Representatives of the UC and California State University systems discussed the current and future financial impacts of COVID-19 at a livestream Monday.
During the discussion, which was part of the Berkeley Conversations series, the panelists reflected on the challenges the COVID-19 crisis poses to higher education, as well as the potential opportunities for innovation this unique situation offers.
The University of California could reopen just one-third to one-half of dorm rooms this fall in order to maintain safe distances among students amid the coronavirus outbreak, a top UC official said Monday, raising questions about what would happen to others without campus housing.
In the last twenty years, California’s 10-campus University of California system and 23-campus state university system have seen significant declines in financial support from the state’s politicians, a trend that will only become more worrisome as California responds to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn.
The US economy is in a free fall. Businesses have closed and people have been laid off. Unemployment could reach 30 percent in some parts of the country, and if it does there are predictions that an additional 15 percent of the population will fall into poverty. Inequality may grow with significant impact on disadvantaged groups. And this comes at a time when the US economy was already in the midst of a transition related to work.
In this policy brief for the University of California Office of the President, Zachary Bleemer and Aashish Mehta present evidence suggesting that GPA major restrictions disproportionately impact underrepresented and lower-income students with less prior academic opportunity. It links those students to postgraduate outcomes to show that, in at least one comprehensive case study, pushed-out students are sharply prevented from achieving high wages or their preferred careers after graduation.
In a study published April 8, researchers found that compared to in-person instruction, online education platforms could be used to increase enrollment in STEM programs at a lower cost.
Throughout the world, tuition at any level is regarded as a significant barrier for university access to disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. In the United States, student debt levels are at an historic high. In most cases, the political movement for free tuition does not provide any significant plan on how to make up lost revenue. Consolidating existing financial aid sources, combined with progressive tuition levels, may be a promising model.
CSHE in the News - As revealed in a report released by UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education last month, the task force overestimated the predictive value of the SAT and ACT. Its regression analysis omitted student demographic factors such as race, income and parental education level.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2020
Contact: Igor Chirikov, UC Berkeley — chirikov@berkeley.edu, (510)517-7066
ONLINE EDUCATION PLATFORMS COULD SCALE HIGH-QUALITY STEM EDUCATION
FOR DISTRESSED UNIVERSITIES
CSHE in the News - Not too long ago, the state would step in and fund the construction of a new building to meet demand. No longer, John Aubrey Douglass, a senior research fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education, told me. “State funding has already evaporated for seismic retrofitting, new buildings and maintenance,” he said, leaving donors to fill the gap.
When testing requirements are properly aligned, the best test prep is regular classroom instruction
"It is at public universities like UC Berkeley that donors can really impact the socio-economic advancement of California and society in general," said CSHE's Senior Research Fellow, John Douglass for Berkeley Blog.
In a series for @uniworldnews around "Missing Links” in university policies and practices, CSHE senior research fellow John Aubrey Douglass and senior associate Ellen Switkes discuss Hiring and promotion as key to fulfilling Higher Education mission.
"In the US, there had already been weakening demand from Chinese students partly due to tensions on American campuses amid the ongoing trade war," said Rahul Choudaha
CSHE's Zachary Bleemer suggests that competition is the key reason UC freshmen applications have dipped for a second straight year, with the percentage of California high school graduates applying to a UC campus doubling from 10% in the mid-1990s to 20% today.
John Aubrey Douglass, editor of a forthcoming book on neo-nationalism and universities, told University World News: “In an era of increased attacks on academic freedom by autocrats and demagogues, Soros’ new initiative provides a meaningful attempt to bolster links between universities in more free societies with those operating under repressive government.”
ROPS study by CSHE Associate Saul Geiser and Berkeley Graduate School of Education Maria Veronica Santelices found that a student's high-school GPA was "consistently the best predictor" of cumulative college grades and graduation.
UC Cliometric History Project Director, Zachary Bleemer discusses UC admissions policies, his ClioMetric History Project, and advice to aspiring RA’s and grad students in this interview for the Berkeley Economic Review.
Appeared in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education
BERKELEY, Calif. – Information-packed sessions on attributes and skills essential for successfully navigating higher education as a top administrator filled the first day of the Executive Leadership Academy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dear Members of the CSHE Community,
I am very pleased to announce that George R. Blumenthal, UC Santa Cruz’s 10th Chancellor and emeritus professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, has been appointed to serve as the next Faculty Director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) upon stepping down as UCSC’s Chancellor this June. He will take up the position on August 1.