China Bans 7 Topics in University Classrooms
In an effort to curb Western influence, China’s leaders have reportedly banned the discussion of seven subjects in university classrooms, including press freedom, universal values, and the historical mistakes of the Chinese Communist Party.
Chinese professors and political analysts said a recent directive from Beijing to universities indicated an awareness among the country’s leaders that the government is losing its ideological grip over students and younger faculty members.
» via The Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscription may be required for some content)
Military grooms new officers for war in cyberspace
Once viewed as an obscure and even nerdy pursuit, cyber is now seen as one of the hottest fields in warfare — “a great career field in the future,” said Ryan Zacher, a junior at the Air Force Academy outside Colorado Springs, Colo., who switched from aeronautical engineering to computer science.
Last year the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., began requiring freshmen to take a semester on cybersecurity, and it is adding a second required cyber course for juniors next year.
The school offered a major in cyber operations for the first time this year to the freshman class, and 33 midshipmen, or about 3 percent of the freshmen, signed up for it. Another 79 are majoring in computer engineering, information technology or computer science, bringing majors with a computer emphasis to about 10 percent of the class.
“There’s a great deal of interest, much more than we could possibly, initially, entertain,” said the academy’s superintendent, Vice Adm. Michael Miller.
» via Yahoo! News
Students Receive Subsidized Studies in Hungary -- for a Price
When Mr. Szabo, 24, graduates soon from law school, he will be free to go wherever in the world he wants. But Mr. Birtalan, 18, was required to sign a contract at the beginning of his first year as a sociology major because of a new rule introduced in September. As a beneficiary of the state-funded university system, he will be obliged to work for two years in Hungary for every year of his subsidized studies.
Such contracts, the only ones of their kind in Europe, have met with broad opposition and street protests from both high school and university students.
If Mr. Birtalan finishes a typical three-year degree, his movements will be restricted for six years after graduation, when he will be in his late 20s, or even older if he pursues post-graduate studies domestically. The rule applies to all students at state universities, as well as those at state-funded places in private institutions.
» via The New York Times (Subscription may be required for some content)
This is causing universities to rethink their value to students,” says Professor Koller, who is from Stanford University’s computer science department. The most prestigious universities are always going to have enough demand for places - but the emergence of high-quality online courses could be tougher for middle-ranking institutions. Why would you pay high fees to sit through a mediocre lecture, when you could go online and watch world experts at another university, even if it’s in another country? “The universities in the middle will really have to think about their proposition,” she says.
Federal Court Overturns Ruling That Colleges Said Undermined Student Privacy
A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the Chicago Tribune’s lawsuit to gain access to student records from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had no business being adjudicated in federal court. Instead, the court ruled, the case belongs in state court because the newspaper’s claims to view the student records—part of its investigation into political corruption in university admissions— “arises under Illinois law,” not federal law.
The decision, by a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, reverses a district court’s ruling last year that said federal student-privacy law did not forbid the university to provide the records to the Tribune. That 2011 ruling unnerved college officials, who had long assumed that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, the main federal student-privacy law, prohibited such disclosures.
» via The Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscription may be required for some content)
Are Student Loans the Next Debt Crisis?
This isn’t a new problem – student debt has ballooned more than 500 percent since 1999. And while the loan default rate was much higher in the early 1990s, the number’s been trending back up since 2005 – suggesting what the NACBA is calling a potential “debt bomb.” Their survey says almost half of bankruptcy attorneys have seen “significant increases” in potential clients. In fact, 2 in 10 have seen their caseload jump more than 50 percent, and another 4 in 10 have a 25 to 50 percent larger caseload.
So the NACBA is now calling for the government to allow student loans – both private and federal – to be cancelled in bankruptcy, as they were prior to 1976.
Even if that were to happen, it’s still far from ideal for both the taxpayer and the graduate. Most bad marks on your credit report stay there for up to seven years. Bankruptcy sticks around for as many as 10 and can knock up to 240 points off your credit score, making it difficult to get credit and possibly even employment.
» via Mint
good:
Hustlin’: Why We Should Stop Obsessing Over What College Majors Make Us Rich
We get it, English majors are poor. But instead of following the money, shouldn’t we be asking why our culture undervalues arts and humanities? College students should certainly know what they’re getting into when they choose to study, say, philosophy or German, especially with tuition costs and student loan interest rates rising. But those figures should be coupled with a few important caveats.
I would agree. Yet there are a lot of employers who expect a degree. Even if the work does not need that knowledge. I have a animation degree. I had to get it if I wanted to work in animation. Why? Because the people who hire animators will not even look at my art unless I have that degree. Yet the work and skill does not need the college degree. All you need is good computer and art skills. Things you can gain on your own.
What a sad world we live in.
(via braddogott)
Thank you very much federal student aid programs.
And the way the laws are written. If you want a college education. You have to go threw the goverment. Almost no options for private funding options for schooling.
(via antigovernmentextremist)
nodiggityok asked: if you don’t want government funded education, then how do you plan on educating everyone? well obviously the economy is affected by more than just education however in general education does improve it. we would have an even worse economy without education. ….i loathe universities though. that is a good reason to change, but not abolish education…or education funding by the government at least.
First off, taxation is theft. Taxation is stealing money from an individual for your gain (or someone else’s gain). Whether you believe that it’s okay to steal is up to you—maybe you support utilitarianism—but it nonetheless theft. There are plenty of leftists (i.e. Benjamin Tucker) who agree with this notion. In fact, Bleeding Heart Libertarians is a website specifically dedicated to solving social issues through libertarian means. And don’t try to hold some kind of high ground on me; the libertarians on here are a few of the strictest anti-corporate individuals I’ve ever met.
Second, read the first post more carefully: rejecting government-controlled and forcibly-funded education ≠ rejecting the existence of education.
As for, “…how do you plan on educating everyone?”—I don’t plan to educate anyone. If an individual desires to attend a university, I support his or her voluntary choice to do so. Other people simply do not want to attend college, yet the government still forces them to pay for these schools to exist. Second, read “The Broken Window.” It’s short and it will clarify a few things for you. Every cent used for public schools is stolen from us in the first place, so, when you dismantle government education, you return all of that money to families and students for them to use as they wish. And either way pre-university schools are funded by property taxes (not income taxes), so don’t pretend you’re only going to tax the rich.
Education, what a sat state we are in. Loans and tuition, two things that come with price of a degree.
(via thephrygiancap)
Education reform - vital questions in the debate
Uploaded by AlexMerced on Aug 29, 2011
alex merced puts forth many of the questions at the heart of the education issue to illustrate how complex and dynamic this issue is to the economy as a whole.
Http://www.Hayekforums.com
The Debt Crisis at American Colleges
How do colleges manage it? Kenyon has erected a $70 million sports palace featuring a 20-lane olympic pool. Stanford’s professors now get paid sabbaticals every fourth year, handing them $115,000 for not teaching. Vanderbilt pays its president $2.4 million. Alumni gifts and endowment earnings help with the costs. But a major source is tuition payments, which at private schools are breaking the $40,000 barrier, more than many families earn. Sadly, there’s more to the story. Most students have to take out loans to remit what colleges demand. At colleges lacking rich endowments, budgeting is based on turning a generation of young people into debtors.
As this semester begins, college loans are nearing the $1 trillion mark, more than what all households owe on their credit cards. Fully two-thirds of our undergraduates have gone into debt, many from middle class families, who in the past paid for much of college from savings. The College Board likes to say that the average debt is “only” $27,650. What the Board doesn’t say is that when personal circumstances go wrong, as can happen in a recession, interest, late payment penalties, and other charges can bring the tab up to $100,000. Those going on to graduate school, as upwards of half will, can end up facing twice that.
» via The Atlantic
(via sahrawi)
