Lawyers for two university presses and an academic publisher proposed an injunction that would prohibit Georgia State University professors from providing students with unlimited copyrighted material without paying licensing fees to publishers, Inside Higher Ed reported. If the injunction passes, the university could be held liable if professors copy poems longer than 250 words, essays longer than 2,500 words or more than 1,000 words out of a book. The filing is the latest development in a three-year lawsuit filed in 2008 by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and SAGE Publications, with backing from the Association of American Publishers and the Copyright Clearance Center. Many professors currently copy unlimited materials for students under protection of "fair use," an exception to copyright law that gives educators leeway in terms of making texts available to students, Inside Higher Ed reported.
Private research universities particularly those that include medical schools are more efficient and produce more academic papers than public institutions, according to a recent study by Jeffrey Litwin, associate dean at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario. Litwin, who will present his findings at the Association for Institutional Research's annual meeting in Toronto on Tuesday, determined that Johns Hopkins University and Texas A&M University were among the least productive large research universities in the country between 1989 and 2004, while the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University were among the most productive, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Litwin measured productivity according to the amount of money spent on research per academic paper published. Critics have questioned the accuracy of Litwin's study due to differences in costs and productivity across academic disciples, according to The Chronicle.
Private colleges and universities discounted tuition during the recession to such a degree that growth in revenue from tuition slowed down or reversed, according to a report released by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. The 381 institutions surveyed reduced their tuition through grants and financial aid by 42.4 percent in 2010, representing an increase from 39 percent in 2007, Inside Higher Ed reported. Tuition revenue decreased by 0.3 percent in 2008 and grew by only 1.8 percent and 2.8 percent in 2009 and 2010. Many colleges charge tuition that is unaffordable for many students with the knowledge that they will provide students with institutional grants and scholarships, but some experts have argued that "a high sticker price" and "high discounting" carry psychological benefits for students, Inside Higher Ed reported.
