Professor & department head, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I study higher ed finance, accountability, and financial aid. Washington Monthly rankings data editor. Dad, gardener, and baker. Personal account. https://robertkelchen.com/
This is quite a piece. I'm not a fan of MMA (even though I was a wrestler in high school), but this has a lot of contradictions to think through.
The University Where Students Beat Each Other Up, for ScholarshipsOn the campy, violent, inspiring, dismaying, downright-confusing world of Sacramento State’s Combat U.www.chronicle.comThe Senate HELP committee passed a bill that would block the Trump administration from transferring many functions (including postsecondary education) out of the Department of Education, but would allow student loans to be transferred to Treasury.
Senate education committee blocks parts of Trump’s Education Department breakupSen. Tim Kaine negotiated a bipartisan bill to stop the department from offloading special education, K-12 programs and additional functions to other federal agencies.www.politico.comThe University of Valley Forge is closing at the end of summer (talk about short notice!), marking the ninth private nonprofit college to close in 2026 as far as I can tell. www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...
www.insidehighered.comI enjoyed this piece about the challenges that Wake Forest's new president faces as it dropped in the US News ranking due to methodological changes and fears being left out of big-time college athletics in the future.
The Stakes for WakePeter Rodriguez took over as the school’s 15th president as it seeks to expand enrollment and navigates the NIL era.www.theassemblync.comThis lawsuit from the Universuty of Tennessee Research Foundation against Anthropic for patent infringement is worth watching. Higher ed holds a lot of potentially valuable patents, and some extra money would be useful about now.
Lawsuit Tests What Universities Are Owed for AI ResearchThe University of Tennessee’s patent suit against Anthropic challenges the technology’s core architecture—and could set a precedent for other institutions.www.insidehighered.comWell, this is quite a statement. Let's just say that I'm glad that my dating days were very limited and two decades ago. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/re...
Effective July 1, colleges have to prorate loans if students drop below full-time status for the year. This requires a lot of guesswork from financial aid administrators about what will happen in the next term, and more consistent guidance from ED is still on its way.
Financial Aid Experts Seek Clarity on Loan Proration RulesThe rule—which proportionally limits how much a student can borrow based on how many credit hours they take—seems simple. But aid officers say it’s quite complicated and warn that ED hasn’t released e...www.insidehighered.comAnd Notre Dame one-upped Ohio State, thanks to SoFi giving them at least $18 million per year.
Sources: Notre Dame passes Ohio State for richest patch dealNotre Dame has reached a multiyear deal with SoFi Technologies that will place the financial service company's brand on the Fighting Irish's jerseys in every sport starting this season, the university announced Tuesday.www.espn.comRobert KelchenOhio State's $17 million per year uniform patch deal with JPMorganChase covers most of the maximum $21.3 million that they can directly pay athletes next year. But only a few universities will get deals of this magnitude, widening revenue gaps.
New IPEDS data are available for institutional characteristics, 12-month enrollment, and completions. Notably, there do not appear to have been revisions to the prior year's data, which is typically the case.
Use The DataThe Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), established as the core postsecondary education data collection program for NCES, is a system of surveys designed to collect data from all p...nces.ed.govThis is quite a nugget in a deep dive into feuding conservative factions in Florida public higher education. This piece is well worth your time to read. www.chronicle.com/article/flor...
Ohio State's $17 million per year uniform patch deal with JPMorganChase covers most of the maximum $21.3 million that they can directly pay athletes next year. But only a few universities will get deals of this magnitude, widening revenue gaps.
Ohio State, JPMorganChase reach lucrative jersey patch dealOhio State is entering a partnership with JPMorganChase that includes jersey patches for all 36 teams and will yield nearly $17 million per year for the athletic program.www.espn.comFederal Student Aid staff are moving out of ED's main building this week, and will go to a building owned by Treasury in a couple of weeks. All of this is happening right as the fall term starts for millions of students.
FSA Staff Now Slated to Move to Treasury OfficeThe Office of Federal Student Aid and some of its staff are scheduled to begin vacating their current space in the Department of Education’s Lyndon B. Johnson Building on Friday. But rather than move ...www.insidehighered.comLet's be honest: managing workload is really challenging, there are far more requests coming in than I could ever hope to fulfill. This blog post is me thinking through how to kindly say no to requests in a way that respects the requester and my limited time.
How to Kindly Say No to RequestsTime is perhaps the most precious commodity in existence. No matter who you are, there are only 24 hours in a day—and I sincerely hope that it is not your goal to work excessive and sometimes dange…robertkelchen.comI have a new working paper examining how academic schools within universities allocate resources. Using data from HelioCampus, I find that schools cut staff positions first during difficult times and that there are huge variations in delivery costs across universities.
An Analysis of Academic School Spending in Higher EducationAcademic schools, such as colleges and their constituent departments within larger universities, are increasingly being expected to increase revenues and reduce expenditures in a challenging financial...edworkingpapers.comNow that federal loan limits are in place, I'm watching to see whether private loans with income-driven repayment take off. So far, moral hazard issues and concerns about changing regulatory interpretation as political control changes have limited the market for ISAs or "outcomes-based financing."
Can Outcomes-Based Financing Help Solve the Loan Crisis?In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, Ethan Pollack, a senior director at Jobs for the Future, discusses how these loans work and why they might help address today’s challenges.www.insidehighered.comI was watching the new King of the Hill season the other night (worth your time!) and Hank was frustrated about the same issue. When you have lost Arlen, Texas...
Tressie McMillan CottomAs good as many of you said. I really appreciate the unambiguous point that this primarily a racist moral panic before unpacking the nuanced second-order explanations. dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to...
I have research on this! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Does the Bennett Hypothesis Hold in Professional Education? An Empirical Analysis - Research in Higher EducationPolicymakers have been debating the Bennett Hypothesis—whether colleges increase tuition after the federal government increases access to student loans—for decades. Yet most of the prior research has ...link.springer.comSoumya Rangarajan, MD, MPP“After the introduction of the Grad PLUS program in 2006, tuition at medical schools increased at a slower rate than in prior years. According to the association, the primary driver of increases in med school costs in recent years has been the rising cost of living, not tuition.”
The Cockroach movement in India scores a huge win as it gets the education minister to resign amid major frustration with the higher education system.
India’s Gen Z Protesters Wrest a Victory From Modi GovernmentYouth protesters said they would call off their protest after the education minister stepped down and the government agreed to other key demands.www.wsj.comI talked with the Associated Press about Howard's decision to drop 502 incoming students who had not paid their registration fees on time. apnews.com/article/howa...
Duke and Michigan had to cancel their men's basketball game scheduled for December because they couldn't get the TV rights straightened out. The finances of big-time athletics are fascinating.
Sources: Duke-Michigan game off; Texas Tech replaces WolverinesA nonconference men's basketball matchup between Duke and Michigan has been called off after broadcast rights issues couldn't be resolved, sources told ESPN.www.espn.com