Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- File Type
Articles 1 - 30 of 34
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Policy Considerations For Enhancing Student Access And Persistence In A World In Which Tuition Keeps Rising, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Policy Considerations For Enhancing Student Access And Persistence In A World In Which Tuition Keeps Rising, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] The United States no longer leads the world in college completion rates. Inequality in college access rates by income have barely narrowed over the last 25 to 30 years and inequality in college completion rates have narrowed even less. The groups in the population that are growing the most rapidly are those that have historically been underrepresented in higher education. What types of federal policies might help to address these issues in the face of tuition levels at private colleges and universities that have risen for over a century by an average of 2 to 3.5 percent a year …
The Changing Nature Of Faculty Employment, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang
The Changing Nature Of Faculty Employment, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] The last two decades of the twentieth century saw a significant growth in the shares of faculty members in American colleges and universities that are part-time or are full-time without tenure-track status. Growing student enrollments faced by academic institutions during tight financial times and growing differentials between the salaries of part-time and full-time non-tenure track faculty on the one hand, and tenured and tenure-track faculty on the other hand are among the explanations given for these trends. However, there have been few econometric studies that seek to test these hypotheses. Our paper begins by presenting information, broken down by …
The Sources And Uses Of Annual Giving At Private Research Universities, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Christopher L. Smith
The Sources And Uses Of Annual Giving At Private Research Universities, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Christopher L. Smith
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] In 1998-99, Cornell University and Duke University were ranked second and third in the nation, respectively, in terms of the volume of giving each received from external donors. That year Cornell reported receiving $341.3 million in annual giving and Duke reported receiving $331.0 million. The similarity in the total volume of giving that the two institutions received is actually very misleading. Fifty-four percent of Cornell’s gift total came from alumni, while only 15.3% of Duke’s gift total came from alumni. Similarly, 79.7% of Cornell’s gift total came from individuals (alumni plus other individuals) while only 26.2% of Duke’s gifts …
Crafting A Class: The Trade Off Between Merit Scholarships And Enrolling Lower-Income Students, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang, Jared M. Levin
Crafting A Class: The Trade Off Between Merit Scholarships And Enrolling Lower-Income Students, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang, Jared M. Levin
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] It is well-known that test scores are correlated with students’ socio-economic backgrounds. Hence to the extent that colleges are successful in “buying” higher test score students, one should expect that their enrollment of students from families in the lower tails of the family income distribution should decline. However, somewhat surprisingly, there have been no efforts to test if this is occurring. Our paper presents such a test. While institutional level data on the dollar amounts of merit scholarships offered by colleges and universities are not available, data are available on the number of National Merit Scholarship (henceforth NMS) winners …
The Supply Of American Higher Education Institutions, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
The Supply Of American Higher Education Institutions, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] An extraordinary amount of research has already been directed towards understanding the behavior of selective private institutions; Clotfelter (1996) and Ehrenberg (2000a) are but two recent examples of this research. In spite of the fact that the vast majority of American students attend public institutions, much less is known about their behavior and how the states that support them interact with them and with the private institutions within the states’ boundaries. I turn next to a summary of some of the things that we do know and a set of issues that still needs attention from researchers. In the …
The Future Of Affirmative Action, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
The Future Of Affirmative Action, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
This paper, presented at the conference on Now What: Affirmative Action and Higher Education in 2004 and Beyond in Ithaca, NY, traces the barriers faced by Jews in obtaining access to higher education in the first half of the 21st century and the history of how those barriers were broken. The author then draws a parallel to the barriers faced by today’s underrepresented minorities in selective higher education and attempts to make gains in the ability of those minorites to attend public and private institutions.
Has The Growth Of Science Crowded Out Other Things At Universities?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Julia Epifantseva
Has The Growth Of Science Crowded Out Other Things At Universities?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Julia Epifantseva
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] While many faculty members associated with the arts and humanities and the social sciences bemoan what appears to be an ever increasing share of campus resources going to science, there is little hard evidence about whether the growth in science has come at the expense of other fields at universities. In this brief paper, we present an initial approach to this question, using data for a recent 20-year period from the colleges of arts and sciences at a set of selective private research universities. Specifically, we examine whether the shares of faculty positions and of the faculty salary bill …
Why Universities Need Institutional Researchers More Than They Realize?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Why Universities Need Institutional Researchers More Than They Realize?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
This paper discusses the benefits of universities maintaining and utilizing institutional researchers, citing specific examples of invaluable research conducted that proved instrumental in providing data and surveys for key papers and discussions by faculty at other institutions, as well as the importance in using offices of institutional research to guide decision-making at universities.
Changes In The Academic Labor Market For Economists, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Changes In The Academic Labor Market For Economists, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] American colleges and universities are increasingly substituting non-tenure track full-time and part-time faculty for full-time tenured and tenure track faculty. Moreover, institutions of public higher education, where almost two-thirds of the full-time faculty members at four-year institutions are employed, are under severe financial pressure. The share of state budgets devoted to public higher education is declining. The salaries of economics department faculty members at public higher education institutions have fallen substantially relative to the salaries of their counterparts at private higher education institutions and it is becoming increasingly difficult for the publics to compete for top faculty in economics. …
Why Can’T Colleges Control Their Costs?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Why Can’T Colleges Control Their Costs?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] Over 30 years ago William Bowen (1967) studied data from a set of selective private institutions and concluded that their tuition levels had been rising, on average, by 2 to 3 percent more annually than the rate of inflation ever since the turn of the 20th century. He attributed this partially to the increased specialization of knowledge and the growth of new fields of study. But first and foremost, this occurred because the nature of the educational process did not permit academia to share in the productivity gains that were leading to the growth of earnings in the rest …
Do Tenured And Tenure-Track Faculty Matter?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang
Do Tenured And Tenure-Track Faculty Matter?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
During the last two decades, there has been a significant growth in the share of faculty members at American colleges and universities that are employed in part-time or full-time non tenure-track positions. Our study is the first to address whether the increased usage of such faculty adversely affects undergraduate students’ graduation rates. Using institutional level panel data from the College Board and other sources, our econometric analyses suggest that the increased usage of these faculty types does adversely affect graduation rates at 4-year colleges, with the largest impact on students being felt at the public master’s level institutions.
Policy Considerations For Enhancing Student Access And Persistence In A World In Which Tuition Keeps Rising, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Policy Considerations For Enhancing Student Access And Persistence In A World In Which Tuition Keeps Rising, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] The United States no longer leads the world in college completion rates. Inequality in college access rates by income have barely narrowed over the last 25 to 30 years and inequality in college completion rates have narrowed even less. The groups in the population that are growing the most rapidly are those that have historically been underrepresented in higher education. What types of federal policies might help to address these issues in the face of tuition levels at private colleges and universities that have risen for over a century by an average of 2 to 3.5 percent a year …
The Changing Nature Of Faculty Employment, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang
The Changing Nature Of Faculty Employment, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] The last two decades of the twentieth century saw a significant growth in the shares of faculty members in American colleges and universities that are part-time or are full-time without tenure-track status. Growing student enrollments faced by academic institutions during tight financial times and growing differentials between the salaries of part-time and full-time non-tenure track faculty on the one hand, and tenured and tenure-track faculty on the other hand are among the explanations given for these trends. However, there have been few econometric studies that seek to test these hypotheses. Our paper begins by presenting information, broken down by …
Declining Phd Attainment Of Graduates Of Selective Private Academic Institutions, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Jeffrey A. Groen, Matthew P. Nagowski
Declining Phd Attainment Of Graduates Of Selective Private Academic Institutions, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Jeffrey A. Groen, Matthew P. Nagowski
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] On average, the typical American citizen who received a PhD during the last 40 years did so approximately 9 years after she received her bachelor’s degree. Thus, if we divide the number of American citizens receiving PhDs in a year by the number of American citizens receiving bachelor’s degrees 9 years earlier, we obtain an estimate of the fraction of American citizen college graduates in the earlier year who ultimately receive PhDs. This fraction rose from .042 for 1954 bachelor’s recipients (1963 PhDs) to about .07 for 1962 bachelor’s recipients (1971 PhDs). The fraction then plummeted over the next …
Crafting A Class: The Trade Off Between Merit Scholarships And Enrolling Lower-Income Students, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang, Jared M. Levin
Crafting A Class: The Trade Off Between Merit Scholarships And Enrolling Lower-Income Students, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang, Jared M. Levin
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] It is well-known that test scores are correlated with students’ socio-economic backgrounds. Hence to the extent that colleges are successful in “buying” higher test score students, one should expect that their enrollment of students from families in the lower tails of the family income distribution should decline. However, somewhat surprisingly, there have been no efforts to test if this is occurring. Our paper presents such a test. While institutional level data on the dollar amounts of merit scholarships offered by colleges and universities are not available, data are available on the number of National Merit Scholarship (henceforth NMS) winners …
The Changing Nature Of The Faculty And Faculty Employment Practices, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
The Changing Nature Of The Faculty And Faculty Employment Practices, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] The nature of faculty employment practices at American colleges and universities is changing rapidly. So too is the gender, racial and ethnic composition of American faculty members. These changes, along with the growing importance and costs of scientific research, the increased commercialization of faculty research, the elimination of mandatory retirement for tenured faculty members and the growing costs of retiree health insurance, the growing salary differentials across universities and academic fields within an university, and the growth of collective bargaining for tenured and tenure-track faculty and graduate assistants at public universities and now adjuncts at private universities, have put …
Involving Undergraduates In Research To Encourage Them To Undertake Phd Study In Economics, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Involving Undergraduates In Research To Encourage Them To Undertake Phd Study In Economics, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
This paper discusses the reasons for the recent decline in Economics PhDs given out to American citizens and posits that the trend could be curbed if faculty were encouraged to utilize undergraduates more frequently in research projects and papers within not only the classroom, but within their respective departments at large.
Why Universities Need Institutional Researchers More Than They Realize?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Why Universities Need Institutional Researchers More Than They Realize?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
This paper discusses the benefits of universities maintaining and utilizing institutional researchers, citing specific examples of invaluable research conducted that proved instrumental in providing data and surveys for key papers and discussions by faculty at other institutions, as well as the importance in using offices of institutional research to guide decision-making at universities.
Changes In The Academic Labor Market For Economists, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Changes In The Academic Labor Market For Economists, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] American colleges and universities are increasingly substituting non-tenure track full-time and part-time faculty for full-time tenured and tenure track faculty. Moreover, institutions of public higher education, where almost two-thirds of the full-time faculty members at four-year institutions are employed, are under severe financial pressure. The share of state budgets devoted to public higher education is declining. The salaries of economics department faculty members at public higher education institutions have fallen substantially relative to the salaries of their counterparts at private higher education institutions and it is becoming increasingly difficult for the publics to compete for top faculty in economics. …
Going Broke By Degree: A Review Essay, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Going Broke By Degree: A Review Essay, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
In this review, the author posits that Richard Vedder’s book Going Broke By Degree: Why College Costs Too Much, while providing a good diagnosis of the problems and issues facing public higher education, suffers from a heavily political bent which skews Vedder’s policy conclusions away from empirical evidence and toward ideology. The author’s essay attempts to clarify for the reader which of Vedder’s statements are based on philosophy and which are based on fact.
Do Tenured And Tenure-Track Faculty Matter?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang
Do Tenured And Tenure-Track Faculty Matter?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Liang Zhang
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
During the last two decades, there has been a significant growth in the share of faculty members at American colleges and universities that are employed in part-time or full-time non tenure-track positions. Our study is the first to address whether the increased usage of such faculty adversely affects undergraduate students’ graduation rates. Using institutional level panel data from the College Board and other sources, our econometric analyses suggest that the increased usage of these faculty types does adversely affect graduation rates at 4-year colleges, with the largest impact on students being felt at the public master’s level institutions.
Who Bears The Growing Cost Of Science At Universities?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Michael J. Rizzo, George H. Jakubson
Who Bears The Growing Cost Of Science At Universities?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Michael J. Rizzo, George H. Jakubson
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Scientific research has come to dominate many American university campuses. The growing importance of science is due to exciting breakthroughs in biology, information technology and advanced materials that have promise of tremendously improving human welfare. Along with the growing importance of science has come a growing flow of external funds to universities to support research. What is not well known, however, is that increasingly the costs of research are being funded at universities are coming out of internal university funds. Over the last three decades of the 20th century the percentage of university research that is funded out of internal …
The Sources And Uses Of Annual Giving At Private Research Universities, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Christopher L. Smith
The Sources And Uses Of Annual Giving At Private Research Universities, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Christopher L. Smith
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] In 1998-99, Cornell University and Duke University were ranked second and third in the nation, respectively, in terms of the volume of giving each received from external donors. That year Cornell reported receiving $341.3 million in annual giving and Duke reported receiving $331.0 million. The similarity in the total volume of giving that the two institutions received is actually very misleading. Fifty-four percent of Cornell’s gift total came from alumni, while only 15.3% of Duke’s gift total came from alumni. Similarly, 79.7% of Cornell’s gift total came from individuals (alumni plus other individuals) while only 26.2% of Duke’s gifts …
Reducing Inequality In Higher Education: Where Do We Go From, Ronald Ehrenberg
Reducing Inequality In Higher Education: Where Do We Go From, Ronald Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] Differences in inequality in college enrollment rates across students from families of different socioeconomic levels have only marginally narrowed since the early 1970s. Moreover, students from lower-income families are much more likely to start higher education in two-year public colleges and public four-year institutions than are their higher income counterparts. Among students who initially enter four-year institutions, six year graduation rates of students from families with incomes of less than $50,000 are substantially less than the graduation rates of students from families with incomes of more than $75,000. Finally, at a set of our nation’s most selective private colleges …
The Changing Nature Of The Faculty And Faculty Employment Practices, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
The Changing Nature Of The Faculty And Faculty Employment Practices, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] The nature of faculty employment practices at American colleges and universities is changing rapidly. So too is the gender, racial and ethnic composition of American faculty members. These changes, along with the growing importance and costs of scientific research, the increased commercialization of faculty research, the elimination of mandatory retirement for tenured faculty members and the growing costs of retiree health insurance, the growing salary differentials across universities and academic fields within an university, and the growth of collective bargaining for tenured and tenure-track faculty and graduate assistants at public universities and now adjuncts at private universities, have put …
The Supply Of American Higher Education Institutions, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
The Supply Of American Higher Education Institutions, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] An extraordinary amount of research has already been directed towards understanding the behavior of selective private institutions; Clotfelter (1996) and Ehrenberg (2000a) are but two recent examples of this research. In spite of the fact that the vast majority of American students attend public institutions, much less is known about their behavior and how the states that support them interact with them and with the private institutions within the states’ boundaries. I turn next to a summary of some of the things that we do know and a set of issues that still needs attention from researchers. In the …
The Future Of Affirmative Action, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
The Future Of Affirmative Action, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
This paper, presented at the conference on Now What: Affirmative Action and Higher Education in 2004 and Beyond in Ithaca, NY, traces the barriers faced by Jews in obtaining access to higher education in the first half of the 21st century and the history of how those barriers were broken. The author then draws a parallel to the barriers faced by today’s underrepresented minorities in selective higher education and attempts to make gains in the ability of those minorites to attend public and private institutions.
Has The Growth Of Science Crowded Out Other Things At Universities?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Julia Epifantseva
Has The Growth Of Science Crowded Out Other Things At Universities?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Julia Epifantseva
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] While many faculty members associated with the arts and humanities and the social sciences bemoan what appears to be an ever increasing share of campus resources going to science, there is little hard evidence about whether the growth in science has come at the expense of other fields at universities. In this brief paper, we present an initial approach to this question, using data for a recent 20-year period from the colleges of arts and sciences at a set of selective private research universities. Specifically, we examine whether the shares of faculty positions and of the faculty salary bill …
Ilr Impact Brief - College Tuition Creeps Ever Higher — Here’S Why, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ilr Impact Brief - College Tuition Creeps Ever Higher — Here’S Why, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] A variety of factors are responsible for the rapidly escalating costs of undergraduate education in the United States. Concern about quality — of students, faculty, course offerings, physical plant, and image — militates against a focus on efficiency and productivity at the selective private colleges and universities; a perception among students and families that price signals quality gives the less selective privates cover to keep raising rates. Public colleges and universities, where relatively higher increases have been recorded, continue to grapple with diminishing state appropriations as a share of their budgets.
Why Universities Need Institutional Researchers More Than They Realize?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Why Universities Need Institutional Researchers More Than They Realize?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
This paper discusses the benefits of universities maintaining and utilizing institutional researchers, citing specific examples of invaluable research conducted that proved instrumental in providing data and surveys for key papers and discussions by faculty at other institutions, as well as the importance in using offices of institutional research to guide decision-making at universities.