Rather than throwing up their hands about dwindling resources, college leaders could steer cash away from some beloved feel-good programs and into strategies that have proven to be more cost-effective in helping students graduate, a new research analysis suggests.
In a working paper, entitled ?The (Un)Productivity of American Higher Education: From ?Cost Disease? to Cost-Effectiveness,? two University of Wisconsin at Madison professors test the relative costs and benefits of popular student success measures, such as reducing student-faculty ratios. What the researchers found, among other things, is that a college may well get more bang for its buck by replacing adjuncts with full-time faculty than by reducing class sizes ? a strategy smiled upon in the influential U.S. News & World Report rankings.