Oil, debt and transfers

Oil boom sends gusher of cash to Texas universities Over the past five years, two university systems have seen their endowments grow by around 70 percent as oil revenue floods in at the rate of almost $1 billion a year. At a time most state universities are fighting just to maintain programs, UT and A&M are spending hundreds of millions a year on new construction projects while maintaining tuition costs routinely cited as among the most affordable in the nation. (The Dallas Morning News via University Business)

Blame Congress for College Ratings System Problems  Lawmakers should repeal the absurd ban in place now on a federal student unit record data system, so that the Department and other stakeholders can at least have the benefit of accurate data. (Washington Monthly)

Business School, Disrupted Should Harvard Business School enter the business of online education, and, if so, how? (The New York Times)

Why Colleges Should Encourage Students to Transfer California universities have developed a strong model for students who want to move from two- to four-year schools. (The Atlantic via University Business)

Colleges Are Buying Stuff They Can’t Afford and Making Students Pay For It According to researchers with University of California–Berkeley, the a key factor in the rising cost of college is driven by expenditures largely unrelated to either the quality of the education, teaching or maintaining campus facilities. Rather, college is getting unimaginably expensive for both institutions and students because it costs so much to finance the business of education, thanks to Wall Street lenders. (The Nation via NAICU)

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