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- Understandably so, "[t]he public is increasingly displeased with colleges often being run like businesses," reports a recent Daily Pennsylvanian article entitled "Cost of higher ed upsets public." In fact, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 60% of Americans think that all colleges care about is their bottom line. 69% of Americans recognize that with the price hikes, highly qualified people can simply not afford to attend college these days. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is urging universities to make cuts and "demanding that trustees step up to the plate" because the public is "fed up." According to Penn Dean of Admissions Eric Furda, Penn is working extra hard to reach lower income students. And, in response to the accusations of running universities like businesses, Furda explains that Penn truly does prioritize education over business. While there is undeniably a business side to college administration, says Furda, we need to always keep education in focus.
- In an interesting BusinessWeek article, "From B-School to the Big House," Alison Damast describes an innovative new program that brings together the skills of MBA students with the ambitions of inmates in local prisons. The goal of the program is to help inmates acquire business skills that will then help them find a job upon release. "We're hoping we can give [the inmates] some real-life business skills that will help reacclimate these individuals to the business world, get jobs, and prepare them to succeed once they get there," explains one Emory Goizueta student. These prisoners are often quick learners—"crime is, after all, entrepreneurial," Damast reminds us in her article. There are currently 61 MBA students from 16 MBA programs across the country involved in the Prison Entrepreneurship Program. Represented schools include Duke Fugua and UC Berkeley Haas.
- Wharton's free online research newsletter has just gone Arabic, in an initiative to show off the top MBA's program's authority on business in the Middle East, reports the Financial Times. The Arabic version of Knowledge@Wharton (which will also be published in English) will focus on the role the Middle East plays in the global economy. Wharton also publishes a Chinese version (in Chinese and English), an Indian version (in English), and a Latin American version (in Spanish, Portuguese, and English). According to a Daily Pennsylvanian article on the same subject, an Australian version of Knowledge@Wharton will be launched next month.
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