Professor Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, writes in this essay posted at Minding the Campus about the lack of information/data in three critical areas of higher education. His point is that accountability for billions spent on higher education is sorely lacking. The three areas he discusses are faculty teaching loads, the outcome for students who receive Pell grants, and what exactly students are and aren’t learning. Here’s a taste:
Let us move on to the Pell Grant program, on which our nation spends more than $40 billion a year. Surely with such a large expenditure, we would have and publish detailed statistics on how recipients fare in college, right? NO. What is the percent of Pell Grant recipients at four-year colleges receiving their degree within four, five, or six years? The Department of Education has such data for graduates of every accredited school in the country -why don’t they have it for those receiving the federal government’s largest grant program?
Great question.
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