News
Quick Takes: Phoenix Ph.D.'s, Missouri Accidentally Admits 233, Feds Raid For-Profit, Med School-Industry Ties, Record for Social Work, Paying for Own Inaugural, Shift for British Degrees, Growth in Canadian Christian Colleges, NCAA Punishes Ball State
October 17, 2007
- The University of Phoenix has won approval from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools to begin its first Ph.D. programs: one in higher education administration and one in industrial/organizational psychology.
- The University of Missouri accidentally admitted 233 applicants to graduate programs last month, telling them that they were in before reviews of their records had been completed. The Columbia Tribune reported that the university has apologized for the "technical glitch" -- and withdrawn the admission offers.
- Federal authorities raided two campuses of the Florida Career College, carting off boxes of documents while students were locked out, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. College officials said that they were cooperating but declined to comment further.
- Sixty percent of medical school department chairs have a direct relationship with industry, such as serving as a consultant, advisory board member, paid speaker or officer, according to a new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
- New York University has announced a gift of $50 million for its social work school -- the largest ever for such a school in the United States. The funds will be used for financial aid for students who plan social work careers dedicated to minority populations, and for a series of efforts to study poverty.
- With state funds tight and legislative scrutiny of higher education intense, Joe Gow, the new chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, announced that he didn't want his inaugural to divert funds away from instruction. So his instructions to the planning team was for a simple inaugural. "We're not throwing a prom," he said. The team kept costs down by finding local businesses to donate the flowers, food, banners and so forth for the inaugural, but there were still an estimated $7,991 in costs that would have been paid by the university for the event this Friday. Gow announced Tuesday that he was writing a check for that amount to the university to be sure that no funds that might benefit students would be used on the celebrations.
- Britain is planning to transform university degrees into much more detailed, transcript-like documents, so potential employers can see graduates' performance in specific classes, The Guardian reported.
- As in the United States, Christian higher education is booming in Canada, with the number of evangelical universities growing from 3 to 12 since 1972, The National Post reported.
- The National Collegiate Athletic Association on Tuesday stripped Ball State University of several sports scholarships and placed it on two years' probation after an investigation revealed that scholarship athletes used nearly $27,000 of their book stipends to give books to non-scholarship athletes and other students. The NCAA's Division I Committee on Infractions found -- and Ball State officials concurred, through the NCAA's collaborative "summary disposition" process -- that university administrators had lacked institutional control over the sports program.
