabled, retired, or deceased parents. Conditions for receipt of SSSBP created strong incentives to delay marriage. Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979, and a difference-in-differences model, we found that women potentially qualifying for the SSSBP were much less likely to marry before age 22 and were older when they had children, while the program did not influence the probability of women ever marrying or having children. Impacts on men, however, were negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous studies have addressed the determinants of higher education appropriations. Extending prior studies that only consider the relationship between higher education and one other state budget category, Delaney and Doyle develop and test an empirical model of the relationship between higher education and all other budget categories. Delaney and Doyle propose that higher education takes the form of a balance wheel in state budgets. They find that higher education is cut more than other budget categories in bad budget years and given larger increases in good budget years. Although previous work advances understanding of how states budget for higher education, it is limited in the length of time considered. Purpose: This study makes two important contributions to the literature. First, it documents changes in the amount of volatility in state funding for higher education. Second, it identifies patterns in the volatility, and does so over a longer time period than has been investigated in past research, using data that spans over a half century (1951-2006). Research Design: This study uses a unique panel dataset spanning the period from 1951 to 2006 to quantitatively document changes in the extent of volatility in state funding for higher education. It also identifies and tests for patterns of volatility. Findings: We find that the level of volatility in state budgeting for higher education has changed over time. We also find evidence of linear (incremental), quadratic (countercyclical), and cubic (balance wheel) patterns of volatility at different points in time. Recommendations: Our findings indicate that the role of higher education in state budgets is not static and has varied over time. In policy discussions about higher education funding, we think it is important to consider both absolute funding levels and the amount of volatility in funding. We recommend that higher education leaders discuss not only funding levels with their state legislatures, but also discuss volatility in funding patterns. States and higher education have operated under different funding relationships in the past; therefore, it seems possible that policymakers and higher education officials could change their current funding relationship to conform to a pattern that better serves the needs of the state, institutions, and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that U.S. Representative Anthony Brown announced plans to introduce legislation titled "Creating Accountability Measures Protecting University Students Historically Abused, Threatened and Exposed to Crimes" which states that no institution of higher education shall be eligible for federal financial aid unless it certifies to the secretary of education. It also mentions role of college Counselors to play in such education.

The article discusses the limitations to the share of subsidies received by for-profit colleges (FPCs) through federal student financial aid programs. Particular focus is given to topics including restrictions on federal aid to FPCs accused of fraud student enrollment, lack of information on college quality to low-income students, and the outcomes of FPC students in employment.

In the United States, college students must complete the Free Application for Student Federal Aid (FAFSA) to access federal aid. However, many eligible students do not apply and consequently forgo significant amounts of financial aid. If students have perfect information about aid eligibility, we would expect that all eligible students complete FAFSA and no aid would go unclaimed. Using data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey, I estimate a multinomial logit model which controls for all variables that contribute to aid eligibility and other student characteristics that may deter FAFSA completion. I find that students who are lower middle income, white, male and independent from parents are less likely to complete FAFSA even when they are eligible for aid. Using propensity score matching, I find that each year applicants forgo $9,741.05 in total aid (including grant and loan aid) which includes $1,281.00 of Pell Grants, $2,439.50 of the balance subsidized student loans, $1,986.65 of the balance of unsubsidized student loans, and $1,016.04 of institutional grants. These aid totals aggregate to $24 billion annually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 2013, US president Barack Obama announced a plan to link federal financial aid to college performance. This plan, it is argued, will allow students, parents, and federal lenders to avoid paying tuition for an ultimately meaningless credential. It identifies relevant educational outcomes as rates of graduation, the earnings of graduates, and the attainment of advanced degrees after graduation. The president’s plan is part of a much larger trend toward “accountability” and “transparency” in education, an important feature of which is the proliferation of the language and programs related to assessment of student learning outcomes. In this essay, I show that outcomes assessment is a form of “one-dimensional thought” as this concept is developed inOne-Dimensional Manand that it suffers from the defects identified by Marcuse there. Outcomes assessment, therefore, codifies ways of thinking about education that undermine its role in the development of liberated forms of consciousness and emancipatory praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports the author's opinions regarding the article "Missions, Matrices, and University Management," by Paul W. Hamelman, published in the March 1970 issue. The author focuses on critiquing Hamelman's statements about planning-budgeting-programming systems used for the management of universities and colleges. Hamelman's comments regarding the effect of legislative budget cuts on the quality of higher education in the U.S. are also discussed.

Because higher education serves both public and private interests, the way it is conceived and financed is contested politically, appearing in different forms in different societies. What is public and private in education is a political-social construct, subject to various political forces, primarily interpreted through the prism of the state. Mediated through the state, this construct can change over time as the economic and social context of higher education changes. In this paper, we analyze through the state's financing of higher education how it changes as a public/private good and the forces that impinge on states to influence such changes. To illustrate our arguments, we discuss trends in higher education financing in the BRIC countries--Brazil, Russia, India, and China. We show that in addition to increased privatization of higher education financing, BRIC states are increasingly differentiating the financing of elite and non-elite institutions. Keywords Affirmative action * Cost differentiation * Externalities * State legitimacy, The most difficult issues of political economy are those where goals of efficiency, freedom of choice, and equality conflict. James Tobin, 1970 Introduction Higher education has historically been viewed as [...]

This paper challenges the central claim of Natalia Forrat’s article that university support programs under Putin targeted the suppression of anti-regime student mobilization. Empirical evidence, both on the national-policy level and on the level of higher education institutions, suggests that the government introduced support programs in order to establish a research capacity at Russian flagship universities and to develop a more competitive national science system. The low level of students’ political engagement can rather be attributed to the outdated structures of student representation, inherited from the Soviet period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response from the author of the article "The Political Economy of Russian Higher Education: Why Does Putin Support Research Universities?" in the 2015 issue is presented.

Leading and managing any university is a challenging task in the 21st century, but undertaking this responsibility in a developing world context like South Africa, where the managerial and strategic challenges tend to be more acute, is an even more onerous one. Although there have been significant changes and massive state intervention in the last 20 years, South Africa’s post-apartheid higher education lags behind many of its counterparts in other developing countries in terms of both performance and competitiveness. In addition, many of its institutions remain racialised and ‘untransformed’ at both student and staff levels. The higher education system is therefore increasingly seen as neither nationally responsive nor globally competitive. With other sectors of society making increasing demands for scarce public resources, a variety of South African stakeholders are now demanding greater efficiency and effectiveness at universities. The author, the vice-chancellor of a leading South African university and thus very much a practitioner in this field, provides a candid reflection on the evolution and current state of South African higher education, its key challenges and opportunities, and how it needs to repositioned if it is to have greater relevance and responsiveness in South Africa’s third decade of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The overall financial structure of US higher education has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, resulting in a significant reduction of public funding. One result of this shift has been the steadily increasing costs of tuition as an increasing portion of the financial structure of higher education is shifted to students. Increased costs to students have resulted in the emergence of complex access issues that stratify student participation across a number of variables, perhaps the most important being the ability to pay. Federal government efforts to assist within this equation have resulted in both the far greater capacity of students to borrow federal funds (or guaranteed funds), but with the result that in the changing job economy of the US students exhibit increased time to graduation, lessened success in gaining post-graduation employment and the prospect of significant debt repayment obligations. Overall, governmental policy may be contradictory within those aspects that seek to continue to provide increased access, including the rise of private sector for-profit education, and the overall ability of students and their families to sustain the associated costs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To borrow for college is to take a risk. Indebted students may not earn enough to repay their loans after they graduate or, worse, may fail to graduate at all. For students who cannot pay for college without borrowing, this risk is both a disincentive and a penalty. Greater risk undermines the efficacy of federal financial aid policy that seeks to promote access to higher education. This Essay situates education borrowing within a larger cultural and political trend toward placing risk on individuals and criticizes this development for its failure to achieve any of the typical goals of legislation that allocates risk-such as prevention of moral hazard or other, particular public policy outcomes. The Essay describes dramatic increases in student borrowing and explains the negative effects of greater reliance on debt, which increases the risk of investing in higher education. The Essay contends that recognizing student debt as a mechanism that transfers risk bolsters criticisms of increased borrowing and provides a consistent way to evaluate aid policy. The Essay outlines an insurance regime as the logical response to undesirable or unmanageable risk. Such a regime would preserve access to higher education and mitigate the danger of borrowing for college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter argues that, despite intentions, the way federal financial aid policy is constructed and currently administered can have negative consequences for poor community college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012 Spain inaugurated a reform of its higher education financial aid system inspired by three principles: cost-sharing, increasing academic performance and school efficiency. This reform has shifted the aim of the system from equality of access to a type of meritocracy that can be defined as class-biased, as it is only applied to low-income students who require scholarships to fund their university education. After contextualizing this changing Spanish financial aid system, the life-experiences of grant-holders are discussed, based on in-depth interviews with scholarship recipients. Our analysis shows how the hardships and constraints that these low-income students endure during their university education have been toughened after the reform. The paper concludes that the reform increases and naturalizes the social inequalities that traditionally exist between youths of different social classes when planning, accessing and staying in university, as the critical sociology of education has shown recurrently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question addressed in this paper is whether there is an annual net gain to the state economy on a per student basis as a result of state subsidies to private institutions of higher education. In addition, the annual economic impact of adding a student at a private institution is compared to the impact of an additional student at a public institution. Because of Maryland's 40-year history of direct appropriations to private non-profit institutions, the analysis focuses on the state of Maryland and employs input-output methodology. Due to the high percentage of out-of-state students and high tuition, the typical new student in a private higher education institution adds significant new spending to the state leading to a net positive tax payback on the subsidy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the governance of education, the Soviet university aid program in the Cold War and the conditionality of globalization.

The article presents abstracts on higher education topics, including "The Effect of State Budget Cuts on the Department Climate," "The Effectiveness of Academic Workload Models in an Institution: A Staff Perspective" and "Barriers to and Facilitators of Female Deans' Career Advancement in Higher Education: An Exploratory Study in Vietnam."

Both federal spending on financial aid and student loan default rates have increased over the past decade. These trends have intensified policymakers' concerns that some postsecondary institutions--particularly in the for-profit sector--maximize revenue derived from federal financial aid without helping students to graduate or find employment. Prior studies have analyzed federal financial aid disbursements and student loan default rates in isolation from one another. Therefore, little is known about how much federal aid flows through colleges with high student loan default rates. The present study examines change over time and across sectors in the share of federal financial aid disbursed to institutions with "low," "medium," and "high" student loan default rates. We found that the share of federal student aid flowing through colleges with medium and high student loan default rates increased substantially from 2007-08 to 2012-13, but declined in 2013-14 as the national job market improved. However, the reduction in federal financial aid disbursed to for-profit institutions with high student loan default rates occurred prior to the national job-market recovery, suggesting that federal regulations helped to divert federal financial aid from poor-performing institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increased public school accountability, heightened scrutiny of higher education, ongoing demographic shifts, and lean economic times, many in higher education are turning to the federal grant system for financial support to facilitate needed program improvements because other funding sources have been diminished or eliminated. Teacher education programs, in particular, need to revise their programs to better prepare teacher candidates to meet the sociocultural, linguistic, and academic needs of Latino and ELL students--the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population--in K-12 school settings. Findings from this case study of a five-year federal grant that our university was awarded are based on semi-structured interviews with key participants in the grant-writing and implementation processes and participant observation. Findings identify structural issues at two levels that are potential barriers to meaningful program improvement: macro issues embedded within the federal grant system itself and micro issues that occur at the university level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our history of educational subsidies and student lending reflects a fundamental tension regarding the nature of higher education: it is both a public and private good. Historical trends, notably decreasing state support relative to revenue and stagnant real wages, have resulted in higher average debt burdens for college graduates. Colleges have responded to the need to raise revenues with pricing strategies that have questionable efficiency and equity effects. Income contingent lending is one proposed solution to the growing inaccessibility of a college education. We argue that new lending programs must account for the duality of higher education as both a public and private good. We must also situate higher borrowing needs within a larger social context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON -- Despite a nascent economic recovery, education advocates, policymakers and other leaders continue to sound concerns over U.S. higher education's long-term viability and productivity. Foremost among current worries is [...]

Using a two-stage least squares model, we build a macroeconomic model of supply and demand for US higher education as measured by enrollment. We find that college education benefits (e.g. relative earnings and employment level), credit factors (e.g. student loan amounts and household debt), and financial aid shift demand. Higher tuition prices increase the appeal of higher education for students but credit constraints put a barrier on demand growth. Tuition prices and debt levels are highly correlated, suggesting that students respond to higher tuition prices by borrowing. School's operating costs as well as tuition and non-tuition revenue drive supply. Schools can use tuition prices to signal quality, and relative demand-side price-in-elasticity allows them to raise prices. For the private institution sector alone, we see a higher level of consumer price sensitivity, with schools determining enrollment levels and adjusting tuition price accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An essay is presented on the federal aid to the expansion of foreign study programs in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. It mentions the history of the federal legislation in relation to higher education and highlights the role of the federal government in developing formal area study and foreign studies in MENA. The author also discusses the factors on the development of foreign study programs on the regions educational growth.

In recent years, colleges across the nation are imperiled with declines in student enrollment, budget cuts and rising costs of higher education (Pope, 2013). The federal student aid programs, including Pell Grant, were created to increase access to postsecondary education. In 2012, the Federal Pell Grant Program was subjected to numerous revisions that could result in a substantial number of students losing their Pell within one to two semesters from their graduation. Pell Grant changes are likely to negatively impact revenues of many colleges and universities. This paper examines the effect of the reduction of maximum semesters Pell Grant can be awarded on expected graduation rates and overall college enrollment for Virginia's rural community colleges. Rural community colleges are chosen because community colleges in rural areas are more dependent on Federal grants than other types of higher learning institutions. This empirical research suggests that Pell Grant modifications requiring a reduction in the maximum number of semesters of eligibility will have a significant impact on cohort size at the beginning of each fall and graduation class sizes at the end of each semester in Virginia's rural community colleges. The decline in enrollment negatively impacts the revenue stream for these community colleges. It is debatable that factors such as improvement in employment rates and improvement in the local job markets may have a larger impact on college enrollments than Pell Grant modifications. The research may help community colleges as they work to increase enrollment and lobby for additional funding and revenue sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financing of government universities in the state of Paraná, Brazil, between 2003 and 2010 (Requião administration), is analyzed. The parameter consists of two indicators: 1) resources constitutionally bonded to education and directed to government-run universities of the state of Paraná for the maintenance of teaching activities; 2) the state of Paraná's treasury resources destined by the yearly budget to universities for the financing of teaching activities (education expenses), clinics and university hospitals (health expenses) and part of the research staff's payroll (science and technology expenses). A documentary research was undertaken and the Court of Auditors of the State of Paraná, the General Balance of the State and information provided by the State's Secretary of Science, Technology and Higher Education were consulted. Results showed that during the period under analysis, the government-run universities of the state of Paraná were under-financed, especially for the 2003-2006 period, resulting in a true decrease of state's treasury resources for Paraná's Universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses U.S. higher education enrollment and attainment goals in relation to the funding of universities and colleges. Topics include U.S. state higher education policies, U.S. federal financial-aid policies, and the costs of increased enrollment in U.S. community colleges and four-year higher education institutions.

This study investigated the financial resources allocated to the University of Benin by the Federal Government and the utilization of such funds in the science laboratories between 1992/93 to 1996/97 academic sessions. The Dean and the Heads of the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Zoology and Botany in the Faculty of Science responded to the questionnaire in the Financial Allocation and Utilization Instrument (FAUI) developed to collect appropriate data to answer the questions raised in the study. The research questions determined the application of the National University Commission (NUC) budget parameters in terms of students' enrolment, recurrent revenue allocated to the University of Benin and the disbursement of such funds to the science laboratories. The results of the study indicated that the Federal Government did not provide sufficient allocation to meet the university's financial requirements. Consequently, the science laboratories were grossly underfunded. This resulted in the lack of laboratory equipment, overcrowding of students during laboratory work, students worked under non-conducive laboratory environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article compares three great works on higher education, all written in the 1960s and 1970s. Special attention goes to how the authors assessed the impact of federal research funding on the identity of professors and their commitment to teaching. The article reveals a spectrum of perspectives, ranging from Parsons and Platt's justification of the new research complex to Robert Nisbet's denunciation of the decline of solidarity among professors and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government funding cuts have provided a new impetus to Australian universities to re-examine their value proposition and corporate focus. While the sector has gone through waves of change in recent times, institutions are now scrambling for their place in a highly competitive market. Institutions explore new revenue opportunities and digital transformation to achieve cost savings and efficiencies. The digital world is driving innovation and continuous change at such a rapid and random rate that universities are struggling to keep up with demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the paucity of transition services available for students with intellectual disabilities, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) allocated grant funding to support model demonstration programs that promote successful transition into higher education. In accordance with the objectives of the HEOA, the Florida College Collaborative (FCC) convened to facilitate the development of an inclusive postsecondary education model that supports individuals with intellectual disabilities. This effort included collaborative strategic planning, two statewide surveys of stakeholders, the development of an informational webpage, and the creation of a registry of existing postsecondary education programs in the state of Florida. A primary goal of the FCC was to lay the groundwork for a proposal for HEOA funding that would be utilized to demonstrate the model. Other states may learn from Florida's efforts and replicate strategies to improve systems and access to postsecondary education opportunities for their youth with intellectual disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is likely to have a negative effect on the research output of the United Kingdom is argued. It is concluded that RAE should be abolished as the big advance innovations and breakthroughs are stifled.

The article looks at the question of higher education funding schemes. In the first section the institutional aspects are covered. The author examines how various government agencies and other institutions finance universities and research. Next, he covers European funds dedicated to the financing of higher education and research. The article concludes with some recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the requirement to increase parental contributions towards children's university educations through federal tax code. It also makes specific reference of the U.S. Supreme Court cases including Blessing v. Freestone, Turner v. Rogers and Troxel v. Granville. It also mentions the need of financial aid in the form of loans, grants, and scholarships to students from goverment and academic institutions.

The article discusses an alternative view of the process of technology transfer in universities known as University Technology Transfer. It incorporates concepts of entrepreneurial university and open innovation to the traditional model. It proposes two alternative views in which one eliminates the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) of the university and the other retaining the same with a possibility of including a federal funding agency in the process.

Currently no distinction is made in the financing of higher education (HE) in South Africa with respect to race. It would thus be expected that all racial groups would receive the same subsidy per student. This article investigates whether it actually works this way in reality. The analysis is done for 2000 and 2006 and estimated subsidies are calculated per headcount of students as well as full-time equivalent (FTE) student numbers. A further distinction is made between calculations for all students and for contact students only. In the last instance a distinction is also made between those students studying in the Social Sciences and those in the Natural Sciences. From this analysis it follows that there are indeed differences between the subsidies paid per student and that Indian and white students still receive the biggest subsidies. This is directly linked to the fact that a greater percentage of these students study in the Natural Sciences (who receive a subsidy 2½ times more than the subsidy of students in the Social Sciences) than is the case for African and Coloured students. This unintended inequality should be addressed at school level already by encouraging a larger percentage of learners to take Mathematics and/or Science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]