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Even though the 2012 NAICU Annual Meeting is history, you can continue to benefit and learn from the many presentations and speeches that were offered, and are now available on line.
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Outcomes/Careers/Benefits of Higher Ed
Disruption: Coming Soon to a University Near You
Forbes Magazine - Column
January 19, 2012University experiences are increasingly being characterized by: impractical learning, out-of-touch faculty, exorbitant tuitions, time-wasting requirements and diminishing probabilities of employment. At the same time, we are living in an era when many of our heroes are university drop-outs, calling into question the validity of the university path for advancement in some of the most exciting realms of our society. Not surprisingly, we are beginning to see widespread frustration crystalizing into a variety of efforts to unseat the "monopoly position" that university education has traditionally held on job-seeking preparation, and replace it with different, often less-costly alternatives.
What the Top 1% of Earners Majored In
New York Times - Economix Blog
January 18, 2012According to the Census Bureau's 2010 American Community Survey, the majors that give you the best chance of reaching the 1 percent are pre-med, economics, biochemistry, zoology and biology, in that order. Here is a chart showing the majors of college graduates most likely to live in households with the top 1 percent of income, the percentage of degree holders with that major who make it into the 1 percent, and the percent of the 1 percent (among college grads) that hold that major.
A Liberal Arts Education
WNPR, Hartford, Conn.
January 17, 2012It used to be that a new college graduate could walk off the campus and into a job, but that's not happening right now and, new graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to find work against the background of mounting debt. As a result, many top administrators are taking a hard look at the liberal arts model to see if it still fits the job market of tomorrow. College presidents from the Annapolis Group - a consortium of liberal arts colleges - and faculty from Trinity College and George Mason University join us to discuss the value of the liberal arts in education.
The Case for a College Report Card
The Atlantic - Column
January 17, 2012Fully 36 percent of college students "did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning" over four years of college. And if they weren't at college, they would have been learning in the real world, for example, on-the-job, self-selected learning, and in exploring, including travel. Today and especially tomorrow, a degree, especially one in the arts, humanities, or social sciences from a non-elite college, may well yield employment no better than could have been obtained with a mere high school diploma. Indeed, 60 percent of the increase in college graduates from 1992 to 2008 work in such jobs.
Liberal Arts Degrees: An Asset At Some Companies
NPR - All Things Considered
January 16, 2012Technology training and know-how only get you so far in this economy. It turns out many employers now are looking for workers with a broader set of skills. Packaged food giant ConAgra's IT internship program, for example, values a degree in journalism or biology as much as one in computer science. The trend is putting a crimp in the conventional theory that specialization in higher education pays.
Top Careers For Arts Majors
Investopedia
January 16, 2012One side to an ever-persisting debate tells us that humanities, English, history and anthropology degrees have low ROI, leading to careers with minimal financial yield. Believing in this assumption, ambitious students may feel inclined to pursue technical degrees with rigid curricula. Still, even technical businesses need intelligent non-technical people to thrive and survive. More importantly, we need intermediaries who can learn on the fly to connect technical concepts with key business units. In many ways, these are areas where the liberal arts niche can thrive and contribute tangible economic value.
Elites Occupying Elites
Inside Higher Ed
January 12, 2012Ivy League students crashed a handful of December campus recruiting sessions, leading the firms to cancel other scheduled visits, and making for some seriously awkward first impressions. Unsurprisingly, the incidents got a lot of attention on campuses - even when the job market isn't dismal, finance recruitment sessions are major networking opportunities for elite students. The tactic also marked a shift, however small, for the college Occupy movement. But the strategy of going after job recruiters is rooted in history.
The Value Gap
Chronicle of Higher Education - Commentary
January 11, 2012Beyond demographics, what has really helped sustain the anything-goes pricing model in higher ed is the so-called wage premium. The reason so many students want to go to college, and the reason so many families are willing to pay anything for it, is the lifetime payoff of a degree. So going to college is worth it, but going to any college at any price may no longer be worth it. About half of Americans think that the higher-education system is doing a poor or fair job in providing value for the money spent, according to a Pew Research Center survey. College presidents seem tone-deaf to those concerns.
Higher Education No Longer a Safety Net Against Hunger
The Epoch Times, Worldwide
January 11, 2012A decade ago, a college degree may have been the answer to a better life, but today that may not be the case. A report released by the Food Bank For New York City, a hunger-relief organization, shows the percentage of college-educated residents with difficulty affording food increased by 25 percent between 2010 and 2011, and for those with a graduate/professional degree, by 11 percent. During the same time period, the percentage of college graduated residents needing food assistance in the next 12 months, including food stamps or emergency food, increased by 30 percent.
How business killed the college experience
Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah - Opinion Piece
January 10, 2012The liberal arts used to be the foundation of the college education. The idea behind getting a college education was not to make money in the end. It was not to have a career. The idea was to develop a student into a whole person, someone who could draw together the connections from art, literature, music, history, politics and science. It was only after World War II with advent of the G.I. bill that colleges began to lure students with the concept that going to college could earn them more money. Hence the skill-based majors were born.
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