As Higher Ed Watch, The Chronicle, and others reported last week, the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Education recently sent a sharply-worded letter to the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, objecting to HLC's recent decision to accredit for-profit American InterContinental University (AIU), a subsidiary of the Career Education Corporation.

Why is the IG's office so concerned? The scary truth is right there in the letter. Here are some of the choicest excerpts:

Specifically, HLC found that AIU's REDACTED. Despite these issues, HLC granted AIU full initial accreditation with no limitations on the programs it offered at the time of initial accreditation. This action by HLC is not in the best interests of students and calls into question whether the accrediting decisions made by HLC should be relied upon by...

I've said this before and, sadly, will probably have to say it again, but it's just astonishing how various people in higher education will respond to reports of poor student outcomes by arguing that it's not their fault because they have no effect whatsoever on student outcomes. For example, in reacting to newly-released data showing that 3-year default rates at many for-profit colleges are extremely high, the chief DC lobbyist for for-profit colleges, Harris N. Miller, president of the Career College Association, had this to say:

"The only thing that explains default rate is the socioeconomic background" of the student. ... "By using that as the metric of quality, you will always be discriminating against low-income students."

You'd think the notion that an organization that charges a lot of money for a given service has no impact on what happens to the consumers who receive that...

When I wrote this column for Newsweek a couple of weeks ago about the University of California tuition crisis, condemning California as the worst-governed state in the nation seemed like a pretty safe bet. But now I see that Arizona legislators have also embraced the strategy of cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from public universities, forcing tuition up 24 percent from last year and, according to UA President Robert Shelton, another 34 percent over the next two years.

Putting aside the essential cowardice of eschewing broadly-shared budget-balancing tax increases for equivalent tuition hikes that hurt poor and middle-class students, you'd think that state lawmakers in a budget crisis would look askance at a program that primarily benefits rich people, cost nearly $400-million over the last decade, and has been rife with illegality and self-dealing, i.e. Arizona's notorious...

For a liberal, it's hard to imagine a better set of obituaries than those written for former Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell, who died on January 1st of this year. While everyone mentioned his patrician upbringing and quirky personality, and many noted his efforts to slow nuclear proliferation, Pell was best remembered for Pell grants, the multi-billion-dollar federal financial aid program that benefits low-income college students. The first sentence of the Providence Journal's obit described Pell as one who "championed better education of the poor"; The Washington Post headline was "Former R.I. Senator Claiborne Pell, 90; Sponsored Grant Program"; the Boston Globe led with "helped students go to college"; and The New York Times began by noting "the college grant program that bears his name."

It says a lot about the way we think of college affordability that none of the obituaries ...

While Congress has become pretty thoroughly professionalized in recent decades, state legislatures are still home to some genuinely eccentric people. Back when I was working for the Indiana General Assembly, one member (and not the member who was, no lie, a radio psychic) became convinced that it was crucially important for the state to address, via statute, the problem of rogue hypnotists travelling the land, preying upon unsuspecting Hoosiers. He wasn't anti-hypnotist, mind you -- he thought the government needed to protect people from unqualified hypnotists. If you ask me, real hypnotists are the ones we should be worried about (You want ... to give me ... your credit card ... information ...) but then I'm not a duly elected public servant.

So the state passed a hypnotist licensing law, complete with the requisite boards, professional standards, forms to fill out, fees to pay, and so...

The University of California system is reeling. Crushed by the recession and the total collapse of governance in the Golden State, the UC system just raised student tuition by a mind-boggling 32 percent. A few weeks ago, New York Times Magazine interviewer Deborah Solomon sat down with UC Chanchelor Mark Yudof. Naturally, she asked him tough, insightful questions about how he was going to maintain academic and scholarly standards and preserve the UC system's historic leadership in American higher education spent the bulk of the interview mindlessly haranguing Yudof about whether he was overpaid and deserved a free house. Because the single most important thing to remember when conducting an interview is that it's all about you. More from the Chronicle's Paul Fain here.

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In the course of presenting a very interesting paper on international college rankings at an accountability conference I co-hosted yesterday, Ben Wildavsky made an observation that I strongly endorse: international competition in higher education isn't a zero-sum game. In fact, I think there's a good argument that America would be better off if we no longer towered above most other countries in college attainment.

Which doesn't mean we shouldn't compare ourselves to other countries and act on the results. The legitimate methodological questions raised in this recent report from Cliff Adelman at IHEP notwithstanding, I think it's clear that, overall, America's historic advantage over other countries in college attainment has shrunk, and if you throw associate's degrees into the mix we're no longer No. 1. If Canada can help roughly 50 percent of its adult population get some kind of...

The latest issue of the Chronicle includes a survey of the nation's highest paid college presidents, a list topped by Shirley Ann Jackson, who was paid $1,598,247 to lead Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute last year. Jackson also sits on six corporate boards that pay her another $1.3-million per annum. The article is accompanied by a text box listing Jackson's "Key Accomplishments at Rensselaer." They are:

"$690-million in new building and renovations to date. Highlights include the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, and the East Campus Athletic Village.

"Completed $1.4-billion fund-raising campaign, including a $360-million unrestricted gift in 2001.

"More than 230 new faculty hires since 2000, including a net of 74 new positions.

"Improved academic profile ...

Earlier this year, my wife and I traveled to Bates College, in Maine, where I gave a speech on technology and higher education. That evening, we went out to dinner in downtown Lewiston. Our hosts were two members of the classics department, a couple who had lived together for many years in a nearby small town. It was one of the best dinners I've had in a long time, partly because of the food and wine, but mostly because of the smart, charming, and wide-ranging conversation. Two married couples, enjoying time together -- except, not quite, because both of our hosts happened to be women, and same-sex marriage wasn't legal in Maine ... yet.

A few months later, duly elected state legislators in Maine passed a law extending marriage rights to all. Maine Governor John Baldacci signed the bill into law less than an hour later. "I have come to believe," he said, "that this is a question of...

The latest Newsweek cover story is titled, "The Three Year Solution: How the Reinvention of Higher Education Benefits Parents, Students, and Schools," by Senator (and former University of Tennessee president) Lamar Alexander. Like the discussion of three-year bachelor's degrees generally, the article is at best shallow and at worst deeply confused.

The article begins with the story of Hartwick College, a private liberal-arts college in upstate New York located halfway between Binghamton and Schenectady. (Having gone to high school in Schenectady and college in Binghamton, I spent a number of weekends at Hartwick. Having been in my late teens at the time, I remember the details of very few of them.) Hartwick has a small program whereby students can earn a B.A. in three years. This, says Alexander, "could be the higher education equivalent of the fuel-efficient car," before spending the ...