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Higher education

Thursday 22nd of October 2026

Higher education According to four decades worth of data analysed by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, 60 per cent of college students earn more  than a high school graduate after 10 years — but that means 40 per cent do not. And at a third of those institutions, more than half of students earn less than high school graduates after a decade. Financial Times, April 4, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Higher education Admissions for us is not a matter of turning down students we'd like to admit. It's a matter of admitting students we'd like to turn down. Jon Boeckenstedt, Oregon State admissions director, on the common problem of having to admit low-performing students whose families can afford to pay full tuition © 2019 Kwiple.com
Higher education American colleges collectively now give more aid to each student with a family income over $100,000, on average, than they do to each student with a family income under $20,000. Paul Tough, New York Times Magazine, Sept. 15, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Higher education Among boomers [born 1946-1964], more men than women have degrees. Among millennials [born 1981-1996], 43% of women have degrees, seven points more than men. The Economist, September 12, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Higher education At 19 of the top 20 American universities, tuition exceeds $55,000 a year. Bloomberg Businessweek, September 19, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Higher education  Bart, don't make fun of grad students. They just made a terrible life choice. Marge Simpson to her son, Bart, Home Away From Home episode, The Simpsons, 2005 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Higher education  Half a century ago, the landmark title IX law was passed to promote gender equality.  At  the time, there was a gap of 13 percentage  points in the proportion of bachelor's degrees given to men compared with women. Today, the gender gap is a little wider — 15 percentage points as of 2019 — but the other way around. For every three female college students, there are only about two men. The trend worsened during the pandemic. College enrollment as a whole declined in 2020 — but that decline was seven times greater for male than for female students. Richard Reeves, Atlantic Magazine, October 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Higher education “I recall the day that I took Trump's SATs as clearly as if it were yesterday” Putin said. “I totally aced them.” As the years rolled by, Putin followed with intense interest the career of the man whose SATs he took. “I often asked myself, ‘How will Donald Trump every repay me for putting him on the path to Wharton?’” Putin said, with a devilish smile. “As it turned out, I found a way.” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker, July 7, 2020 [Satire - his sister Mary says Joe Shapiro, “a smart kid with a reputation for being a good test taker,” sat in for Trump] © 2020 Kwiple.com
Higher education Ms Trump and her older brother, Donald Jnr, were admitted to the University of Pennsylvania after her her father had pledged a $1.4m gift. Both were legacy students – their father went to the same school. Mr Kushner was admitted to Harvard after his father, Charles, had donated $2.5m. These are familiar stories. A study last week showed that 43 per cent of Harvard's white under- graduates were legacy students, children of donors or staff, or athletics scholars. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 16, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Higher education The only change that would qualify as radical in a society that claims to be meritocratic is one that would  boost life chances for the rest. That would mean starting at the beginning of a child’s life with better childcare, good pre-school education, and so on. It would entail dramatically increasing the pipeline of students who might have the chance to win the educational lottery. Until that changes — and unless it becomes America's focus — the current debate is a big red herring. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 5, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Higher education Only 22 per cent of US adults said it’s worth getting a four-year degree if one has to take a loan to do it,  according to a Pew Research Center survey this year. Patti Waldmeir, Financial Times, September 2, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Higher education The purpose of higher ed, after all, is the exact opposite of solidarity: it is to define hierarchy and prestige. To separate the talented from the ordinary. To accept only the kids with good SAT scores and reject the others. It is not by coincidence that the towns that host universities and colleges have prospered so enormously in this age of inequality: they are playgrounds for the elite – and everyone knows it. Thomas Frank, The Guardian, September 9, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Higher education The ratio of effort to outcome is rising. The more people study, the lower the return to education. You always need more credentials, which most cannot afford. Instead of capital, losers accumulate frustration. Thomas Frank, Financial Times, February 8, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Higher education Since the 1990s, the death rate for white men with a bachelor's degree aged between 45 and 54 in the US has fallen by 40 per cent, but it has risen by 25 per cent for white men in the same age group without a college degree. You can't be free if you are dead. Timothy Garten Ash, Prospect magazine, January/February 2021 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Higher education The university is much like the church in its susceptibility to seduction by the powerful of the world. But university people, like churchmen, develop a guilt complex after the seduction has been accomplished. Peter L. Berger, An Invitation to Sociology © 2021 Kwiple.com
Higher education Using detailed data on companies and workers from the US and Denmark, we looked at the effects when a chief executive with an MBA or undergraduate business degree takes over from one without such qualifications. We found no evidence that CEOs with such degrees increase sales, productivity, investment or exports relative to the levels the company achieved before. The biggest shift when a chief executive with a business degree takes charge is a decline in  wages and the share of revenues going to labour, even in countries with different cultures. In the  US, wages under business-degree holding CEOs  were 6 per cent lower than they would otherwise  have been after five years, and labour's share  of revenues was down five percentage points.  FT Business Education Global MBA Ranking 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Higher education What happens when you cross a mafioso with a University of Chicago professor? You get an offer you can't understand. old joke © 2020 Kwiple.com
 
Higher education [W]hile higher education has become more diverse by culture and ethnicity, the income gap has grown to be twice as large as the race gap. … racial preferences have not changed economic power structures in the US. Indeed, they’ve arguably hardened them by creating what might be called a rainbow aristocracy. … The system is rigged against the less affluent. Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, July 17, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com