The Chronicle of Higher Education recently discussed the effect of shrinking university budgets on graduate programs in disciplines such as archeology, language, and fine arts. The article cites a number of universities, including University of Maryland, Harvard, and UCLA,  that are cutting back on admissions to graduate programs in the humanities. Other schools are also cutting less popular specializations and subfields.

Last week, the California State University (CSU) system announced an expansion and centralization of the online courseware efforts. Under the Cal State Online plan, the 23 member campuses of the California State University system will combine their online courseware offerings under a single portal. Incentives will be offered to professors at all schools to participate in the program. Cal State Online in limited release for Fall 2012, with a full deployment by Spring 2013.

The Disruptor presents a pair of differing opinions on new developments in Higher Education.

Apple iBooks Author: Innovative New Direction, or Collapse of the "Authoritative" Textbook?

Will the development of Apple’s iBooks Author provoke a wave of unvalidated "textbooks", or usher in a new age of expertise that is not limited to the academic elite?

This week the Center for 21st Century Universities is starting a new blog series featuring leading-edge higher education institutions and university innovators. The first Monday of every month will feature a new innovative institution of higher education, beginning this week with Western Governor’s University.

In 1987, Secretary of Education William J. Bennett argued that increasing the availability of student loans would cause colleges and universities to increase tuition rates to unsustainable levels, as the institutions felt confident that federal aid would foot the bill.

I am not above false equivalencies. I know that the “liberal” in “liberal arts” has nothing to do political liberals as in “Don’t vote for that tax-and-spend liberal”.

As has been noted by a variety of commentators, including C21U Director Rich DeMillo, MIT’s Open Courseware spinoff MITx has the potential to revolutionize higher education instruction.

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama put the institution of higher education “on notice” and announced major changes regarding Federal funding for colleges.

Two weeks ago, Apple released its contribution, iBooks, to the e-textbook market. In conjunction with textbook publishers McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, and Houghton Miffin, Apple is expanding it's iPad app, iBooks, into the textbook market. These digital textbooks feature content such as embedded video, electronic flash cards, and continuous updates via the cloud bringing the delivery of educational content into a format that makes students more eager to engage.

A senior officer at an elite college, Claremont McKenna, inflated the college’s SAT scores in an effort to climb the U.S. News Rankings. Have we become too obsessed with rankings?

To find out what people are saying about this issue, view the rest of the C21U Disruptor.