Comments for Penley on Education and Energy

Comment on Forces for Change in Education by Why the Private Higher Education Sector Will Innovate and Gro « Larry Penley’s Access With Success

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 23:52:03 +0000

[...] customers’ needs. Among them is the willingness of proprietary higher education to embrace the Forces for Change in Education that I have previously identified in this blog. Among them are institutional unbundling, [...]

Comment on Department of Energy’s Strategic Plan for 2012 by Robert Yates

Robert Yates — Thu, 19 May 2011 22:25:05 +0000

Your suggestions regarding higher education are basic common sense. But as Perot once said, “the devil is in the details.” Go to almost any college campus and you’ll find powerful, trend-setting administrators that work at not working. Such administrations are modern incarnations of Roosevelt’s WPA (“We Putter Around” – quote from an octogenarian that lived through those days) and they set the pace and example for the entire system. Look at any six-figure income professor’s office hours and you’ll see two maybe three hours per week. Ask the students of these well paid professors “who teaches the class” and the typical answer is a TA or assistant to the professor. Where’s the professor? On vacation taking a break from the grueling twenty-hour work week. Who pays the professor’s salary? Some poor schmuck working 40-50 hours a week so his family can afford a Friday night “dinner” at the local Denny’s while the professor is across town at Ruth’s Chris with an undergrad co-ed.

I agree that we need the university system but your argument obviates the fact that on most campuses a D is now a C and a C has become a B and a B an A. The administrations don’t care that a senior in Education cannot write a paper free of run-on sentences and incomplete thoughts; the administrators only care about the constant flow of the working stiff’s money into the college coffers.

You can’t address the need for educated graduates unless you are first willing to point to the main problem: lazy, corrupt and aristocratic administrations that place their comfortable jobs ahead of our kid’s educations. Clean out the administrations and improvement within the educational system will happen naturally. Of course, expect a hell of a fight.

Comment on About Larry Penley by Joe Hice

Joe Hice — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:59:58 +0000

Larry: Wanted you to know I’m leaving NC State and joining the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL. We call Tampa home and are excited about the move. I’m going to revive the HiceSchool blog with a focus on the academic medical center and cancer research. Stay tuned. Best of luck in the future.
Joe

Comment on Why For-Profits Have the Edge on Undergraduate Education by Joel Klein – An Interpretation of His Remarks « Larry Penley’s Access With Success

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:30:09 +0000

[...] the case that the for-profit sector is embracing the transformation in education in columns such as Why For-Profits Have the Edge in Higher Education. For-profits, for example, have embraced change with their customer-focus and their willingness to [...]

Comment on Divided Congress and Future of Education Reform by Rob Brinson

Rob Brinson — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:36:55 +0000

Yesterday it was announced that Sallie Mae was “retreating” from the career loan market and would not accept any new applications after 12-31-10. This effectively removes the last major resource for private career education loans. Therefore any school losing its eligibility for title IV would not have the option of going to the private loan market as most other lenders have done the same already. Career education is becoming something only the rich can afford, something I can not get my head around.

Comment on Education is Not a Commodity by Marcose

Marcose — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:56:28 +0000

The education is not only to tag a student as educated, it is the knowledge by which the student or learner develop and sharp his inner skills and ability. Today's time the education is slowly become as a industry where many run here and there to earn profit, they not what they give to the student. Thanks, Marcose

Comment on Examining the Data by Carol

Carol — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:38:11 +0000

It does seem like the solution to the problem will create new problems and the ones who will get hurt are the students. The for-profit universities also have a problem on their hands of having a tarnished image. I’m not sympathizing with them, but to simply point out that they can do the right thing and regain the public’s trust. One suggestion would be to refund the students’ money, which will probably not happen, but to offer those students who dropped out the opportunity to come back (for free) and mentor or advise them – like they should have done. At least with a degree in hand the students might be able to find a better job or earn a promotion – which was their original intent.

Comment on Focus on What’s Important by William Barnett

William Barnett — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 12:52:46 +0000

I’m sorry, but I respectfully disagree. You presume that, because students aren’t “voting with their feet” and leaving for-profit institutions, these schools actually provide an “optimal educational experience.” That presumption can be called into question because students don’t always have good alternatives for several reasons.

First, the program completion rate at for-profit institutions lags severely behind that for traditional schools.

Second, for reasons of scheduling, distance, or other factors, a for-profit institution might be the only viable alternative, but not necessarily a good alternative.

Third, many students in for-profit schools are grossly unprepared for college-level work and have been denied admission by traditional schools.

Fourth, credits from for-profit schools are not always transferable to other institutions.

Moreover, the first responder to your original post points out, correctly, the problems for students who incur massive student loan debt with little to show for it at for-profit schools.

You can see my own treatment of related issues in my post, “Who Profits from For-Profit Colleges?” at http://barnettwriter.wordpress.com/.

Comment on The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking by Access With Success

Access With Success — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:12:34 +0000

[...] Posted June 28, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized | In recent weeks, there has been a lot of attention paid to gainful Employment by the Administration and Congress. However, the Department of Education recently released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on June 16 – with gainful employment noticeably missing. [...]

Comment on Assumptions about Private Sector Schools by HiceSchool

HiceSchool — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:50:43 +0000

Just met with our Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) to talk about marketing and their executive education programs. One hard working communications professional with great ideas, but a small budget, trying to promote a handful of fantastic programs to business and biotech leaders in the Research Triangle. Distance learning is just now entering the picture, but not part of our offerings just yet. Our CIMS programs are less expensive, more focused, arguably more valuable than any of those from University of the Internet, but how can we compete. The for profit universities are not going away, they are only getting stronger. If we’re serious about providing this kind of education, we need to get serious about promoting it. Competing.