The evidence is piling up and it’s not in students’ favor.  Here’s another report about students spending less time studying.  It’s difficult verifying the research methods at work on the studies cited recently to support this falloff in student studying, but given how often we are hearing about it, it is probably time for Boise State to take its own look at the quality and quantity of student preparation for classes.

Click to read article: College Students Spending Less Time Studying

When I decided to enter the blogosphere with my own commentary on the state of higher education, I did so with the intent of sharing with my colleagues across the campus some of the writings on innovation and reform of higher education.  Although a staunch advocate of higher education, I must admit that I have grown increasingly restive over the years of my presidency at Boise State with the inability, and in some cases unwillingness, of administration, faculty and staff across most of the higher education landscape to view our mission and role through the lens of the change and innovation required in these new and different times. (more…)

The Association of Governing Boards concluded its annual meeting in Washington D.C. today and I had an opportunity to attend and listen to one of the more interesting presentations on its agenda.  Richard Arum, a professor of New York University, one of the co-authors of a new study entitled, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, presented his findings.  In short, the results of his research show a serious decline in academic rigor.  More than one-third of students showed no improvement in critical thinking skills after four years of college with 35% of students reporting studying five hours less per week and 50% said they didn’t have a single course that required 20 pages of writing in their previous semester.

This study cannot be ignored and should serve as a starting point for a discussion on academic rigor at Boise State.  In the meantime, take a look at Arum’s book for a full account of the study.

For the ninth straight time since I’ve been President of Boise State, I appeared before the State Board of Education to request a tuition increase, this time 5.7% over last year’s tuition of $5,566 per semester, which the Board approved.   In the years I’ve appeared with my colleagues for the annual tuition-setting exercise, I cannot recall one university or college passing up the opportunity to request an increase.  It seems there is always a good reason for a tuition increase.

In good times when the State was funding higher education, we argued it wasn’t enough.  In bad times, we argued that we had to make up for the decline in state funding.  And in both good and bad times when enrollments were growing, we pointed to new students as the reason for our increase.

As far as Idaho is concerned, we could always argue, as we did yesterday, that Idaho’s public universities and college have one of the lowest tuition rates across the West and probably the nation.   So we’re playing catch up here in Idaho.   In fact, Boise State can claim the lowest tuition of Idaho’s universities after yesterday’s action. (more…)