In case you missed our coverage of the MPR Bright Ideas forum on how to get a good, affordable education, here’s the video (above) and the transcript (below). ***********FULL TRANSCRIPT*************** Stephen Smith: This is “Bright Ideas: Fresh Thoughts on Big Issues” from Minnesota Public Radio News. I’m Stephen Smith. Each month we invite a guest Read more →
MPR News Intelligence on higher education
Archives for November 2011

The Minnesota State College Student Association (MSCSA) is working on a survey to see how well federal and state disclosure laws on textbook pricing are being carried out on two-year campuses. You may remember that in January I I wrote about the results of another survey by the association and the state Office of Higher Read more →
Duncan Calls for Urgency on College Costs As Occupy movement protests helped push spiraling college costs into the national spotlight, Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged higher-education officials Tuesday to “think more creatively — and with much greater urgency” about ways to contain costs and reduce student debt. (The New York Times) Study assesses graduation rates Report finds analyzing characteristics Read more →

After changing his tune to the news media on the University of Minnesota’s cutback in transfer students, MnSCU’s interim academic and student affairs chief Larry Litecky turned down my request yesterday to explain why. MnSCU spokeswoman Melinda Voss said he had “no time” this week to discuss his change of views, and essentially repeated what Read more →

I’ll be live-blogging this conversation on MPR’s Midmorning show with Kerri Miller tomorrow at 9 a.m. There should be a higher-education-and-training component in there, so please follow along — and feel free to comment. I think it’ll be a good conversation. Here’s the program intro: Educators, employers and economists say it all the time: American Read more →
“The ability to cash out six-figure sums upon retirement appears to make MnSCU an outlier not merely compared to the private sector, but compared to other state agencies and departments as well.” — Rep. Joe Atkins (DFL-Inver Grove Heights) in the Pioneer Press on his request that the state legislative auditor look into unused sick Read more →

“In the beginning there was a lot of frustrations with it and a lot of confusion. Students didn’t think they were informed enough about it. They didn’t understand what it meant. (Now) more students are passing along the word that this might be a good idea for college student. They can go to health services Read more →
Want cheaper tuition? Find religion With church membership dwindling and more families struggling to afford the cost of college, many private religiously-affiliated colleges and universities are slashing tuition and offering incentives to attract new students — and to stay afloat. (CNN via NAICU) Universities need to get better at telling their stories Universities have multiple narratives to Read more →