While watching this morning’s House Education & Labor Committee hearing on college accreditation and course credits, I picked up on six big questions that a lot of policymakers are chewing on. Higher education is transforming quickly before our eyes, but governments have been slow to adapt to many of these pathbreaking changes.
I’m interested in how our readers would respond to some of these BIG questions on the future of accountability in higher education:
1. As the monolithic traditional university begins to break down and diversify, should we continue to trust providers of higher education and accreditation agencies to provide meaningful accountability?
2. Is there a sound method of measuring student learning outcomes in higher education that won’t turn college courses into workshops where students learn simple facts, algorithms, and skills?
3. Now that the federal government is providing a lot of higher education’s revenue through student loans, how much responsibility does the government have to ensure quality and monitor costs?
4. Is there a trade-off between innovation and regulating quality in higher education? If so, what is the appropriate way to balance these competing forces?
5. If higher education’s traditional accountability structures are unable to provide adequate oversight, can we make use of other ways of ensuring quality instead, like through informed consumer demand?
6. When measuring course credit hours, how do we allow innovative new approaches in education to meet the standards implied from traditional rules on seat time, lab experiences, etc.?
After sharing your thoughts, please stay tuned for the next few days for Ben Miller’s responses to these complex—and sometimes contentious!—questions.
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5/11/2012 | U.S. News & World Report highlights ideas from "Moving On Up: How Tuition Tax Breaks Increasingly Favor the Upper-Middle Class." 
5/11/2012 | In Diverse, Steve Burd comments on the Obama administration's plans to address student debt. 
5/11/2012 | Kevin Carey talks to Salon about the government's role in rising student debt.
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I think the questions I would like to ask are:
1. Does the government have the right to provide financing to students attending college with the American tax payers money?
2. If so, does the goverment have the right to provide said financing only colleges or must the government provide it to other alternative educations such as
3. What success can the government measure and how does the government plan to track such success?
4. What obligation does the government have to the tax payer if a student quits their college degree program, or alternative education?
5. Should the government institute new standards to replace the current regulations we have in place now?
6. What ways can the government increase enrollment numbers in alternative education programs that provide lifetime productive skills?
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