ECON 259, Economics of Higher Education (Winter 2018)

Syllabus

Primary books: Savage Inequalities (Kozol) & College Unbound (Selingo) & Economics of Higher Education (Toutkoushian and Paulsen, available free online)

Feedback form

Writing assignments and problem sets:

• Reflective writing assignments: 1, 2, 3
• Synthesis assignment
  • Signaling problem set (Solutions) (see also: Acemoglu lecture slides, and the section on signaling in my 111 slides)
• Policy project

Scholarly articles and other books:

• Schools, Skills, and Synapses (Heckman 2008)
• Grawe chapters: 1, 8, 10 (here's the full book if you're interested)

Other resources:

Returns to education:

• Is college worth it? Clearly, new data say
  • Response: Should everyone go to college?
  • New York becomes only state to offer free four-year college
  • Sanders keeps focus on free college
• Is education a public good or a private good?
• Revisiting the principle of education as a public good

TRIO and college preparation:

• Cutting college prep
• The commodification of higher education

Adjunctification:

• Straight talk about adjunctification
• The adjunct revolt: how poor professors are fighting back
• How the humanities survive on exploitation

Globalization

• American campuses abroad (perspectives: Ahmari, Brodhead, Ross, Stearns, Brooks, Lehman, Bloom)
• Hidden truths about American colleges abroad
• Innocents abroad? The University of Wisconsin in Kazakhstan
• "Wisconsin Idea" gone bad at Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev University

Administrative expansion

• Fancy dorms aren’t the main reason tuition is skyrocketing
• The real reason college tuition costs so much
• How university costs keep rising despite tuition freezes

Need-blind admissions and merit aid

• Haverford drops need-blind admissions
• Do colleges need to be need blind?
• Need blind admissions is a lie
• Why 'need-blind' is the wrong goal for college admissions
• To keep students, colleges cut anything but aid
• Merit aid is a lie

Other

• Carleton's recent bond offering, Moody's rating
• Value-added college rankings: The Economist; Brookings 1; Brookings 2

OLD:

SYNTHESIS GROUP ASSIGNMENT FORM (due by Thursday's (Feb 18) class)

Schedule an introductory meeting: I like to meet with students individually for 10-15 minutes to learn more about you, your goals as a student generally, and your goals as a student in this course. It's very much casual. It's also optional, but I strongly encourage you to participate. To sign up for a slot, click the link to the left and pick a time in the Doodle poll. If none of these slots works for you, send me an email and we can work out an alternative. Meetings are in my office, Willis 215.