Public universities in North Carolina recognize a wide diversity of student groups, including those that have religious or other belief-based missions. This recognition enables student organizations to access university facilities and (sometimes) apply for funding.
Published: Saturday, February 22nd, 2014 @ 8:55 am
By: John William Pope Center
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What high school curriculum best prepares a student for college? Which majors yield the highest-paying jobs? Does being held back in kindergarten ultimately help or hurt lifelong educational performance?
Published: Wednesday, February 12th, 2014 @ 2:53 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Tuesday, January 21st, 2014 @ 10:29 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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The Pope Center celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2013. Our organization was initially part of the John Locke Foundation, but became independent in 2003. One of our activities is researching problems in higher education and issuing findings and recommendations in major reports...
Published: Friday, January 3rd, 2014 @ 12:19 am
By: John William Pope Center
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What high school curriculum best prepares a student for college? Which majors yield the highest-paying jobs? Does being held back in kindergarten ultimately help or hurt lifelong educational performance? A new data collection program may provide the necessary long-term information to...
Published: Sunday, December 29th, 2013 @ 11:37 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Big things were anticipated for higher education reform in 2013 - but the sizzle turned to fizzle in many cases. Landmark court decisions got pushed off for another year, bubbles didn't quite burst, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) did not take over vast swaths of the higher education...
Published: Saturday, December 28th, 2013 @ 1:24 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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As a finance and economics professor, I often encounter students with scarce financial knowledge. While students finish high school well-versed in topics such as dangerous drugs and sex, often they know little about basic financial concepts such as compounding interest or the mechanics of the...
Published: Tuesday, December 17th, 2013 @ 7:16 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Madam Chair, Ranking Member Hinojosa, and Distinguished Members of this committee, thank you for this opportunity. The Pell grant program faces two serious problems today: its increasing cost to the taxpayer, and its failure to serve students well. The program is too expensive and too few...
Published: Friday, December 6th, 2013 @ 8:10 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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The Pope Center recently published a report on UNC-Chapel Hill's general education program - the "core curriculum" of non-major requirements that all students must complete in order to graduate. In our report, we analyzed the current system and then presented two alternative programs for general...
Published: Wednesday, December 4th, 2013 @ 9:29 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Friday, November 22nd, 2013 @ 1:28 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Every two years, the General Assembly appropriates money to the schools in the UNC system to cover the cost of instruction - primarily professors' salaries and benefits. But the formula used to determine how much money the system requests is outdated, opaque, and creates the wrong incentives for...
Published: Saturday, November 2nd, 2013 @ 1:54 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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For those who remember general education in the distant past, let me spell it out a little more clearly. Courses such as Introduction to Sexuality Studies and American Environmental Policy replace broad survey courses like Survey of World History, American History before 1865, and American...
Published: Wednesday, October 30th, 2013 @ 6:55 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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The September issue of Money (a Time, Inc. publication) featured an article titled "Busting the 5 Myths of College Costs" by Penelope Wang. It claimed that many of the assumptions that parents hold on how to reduce the cost of college are outdated or wrong. Wang promised to give the...
Published: Friday, October 4th, 2013 @ 12:21 am
By: John William Pope Center
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Public universities are facing a new economic reality, as states decide to reduce funding and expect a lot more fiscal accountability. Now, in response, schools are cutting costs, raising tuition, and sometimes both. Jenna Ashley Robinson, outreach coordinator for the Pope Center for Higher...
Published: Saturday, September 28th, 2013 @ 12:43 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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In late May, my husband and I welcomed our first child, Edward James Robinson. We're calling him Ned. After the first few weeks of sleepless nights and a very steep learning curve, the hospital bills came. They're only the first of many expenses involved in raising a child - and they're chump...
Published: Monday, September 2nd, 2013 @ 12:42 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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To understand and evaluate a university's effectiveness requires a lot of information. But rarely is that information brought together in one place.
Published: Monday, August 12th, 2013 @ 5:03 am
By: Jenna Ashley Robinson
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Over the last decade, freshman reading programs at North Carolina college have been, variously, controversial, touchy-feely, and arguably too easy. Now, they seem to be dying off. Four North Carolina colleges have dropped their programs outright, and several more have scaled them down considerably.
Published: Monday, July 1st, 2013 @ 12:39 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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Not long ago I criticized an introductory course in American government at North Carolina State University, as it was taught in an online section. The reason for my criticism: It was biased. Most of the non-textbook readings seemed to be...
Published: Sunday, June 9th, 2013 @ 4:45 pm
By: John William Pope Center
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With the national economy still locked in the doldrums, states must continue to pull back on funding public university systems. The universities, in return, have two alternatives: they can raise tuition or cut costs. Most often, they do both.
Published: Sunday, May 19th, 2013 @ 12:18 am
By: John William Pope Center
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College graduation rates—particularly four-year rates— are low, both nationwide and in the UNC system. So many factors contribute to the low rates (students’ poor preparation, their need to earn money by working, lack of interest, schools’ failure to provide the right...
Published: Monday, April 29th, 2013 @ 6:51 pm
By: Jenna Ashley Robinson
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On July 1, sixteen new members will join the UNC Board of Governors. The newcomers are almost all Republicans, and thus might be expected to be conservative about expenses, but will they reform the system?
Published: Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 @ 12:35 pm
By: Jenna Ashley Robinson
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Governor Pat McCrory unveiled his proposal for the state's biennial budget on March 20. The University of North Carolina system received a small cut compared to the previous biennium, and the budget also specifies changes that should cut waste and expand key initiatives.
Published: Wednesday, March 27th, 2013 @ 6:29 pm
By: Duke Cheston
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Not long ago at a North Carolina community college, there always seemed to be fewer cars in the parking lot the week after Pell grant checks were sent out. And one instructor noticed that some students weren't taking the final in her class. Why? They hadn't studied and knew they were going to...
Published: Thursday, February 28th, 2013 @ 9:42 pm
By: Duke Cheston
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Philanthropic foundations usually do not bear the costs when the ideas they promote turn out to be wrong. Unlike business capital, which can be lost when executives back bad products, foundations lose nothing when their executives back bad ideas.
Published: Friday, February 8th, 2013 @ 5:50 pm
By: Jenna Ashley Robinson
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List of resource links.
Published: Friday, November 2nd, 2012 @ 2:04 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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If anyone in your family has gone to college in recent years, you are probably aware of the Federal Pell Grant Program. A recent report from the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy analyzes the program to determine where the money goes and whether it's being used effectively.
Published: Saturday, October 20th, 2012 @ 3:21 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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