U of Texas

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MOOCs in the Muck

Byuclafaculty

Good question! Inside Higher Ed today runs an article on MOOC offerings at the U of Texas and Cornell.  At the former, there are the usual extremely low completion rates.  At the latter, resident students are asking the question in the photo at the right: …”A year after UT began rolling out nine Massive Online Open Courses, the results are in,” The Daily Texan wrote in a Jan. 29 editorial… Among the “results” are completion rates ranging from 1 to 13 percent, the lack of credit granting courses and the $150,000 to $300,000 production costs…  (S)tudents at Cornell voiced similar concerns,…

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UC Submits Legal Brief on Affirmative Action to US Supreme Court

Byuclafaculty

There is currently a challenge to the University of Texas’ affirmative action plan before the U.S. Supreme Court. Various interested parties have submitted friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the U of Texas program. Inside Higher Ed today carries a lengthy article on the case. California voters enacted Prop 209 in 1996 which barred affirmative action in student admissions, so it might seem that UC has no interest in the Texas case.  (In 1995, before voters enacted Prop 209, the Regents had enacted a similar ban.  That ban was removed after Prop 209 made it redundant.)  However, UC has submitted a…

Oops! U of Texas Faculty Productivity Not So Bad After All

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed reports that the U of Texas-Austin – in response to a critical report sponsored by Gov. Perry on faculty productivity – produced its own report. Excerpt from the Inside Higher Ed article: Measuring all instructors by the tuition revenue they bring in (on a per-credit analysis) and the outside research support they win, the faculty generated about about $658 million in revenue in 2009-10 (with about $400 million of that coming from external research). These faculty members were paid about $318 million in salary and benefits from state funds — meaning that the state is gaining twice…

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CPEC Says Goodbye

Byuclafaculty

CPEC – the California Postsecondary Education Commission – is in the process of going out of business, since it was zeroed out in the most recent state budget. As the webshot immediately above indicates, the CPEC website will go dark sometime this month. In the meantime, however, you can still find data on higher ed, such as the chart at the top comparing UC and U of Texas tuition. (You could probably have guessed – without the chart – which has become more expensive in recent years.) Since the website is soon to be toast, some info on CPEC’s closure…

U of Texas: Things to Come at UC?

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed continues its coverage of ongoing political issues facing the U of Texas. Could similar developments be coming in UC’s future? Wrong Kind of Accountability?(excerpts) May 10, 2011, Inside Higher Ed, Dan Berrett Faculty and administrators at public universities in Texas said Monday they don’t want to shrink from efforts to make public higher education more accountable — they just don’t want to do it this way. In this case, “this way” refers to efforts by the University of Texas System Board of Regents to measure the productivity of faculty members in strictly numerical terms. The efforts are…

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Texas A&M Alumni Complain About Political Interference

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed pointed to the development reported below in the Houston Chronicle on the attempt by Texas Gov. Perry (right) and a management consultant to impose a faculty evaluation system at the U of Texas and Texas A&M. Prior posts on this blog have pointed to the issue: Signaling the spread of a roiling controversy, 22 “distinguished alumni” at Texas A&M University on Tuesday criticized higher education reforms advocated by Gov. Rick Perry and an influential campaign contributor as “naïve … proposals from inexperienced individuals.” The “Open Letter to the Texas A&M University Community” criticized the proposals of Jeff…

Messing with the (U of) Texas

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today points to a story on efforts by Texas Governor Rick Perry to micro-manage the U of Texas. Summary at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/04/18/qt#257247 Perry emails tell a different story: Regents were pressed to adopt list of higher ed ‘reforms’ (excerpt) Patricia Kilday Hart, April 17, 2011, Houston Chronicle Contrary to his public statements distancing himself from a brewing controversy in higher education, Gov. Rick Perry continually pressed his appointees to university boards of regents to promptly adopt “reforms” that critics say are simplistic and harmful to research institutions, according to emails obtained by the Houston Chronicle. In May 2008,…

What $200,000 a year buys at the U of Texas

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed points today to a story in an Austin, Texas paper. The story speaks for itself. UT regents’ special adviser losing his job: Rick O’Donnell’s criticism of academic research didn’t sit well with lawmakers, others. Austin American-Statesman, 3/24/11, Ralph K.M. Haurwitz A special adviser with controversial views on research, teaching and other matters was reassigned by the University of Texas System on Thursday to a new job that will end by Aug. 31. The move is unlikely to quell concerns about the direction of the state’s largest and most prestigious university system under Gene Powell, chairman of the…

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The Affirmative Action Controversy: Evidence of Strategic Behavior in Texas University Admissions

Byuclafaculty

Under Prop 209, affirmative action in public university admissions is banned in California. As many will know, Prop 209 evolved out of a UC Regents action in the 1990s. (Subsequently, after Prop 209 passed, the Regents dropped their regulation. But the change had no effect since Prop 209 remained in effect.) Over the years, various approaches have been proposed to increase minority representation in UC enrollment. One approach, found in Texas, is to take the top X percent of high school grads by high school rather than in all high schools combined. In Texas, X = 10%. A working paper…

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U of Texas Has a UCOF-Like Committee: Endorses Online Ed

Byuclafaculty

Report: Shift colleges’ focus Committee suggests better use of online classes and ‘no-frills’ education By MELISSA LUDWIGSAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS An advisory committee tasked with making Texas higher education more efficient recommended Thursday that the state make better use of online courses and “no-frills” education and tie state funds to course completion rather than enrollment. Other suggestions included pushing students to finish college in four years and requiring them to complete 10 percent of their degrees outside the classroom. Mandated last year by Gov. Rick Perry, the 20-member committee of business and education leaders presented a draft report to the Texas…