Higher Ed Challenges

The March 16 President’s Page, summarizing a recent talk by President Eisgruber ’83, highlights several issues that loom large, in this part of the country at any rate:

• the proportion of incoming college freshmen taking one or more remedial courses;
• the completion rate of bachelor’s-degree programs within six years — or “ever”;
• the continuous rise in the cost of attending college, in large part driven by mushrooming “fees”;
• the drive to “grow” certain public universities by offering very large financial inducements to select out-of-state students while keeping staff levels constant;
• the growing, perhaps inevitable, interest of public research universities in the business and financial-gain possibilities of scientific and engineering developments and discoveries.