Steve Johnson for The New York Times
Florida's higher education funding per student declined 26 percent from 2006 to 2011, a nonprofit group reported.
MIAMI — Rick Scott, businessman turned politician, campaigned for governor in 2010 with promises to run Florida like a successful business — more efficiency, lower costs, less hand-wringing and measurable results.
He meant higher education, too, but until recently that meant mostly shrinking budgets.
Now, looking for more value on the remaining dollars, Governor Scott and Republican lawmakers are prodding Florida's 12 state universities to find ways to steer students toward majors that are in demand in the job market.
The message from Tallahassee could not be blunter: Give us engineers, scientists, health care specialists and technology experts. Do not worry so much about historians, philosophers, anthropologists and English majors.
To nudge students toward job-friendly degrees, the governor's task force on higher education suggested recently that university tuition rates be frozen for three years for majors in "strategic areas," which would vary depending on supply and demand. An undergraduate student would pay less for a degree in engineering or biotechnology — whose classes are among the most expensive for universities — than for a degree in history or psychology. State financing, which has dropped drastically in the past five years, would be expected to make up the tuition gap.
At the same time, Mr. Scott wants the state's 28 colleges (formerly called community colleges) to offer some of their four-year degrees for $10,000. That amount is $3,000 or so less than the typical cost. So far, several colleges are planning to take him up on the challenge, which would attract new students and encourage people to complete their degrees. The idea for a $10,000-degree originated last year with Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. In Florida, the challenge has been lauded by business groups.
"Every business has to figure out how to make itself more efficient," Mr. Scott said when announcing the challenge at St. Petersburg College last month. "They've got to use technology. They've got to use the Internet, things like that. We can do the same thing with our state colleges."
Universities cannot offer four-year degrees for $10,000 — their average is more than $24,000 — but they are being asked to spend their money more judiciously. They are also being asked to quantify their performances by, for example, figuring out which of their students actually get jobs after graduation.
Dale A. Brill, the chairman of the governor's task force and a "liberal arts guy," said universities needed to be realistic. Generous state financing is no longer an option, at least not in Florida. Universities, he said, need to be practical about the value of their degrees at a time when well-paying jobs are scarce, a position taken by a growing number of institutions and one that underscores the latest philosophical divide over education.
"The higher education system needs to evolve with the economy," said Mr. Brill, the president of the Florida Chamber Foundation. "People pay taxes expecting that the public good will be served to the greatest degree possible. We call that a return on investment."
Florida's new Senate president, Don Gaetz, a Republican, agrees. He has said he wants "to lash higher education to the realities and opportunities of the economy."
But the shift toward market-based degrees and greater affordability after five years of budget cuts has its detractors.
In a letter to the governor, Roberto Martinez, the vice chairman of the State Board of Education, which oversees state colleges, called it a "very bad idea."
"The '$10,000 Bachelor's Degree' is not a serious policy," he wrote. "It will be perceived as a gimmick pretending to be a policy used as a sound bite."
At the University of Florida, the state's most prestigious campus, a group of history professors criticized the recommendation for tiered tuition and organized a protest petition. Liberal arts devotees across the state are signing it. The professors said the move would inevitably reduce the number of students who take humanities classes, which would further diminish financing for those departments. In the end, Florida universities with nationally prominent programs, like the one for Latin American history at the University of Florida, will lose coveted professors and their overall luster.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Florida May Reduce Tuition for Select Majors
Dengan url
https://dunialuasekali.blogspot.com/2012/12/florida-may-reduce-tuition-for-select.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Florida May Reduce Tuition for Select Majors
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Florida May Reduce Tuition for Select Majors
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar