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Sunday, November 21, 2010

University World News - US: Re-imagining California higher education

University World News - US: Re-imagining California higher education
US: Re-imagining California higher education
Sarah King Head
21 November 2010
Issue: 148



A report from the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, has analysed the challenges faced by tertiary education in California and its relationship to economic growth - and proposes some radical solutions for rejuvenating a faltering public higher education system that was once the envy of the world.

California now ranks among the bottom 10 states in the US for access to higher education and in degree completion rates.

Struggling to respond to its current status, public higher education in the state is facing off against other highly publicised challenges, including the impact of the current economic crisis and the increasingly predatory recruitment strategies of the for-profit sector.

CSHE senior research associate and author of Re-imagining California Higher Education John Aubrey Douglass attempts to re-imagine a network of state-funded colleges and universities.

The report also provides a plan for so-called 'smart growth', which Douglass says can help the system recapture its vanguard position in supporting and innovating top-notch developments for mass higher education.

In addition to offering greater institutional diversity and mission differentiation to the state-wide University of California (UC), regionally-oriented California State University (CSU) and local California Community College (CCC) systems, the report encourages the state t