Home/Recent kwiples > Issues >

higher education

Saturday 18th of April 2026

Academic achievement I always say I would have committed genocide, but my grades weren’t good enough. Errol Morris, reflecting on the Ivy League backgrounds of Donald Rumsfeld and many other advocates and implementers of the Iraq War © 2023 Kwiple.com
Activism If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with.  Ronald Reagan, on ending student protests at University of California, Berkeley © 2023 Kwiple.com
Books What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books. Thomas Carlyle © 2018 Kwiple.com
o Branding I laughed. “‘Be All That You Can Be’?” I said. “I don't know. That was the slogan for me growing up. And then it was ‘Army of One,’ which I never understood, and then it was ‘Army Strong,’ which is about as good a slogan as ‘Fire Hot’ or ‘Snickers Tasty’ or ‘Herpes Bad.’ A better slogan would be, ‘You Can't Afford College Without Us.’” Phil Klay, “Psychological Operations” © 2016 Kwiple.com
Bullshitters say Embark on a transformational learning journey  The Oxford Executive MBA will challenge and inspire you to fulfill your leadership potential.  Are your ready to embrace fresh perspectives, seize new opportunities, and create a global impact? Then join the January or September class. Full page advertisement for Oxford Executive MBA program, in FT Business Education Executive MBA Ranking 2023 [In plain English: Sign up to make more money] © 2023 Kwiple.com
By the numbers A 2014 study … found that students who are enrolled only part time in classes (often because they need to work to cover costs) drop out at a rate of 68 percent, compared to 19 percent for full-time students. American Scientist, November-December 2016, citing National Student Clearinghouse data © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers As of January 2016, the average college student would need to work nearly 28 hours at a minimum wage job to pay for just one $200 textbook. Books can account for 40 percent of academic costs at community colleges. American Scientist, November-December 2016, citing Covering the Cost, a report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Average acceptance rate at New York City public high schools with test-based admission: 2.7 At Ivy League universities: 8.0 Harper's Index, June 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Average change in annual earnings for students who attend a vocational program at a public community college: +$1,544 For students who attend one at a for-profit college: –$920 Harper's Index, September 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Between ages 25 and 45, the gender pay gap for college graduates, which starts close to zero, widens by 55 percentage points. For those without college degrees, it widens by 28 percentage points. … The average college-educated man … improves his earnings by 77 percent from age 25 to 45, while similar women improve their earnings by only 31 percent. Men without college degrees increase their earnings much faster than similar women in the first decade of their career, but by age 45, women catch up. New York Times, May 17, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Estimated portion of part-time college faculty in the United States who receive public assistance: 1/4 Harper's Index, December 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers In America about half of college degrees in business awarded since 2000 have gone to women, but the share of senior executives who are female has remained stuck at one in five. The Economist, October 5, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers In America only 15% of women with graduate degrees in science and engineering, which are in short supply, were employed in their specialism in 2011, compared with 31% of men. And nearly a fifth were out of the labour force, a share twice as high as among similarly qualified men. The Economist, October 5, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers The most covetable trend in China is the most basic: education. China last year produced roughly nine times as many graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics as the US. Financial Times, September 19, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers One in four at Ivy League universities are legacy students. Edward Luce, Financial Times, April 27, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Percentage of US jobs created since the recession that have gone to workers with postsecondary education: 99 Harper's Index, October 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Portion of U.S. college freshmen who are required to write papers longer than 11 pages: 1/4 Who spend an average of less than five hours a week on assigned reading: 1/2 Harper's Index, May 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers A quarter of part-time college academics are said to be enrolled in public assistance programs The Guardian, September 28, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Democrats The question is always, 'How are you gonna pay for that?' We never sound credible as Democrats on that, and it shrinks up our ambitions. So our ambitions keep narrowing. 'Well, can we have just a little bit of child care? How about a tiny bit? Could we give a little help on student loans?' Let me make this pitch: Who's gonna show up to reduce student loan debt by 2%? I'm serious! Who's gonna show up on our side to fight for that? Elizabeth Warren © 2019 Kwiple.com
Education According to one Harvard study, more students attended America's elite universities from the top 1 per cent of income backgrounds than from the bottom 60 per cent. Edward Luce, The Retreat of Western Liberalism  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Elites If Rome’s oligarchs could have travelled to the future, they might have learned a trick or two from the US Ivy League. It is hard to think of a better system of elite perpetuation than that practiced by America's top universities. … Of the 31mn Americans aged between 18 and 24, just 68,000 are Ivy League schools  undergraduates — about a fifth of a per cent. Of these, a varying ratio are non-white beneficiaries of affirmative action. Many of those are from privileged black or His[anic backgrounds, as opposed to Chicago's South Side or the wastelands of Detroit. This is the basis on which the Ivy League lays claim to being a deliverer of social change. Edward Luce, Financial Times, July 5, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Employment As many as 30 million American workers without four-year college degrees have the skills to realistically move into new jobs that pay on average 70 percent more than their current ones. That estimate comes from a collaboration of academic, nonprofit and corporate researchers who mined data on occupations and skills. New York Times, December 3, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Employment They [economists Paul Beaudry, David Green and Benjamin Sand] show that since 2000 the share of employment accounted for by high- skilled jobs in America has been falling. As a result, college-educated workers are taking on jobs that are cognitively less demanding, displacing less educated workers. Economist, January 14, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Gig economy I've taught everywhere Man, I've taught everywhere With energy and care Man, I've taught everywhere theme song, California Part-time Faculty Association © 2017 Kwiple.com
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
Inheritance The average inheritance in 2019 was $212,854, up 45% from an inflation- adjusted $146,844 in 1998, according to an analysis of Fed data by ecnomists at a unit of Capital One Financial Corp. Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2021 —————   2019 median family wealth of   families headed by someone $464,000 with a graduate degree $310,000 with at least a bachelor's degree $243,000 with a bachelor's degree $102,000 with an associate's degree $79,000 who is a high school graduate with perhaps some college $18,000 with a GED or high school dropout [According to St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank] © 2021 Kwiple.com
Making money the new-fashioned way Being a freeway flyer/road scholar © 2017 Kwiple.com
Meritocracy After seven decades of meritocracy, it's as unlikely for a lower-class child to be admitted to a top Ivy League university as it was in 1954. George Packer, Last Best Hope  [2021] © 2021 Kwiple.com
Public discourse You ever get the sense that people in faculty lounges in fancy colleges use a different language than ordinary people? They come up with a word like “Latinx” that no one else uses. Or they use a phrase like “communities of color.” I don't know anyone who speaks like that. I don't know anyone who lives in a “community of color.” I know lots of white and black and brown people and they all live in … neighborhoods. There's nothing inherently wrong with these phrases. But this is not how people talk. This is not how voters talk. And doing it anyway is a signal that you're talking one language and the people you want to vote for you are speaking another language. This stuff is harmless in one sense, but in another sense it's not. James Carville, April 27, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say H.B.C.U.s were not created because the four million newly freed blacks were unhappy with the choices they had. They were created because they had no choices at all. John Silvanus Wilson, ex-president of Morehouse College, a Historically Black College and University, responding to Betsy DeVos's statement that HCBUs were pioneers of “school choice,” her preferred hobbyhorse  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Republican Party In Wall Street and NBC News polling, the share of the party held by white voters with a college education dropped from 40% to 25% over the last decade or so —  still a significant faction but less influentisl. Wall Street Journal, January 20-21, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Science education Government-supported early education [in the United States] is funded mainly at the state and local level … and because science courses are the most expensive per student, few schools in relatively poor districts can afford to offer many of them. Students from these districts therefore end up being less prepared for university-level science than are their wealthier peers, many of whom attended well-appointed private schools. Nature, Vol. 537, 22 September 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Selfie I had fun at Yale. I got a lot of great friends out of Yale. And I didn't pay attention. George W. Bush © 2023 Kwiple.com
Selfie I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people's interests. The library was open, unending, free. Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me © 2016 Kwiple.com
Selfie Although the word “radicalism” is often applied to those on the right as well as the left, I announced at the outset that, since we had only one semester, I planned to focus on what might be called left-wing radicalism. Those students who wanted exposure to right-wing radicalism, I added, could enroll in any class in Columbia's business school. Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University © 2017 Kwiple.com
Selfie My alma mater was books, a good library. … I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. Malcolm X, in Autobiography of Malcolm X  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Separation of powers Is there a person in America who thinks Missouri is here because it is worried about MOHELA’s loss of loan-servicing fees? I would like to meet him. Missouri is here because it thinks the Secretary’s loan cancellation plan makes for terrible, inequitable, wasteful policy. And so too for Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Carolina. And maybe all of them are right. But that question is not what this Court sits to decide. That question is “more appropriately addressed in the representative branches,” and by the broader public.  Elena Kagan, dissent in Biden v. Nebraska, et. al. © 2023 Kwiple.com
Separation of powers Wielding its judicially manufactured heightened-specificity requirement, the Court refuses to acknowledge the plain words of the HEROES Act. It declines to respect Congress’s decision to give broad emergency powers to the Secretary. It strikes down his lawful use of that authority to provide student-loan assistance. It does not let the political system, with its mechanisms of account- ability, operate as normal. It makes itself the decisionmaker on, of all things, federal student-loan policy. And then, perchance, it wonders why it has only compounded the “sharp debates” in the country?  Elena Kagan, dissent in Biden v. Nebraska, et. al. © 2023 Kwiple.com
Socio-economic mobility  [I]n countries without elite universities, it's rare for one class to capture the national heights: careers are decided more in adulthood, by which time people's trajectories depend slightly more on their achievements than on their parents. Simon Kuper, Financial Times, August 1, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
State of the union c A higher education paves the way to prosperity —————– —————– student debt and unpaid internships © 2018 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court Two recent Supreme Court rulings — one ending affirmative action in university admissions and another vetoing  Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness plan — have been lambasted by progressives as yet more evidence that the judicial branch is wrecking America. But there is a silver lining to almost everything, and I can see one here. The Supreme Court has unwittingly elevated the issue of income inequality, and the need for class-based educational reform in the US. Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, July 17, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest Betsy DeVos calls historically black colleges and universities pioneers of “school choice” in a commencement speech at one © 2017 Kwiple.com
Tech bros Schools Teach M.B.A.s Perils of ‘Bro’ Ethos  headline, New York Times print edition, December 26, 2017 --> © 2018 Kwiple.com
Trumpism … the most reliable predictor for who was a Trump voter wasn't race  but the combination of race and education. Among white people, 38 percent of college graduates voted for Trump, compared with 64 percent without college degrees. This margin —the great gap between Smart America and Real America — was the decisive one. It made 2016 different from previous elections, and the trend only intensified in 2020. George Packer, The Atlantic, July/August 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say I talked to a student recently at one of our woke college campuses who said she is required in every class to  introduce herself and to give her pronouns. Well, Im Ted Cruz, and my pronoun is, kiss my ass. Ted Cruz, July 23, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say The four corners of deceit:  government, academia, science and media. Those institutions are now corrupt and exist by virtue of deceit. That's how they promulgate themselves; it is how they prosper. Rush Limbaugh © 2022 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] are real pioneers when it comes to school choice. They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality. Their success has shown that more options help students flourish. Betsy DeVos © 2019 Kwiple.com
 
Work You will be rewarded by not being fired. Shirley Tilghman, president of Princeton University, on the rewards to expect from hard work after graduating and entering the worforce, in her 2011 commencement address, quoted by Edward Luce in Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com