This report focuses on three key aspects of public higher education in the state of South Carolina: cost and effectiveness, general education requirements, and governance structures. First, we gauge cost and effectiveness by asking how much families are paying to attend schools, how the schools are using that money, and what are students getting in return. We then examine general education in South Carolina-—those courses usually completed within the first two years of a bachelor’s degree program to ensure a common intellectual background, as well as college-level skills critical to success in the workforce. Finally, we turn our attention to governance structures as seen through actions taken by the state’s Commission on Higher Education and by institutional boards of trustees. ACTA’s hope is that this report will be an urgent call to action-—to help the citizens and policymakers of South Carolina strengthen the states public higher education system and demonstrate leadership in being “ Prepared in Mind and Resources. ”
ACTA’s 11th state report finds higher education in Florida has both sunny spots and storms to avoid, yet overall has strong potential to set an example for other states to follow. The report, Florida Rising: An Assessment of Public Universities in the Sunshine State, examines issues of cost, speech codes, administrative vs. academic spending, core […]
At a time of major fiscal crisis and growing student and faculty unrest, ACTA’s report points the finger at California’s college and university trustees as both the problem-—and the solution-—to greater access and quality in the Golden State. Praising the California Master Plan for establishing an accessible statewide system of higher education, the report finds […]
This report card on public higher education in Maine focuses on four key areas of interest: what students are learning (the curriculum), whether the marketplace of ideas is vibrant (intellectual diversity), how the universities are run (governance), and what a college education costs (affordability). If our nation is to ensure its continued preeminence, policymakers, trustees, […]
While Gov. Nikki Haley is right about the need to fund the state’s colleges and universities based on performance, that is but a step toward repairing our poorly structured higher-education system. What we need is a board of regents, to not only tackle the funding issue but also oversee all of South Carolina’s institutions of […]
Many South Carolina public colleges and universities are excessively expensive and have strayed too far from their core mission: educating students, according to a recent study by a Columbia-based think tank. Tuition is rising faster than household income in South Carolina, says the study of eight colleges and universities by the S.C. Policy Council, a […]
From a troubled transportation center at South Carolina State University to a botched biomass plant at USC, South Carolina’s taxpayer-supported colleges and universities have pursued some costly misadventures in the recent past. But these problematic projects, notably the University of South Carolina’s Innovista research campus, were largely unrelated to the schools’ traditional core mission–to educate […]
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