The U.S. government is considering a plan to rate universities on their value to determine how much federal aid they will receive, The New York Times reported. The plan, announced by President Barack Obama in August, aims to make college more accountable and affordable. A growing number of publications, including U.S. News and World Report, Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine, publish “best value” college rankings, in keeping with the trend to rate colleges on affordability. Supporters of the method say these lists offer more fair evaluations of colleges that cater to low-income students, while critics argue that it is almost impossible to create a metric that measures the true value of a college degree. The Education Department aims to standardize and compile value ratings by 2015 to 2016.
Ten states are looking into adapting academic metrics, such as those created under the 2002 No Child Left Behind act, to gauge the rigor of higher education institutions, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Massachusetts is leading a nine-state consortium that aims to develop a consistent form of academic evaluation. Professors, college administrators and government officials participating in the consortium believe that standardized metrics will allow universities to improve the rigor of their classes.
Colleges are denying admission and possibly reducing financial aid for students based on a single question that students must answer on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, Inside Higher Ed reported. The question asks students to list up to 10 colleges that they would attend if they were accepted. College admissions officers have discovered a correlation between the order of colleges on the list and students’ preferences. As a result, some colleges will not offer admission to students who are unlikely to enroll based on the list. Colleges may also use the metric to determine the size of aid packages for students.
