Financial Forces and the Future of American Higher Education

Recent shifts in state funding are altering the most basic realities of American higher education, from student access to faculty research

Resident and Nonresident Tuition and Enrollment at Flagship State Universities

[Excerpt] How tuition levels, or the availability of grant or loan aid, influence access are empirical questions that we will not address in this chapter. Rather, we will analyze how tuition and enrollment strategies at institutions react to changes in federal and state need-based student aid and to state appropriations to public higher education institutions. The former increases student mobility by expanding their choice set, while the latter does not travel with the student

The Changing Composition of American-Citizen PhDs

We describe patterns in the composition of American-citizen doctorate recipients from the early 1960s to 2000. The propensity of bachelor’s degree recipients to earn PhDs varied widely during the 1960s and 1970s, especially for men, but has been relatively constant since the early 1980s. PhD propensity varies widely across students from different types of BA institutions, with higher propensities among those attending research universities and selective liberal-arts colleges. The share of PhDs awarded to women increased dramatically over the past 40 years and was driven largely by increases in the number of women earning BAs

Transport phenomena in helical edge states interferometers. A Green's function approach

We analyze the current and the shot-noise of an electron interferometer made of the helical edge states of a two-dimensional topological insulator within the framework of non-equilibrium Green's functions formalism. We study in detail setups with a single and with two quantum point contacts inducing scattering between the different edge states. We consider processes preserving the spin as well as the effect of spin-flip scattering. In the case of a single quantum point contact, a simple test based on the shot-noise measurement is proposed to quantify the strength of the spin-flip scattering. In the case of two single point contacts with the additional ingredient of gate voltages applied within a finite-size region at the top and bottom edges of the sample, we identify two type of interference processes in the behavior of the currents and the noise. One of such processes is analogous to that taking place in a Fabry-P\'erot interferometer, while the second one corresponds to a configuration similar to a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In the helical interferometer these two processes compete.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure

Resident and Nonresident Tuition and Enrollment at Flagship State Universities

We address the determinants of resident and nonresident tuition and enrollment at public universities. A key explanatory variable is the share of out-of-state students enrolled under reciprocity agreements. We find that public universities use out-of-state enrollments primarily to augment student quality, not to make up for losses in state appropriations.In the main out-of-state enrollment levels are relatively insensitive to out-of-state tuition levels charged by institutions. Finally, we find no evidence that public universities increase their in-state or out-of-state tuition levels in response to increased federal or state financial aid for students.

Start-Up Costs in American Research Universities

Our report briefly summarizes findings from the 2002 Cornell Higher Education Research Institute survey of start-up costs at the over 220 universities classified as Research and Doctoral universities by the Carnegie Foundation in 1994. It reports the mean start-up cost packages across institutions for new assistant professors and senior faculty, broken down by institutional type (public/private), Carnegie classification and field (biology, chemistry, engineering, physics and astronomy) and also discuses the sources of funding for start-up costs

Who Bears the Growing Cost of Science at Universities?

Scientific research has come to dominate many American university campuses. The growing importance of science is due to exciting breakthroughs in biology, information technology and advanced materials that have promise of tremendously improving human welfare. Along with the growing importance of science has come a growing flow of external funds to universities to support research. What is not well known, however, is that increasingly the costs of research are being funded at universities are coming out of internal university funds. Over the last three decades of the 20th century the percentage of university research that is funded out of internal funds rose from about 11 to 20 and internal research expenditures per faculty member almost quadrupled in real terms. Our paper sketches the reasons for the tremendous increase in university expenditure on research out of internal funds including changes in federal indirect cost reimbursement policies and the growing cost of start-up funds for new faculty. We present evidence, based upon a survey of department chairs, deans and vice presidents for research at over 200 public and private universities, on the magnitude of start up packages received by researchers in science and engineering disciplines. We then use panel data for 21 years and over 200 universities to estimate the impact of growing internal expenditures on research on student/faculty ratios, the substitution of lecturers for tenure track faculty, on average faculty salaries and on tuition levels at public and private universities. Among our most important findings is that universities whose research expenditures per faculty member out of internal funds has been growing the most rapidly in absolute terms, ceteris paribus, have the greatest increase in student/faculty ratios. So while undergraduate students may benefit from being in close proximity to great researchers, they also bear part of the costs in the form of larger class sizes and fewer full-time faculty members

A sensitive subject: Haploinsufficiency of the yeast VMA13 gene in simple and compound heterozygotes

Vacuolar-proton translocating-ATPases (V-ATPases) are the membranebound transporters responsible for controlling pH levels in intracellular compartments. The V-ATPase enzyme is a multi-subunit complex consisting of two distinct domains, a cytosolic V1 region and a membrane-bound Vo domain. While the interface between V1 and Vo is not as well understood, studies suggest the possibility of multiple peripheral stalks tethering the complex. In response to glucose deprivation, the V1 and Vo sectors of the enzyme are capable of dissociating into separate, and inactive, domains as a means of regulation. At least 4 V1 subunits (C, H, E, and G) are believed to form the peripheral stalk(s) of the V-ATPase. Of considerable interest amongst peripheral stalk subunits has been the H subunit, a protein which has been implicated in the suppression of VATPase activity in free V1 domains and also recently shown to play a key a role in the structural and functional coupling of V1 to Vo. In this study, we’ve identified a clear haploinsufficiency for the VMA13 gene (encoding subunit H). Initially manifested as a growth defect at elevated pH and/or in the presence of extracellular calcium, haploinsufficiency of the VMA13 gene proved to have more profound biological implications on the cell, reducing vacuolar acidification in vivo, ATPase activity at the vacuole, and allowing for ATP hydrolysis in free V1 complexes in the cytoplasm. The importance of VMA13 gene product as both a peripheral stalk protein and structural/functional regulator of the enzyme led us to further investigate the biochemical basis of this haploinsufficiency by selectively forming compound heterozygous mutants. iii After crossing vma13 mutants to various vma knockouts, we found altered phenotypes of compound haploinsufficiencies for the enzyme. Creating an imbalance of both subunits H (Vma13p) and c (Vma3p) exacerbated haploinsufficiency phenotypes of cells, slowing growth on all media, eradicating in vivo acidification at the vacuole, increasing cytosolic ATPase activity, and reducing overall enzyme activity and assembly at the vacuolar membrane. In contrast to these results, altering the balance of both H and B subunits (Vma13p and Vma2p respectively), led to the opposite result. Together, the subunit locations and phenotypes of compound heterozygous vma mutants are explained, at least in part, by their biochemical phenotypes. A perturbation of H subunit stoichioimetry creates a gain in ATPase activity in the stable population of free V1 sectors in the cytoplasm and results in an uncoupling of ATP hydrolysis and proton translocation, in essence wasting away intracellular energy stores. The wasting of energy coincides with the poor growth of vma13Δ heterozygotes and, along the same lines, the level and activity of this active free V1 population underlies many phenotypic differences amongst compound heterozygous mutants. While many compound mutant phenotypes can be explained by this biochemical phenomenon, a reduction of ATPase activity at the vacuole along with reduced V-ATPase assembly at the vacuole for some strains (e.g. vma13Δ x vma3Δ heterozygotes) suggests that perturbation of certain subunit levels may also have synergistic effects on overall enzyme stability and assembly. In summary, this data sheds light onto subunits in the V-ATPase iv enzyme normally present, in vivo, in limited quantities, highlighting their importance for an active and healthy enzyme