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My lab:
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Philip Altbach presented some basic background information on the US college and university system. He listed degree completion as one of the major problems of US higher eduction. He even went so far to call it a 'mini-crisis'.

Paralleling the federal vs. state funding issue in Germany, education in general and higher education inparticular is a state responsoibility in the US. The information he presented was in a  lot of ways analogous to the discussion we had had in a previous session about German state university funding vs. federal research funding.

He then went on to talk about the research proportion of the Obama stimulus package. He cited 'experts' that these portions of the stimulus package worked to buffer the financial crisis. However, now that these funds have run out, most states suffer financial crises in their higher education systems, potentially worse than without the stimulus package. Worst affected state is, of course, California.

He feels that the US academia is not paying enough attention to their own profession, in terms of hiring and providing for young faculty. The top institutions still provide for many tenure-track positions, whereas on the national level, mst universities cut back on tenured positions. He brielfy mentioned the 20-year cycle of critizising tenure. He contended that tenure will persist, but that the difference between professors at prestigious universities vs. those at public or less prestigious universities is increasing.

He closed his talk by stating that this is not a happy time for higher education, but that the sky is not falling either. He didn't forget to mention a few caveats of the university ranking business.
Posted on Saturday 11 September 2010 - 20:38:47 comment: 0
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