Stretching the Higher Education Dollar

In this provocative volume, higher education experts explore innovative ways that colleges and universities can unbundle the various elements of the college experience while assessing costs and benefits and realizing savings. Stretching the Higher Education Dollar traces the reform continuum from incremental to more ambitious efforts. Topics include effective strategies for reallocating resources to capture efficiencies, opportunities with massive open online courses (MOOCs), and ideas for building low-cost degree pathways from the ground up. Though the pace of change in higher education is fast and furious, Stretching the Higher Education Dollar offers promising ideas for navigating the new fiscal, political, and technological environment. "This accessible and timely book makes a valuable contribution to higher education policy thinking about how to increase system performance and output in an era of tightly constrained resources. The editors bring to readers a well designed and well-written collection of chapters about ways to make limited dollars go further, authored by smart observers of the higher education scene." -- William Zumeta, professor, University of Washington "As college has become the gateway to the middle class, its costs and prices have relentlessly outstripped the incomes of all but the most affluent American families. These essays offer insights into the dimensions of the problem and into some of the most innovative and promising solutions. This volume contributes significantly to the debate about the future of American higher education." -- Patrick M. Callan, president, Higher Education Policy Institute Andrew P. Kelly is resident scholar and director of the Center on Higher Education Reform at the American Enterprise Institute. Kevin Carey is director of the education policy program at the New America Foundation.