Details of Average College Tuition

Estimating the average college tuition is not an easy task. Numerous factors go into consideration, including location, type of college, length of the degree and even your geographical location at the time of enrollment. Prices also vary widely between public and private schools.

1. Geography: College costs are different for in-state and out-of-state residents. The standard difference is about 100 percent higher for those who are not residents of the state in which they study.

2. Identification: Estimating the average college tuition takes some work, as prices vary considerably from state to state. Vermont ($15,426), New Jersey ($14,853) and New Hampshire ($14,343) have the highest college tuition fees in the country, while the lowest go to a few states in the South and Midwest, including Oklahoma ($8,295) and Kansas ($9,068).

3. Features: The average tuition for a four-year public college stands at $12,796 as of September 2008. According to national statistics, however, over 50 percent of the students in four-year colleges are paying less than $10,000 a year for tuition. Two-year colleges or junior colleges are considerably cheaper, sometimes up to 50 percent less. Private colleges, on the other hand, rank much higher on cost, coming up to an average of $25,143 per year for a four-year college. Community colleges may be the best bet for those who are on a tight budget. A credit hour at Pratt Community College in Kansas costs $29, while an hour at the University of Kansas (state college) will run about $300.

4. Expert Insight: Rates for college tuition go up an average of 5.9 percent a year. That includes only the actual education and does not take into consideration additional costs, such as room and board (a 5 percent growth per year). In 2005, however, there was a remarkable hike in tuition, and some colleges, such as the University of Colorado, increased their prices up to 27 percent.

5. Potential: The five most expensive colleges in the U.S. are, in order: George Washington University (Washington, D.C.), University of Richmond (Virginia), Sarah Lawrence College (New York), Kenyon College (Ohio) and Vassar College (New York). All cost upward of $36,000 for the 2007-08 year. Some of these colleges were not in the list just a year earlier. The University of Richmond, for example, charged a tuition of less than $25,000 in 2006, which makes for a tuition increase of more than 30 percent in a single school year.

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Exam passes reach record levels in Scotland

Record numbers of Scottish teenagers opening their exam results this morning will have passed.A total of 98.5% of the nearly 160,000 15- and 16-year-olds were successful in their standard grade exams, with one in five pupils achieving the top level – grade 1 – and more than a quarter reaching grade 2.Nearly three quarters of the 167,635 higher exams taken by 16- and 17-year-olds this year resulted in passes, as did 77.8% of the advanced higher papers, sat by the brightest 17- and 18-year-olds.

The success rate is the highest since the exams were introduced in the 1970s, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) said. Last year, pass rates were 98% for standard grade exam papers and 73.4% for higher papers. For advanced higher papers, the rate was 75.8%. The number of pupils who sat advanced higher papers rose by 4.2% this year to 19,645.But the pass rate for a qualification sat by 15- and 16-year-olds in basic literacy and numeracy fell by 4.7 percentage points, to 63.5% from 68.2% last year. The number of entries for this qualification, known as access 2, fell to 2,457 from 3,049 last year.

The number of pupils who sat standard grade papers this summer compared with last dropped by 28,398 to 358,459. SQA said this was because of a drop in the number of 15- and 16-year-olds in Scotland – and possibly because pupils may be taking other qualifications.The number of pupils who took higher and advanced highers this summer was the highest for five years.Janet Brown, Scotland's chief examining officer, said: "Individual results will determine what the future will hold for individual candidates and, for the vast majority, that future is bright."

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Smart phones now used to educate kids

Smart phones now have hundreds of applications meant to educate kids — from graphic calculators to animation programs that teach spelling and phonics.And while most public schools don't allow the devices because they're considered distractions — and sometimes portable cheating tools — some school districts have started to put the technology to use.The key, educators say, is controlling the environment in which they are used.In St. Mary's, Ohio, a school district of 2,300 students is continuing a pilot program where third-, fourth- and fifth-graders are assigned PDAs for use as a learning tool in the classroom, and at home. They use applications created by a company called Go Know! to draw pictures and create sketches, journal and write essays, said Kyle Menchhofer, the district's technology coordinator. Other applications create flash cards for spelling and math.

Students took the phones on a museum field trip where they took photos, uploaded them to a server where the teacher could view the assignment and wrote blurbs about what they saw.In addition to the applications that students use, having the PDA teaches them responsibility, he said."Cellphones aren't going away. Mobile technology isn't going away," he said. "Right now, what we're telling kids is 'You go home and use whatever technology you want, but when you get to school, we're going to ask you to step back in time.' It doesn't make any sense," he said.The district started the program last school year with $40,000 and 60 Palm personal data devices that were handed out to students. Menchhofer said teachers who used to wait weeks to use computer labs were now able to use technology right in their classrooms — and students love it.

But there are many questions districts face before opening the door to allow cellphones: If children had their own, fancier phones, would they be allowed those instead of school-issued devices? How would they fund PDAs in larger districts?And do kids really need technology always at their fingertips?Orlando, dad Ken Schneider says he doesn't want his two daughters, ages 12 and 19, to be distracted in class by buzzing phones or text messages. Still, he says a limited, school-sponsored version is a good idea."A very controlled form of communication would be great," he said. "To the extent you can build computer literacy at the youngest age, it's great. That's where the world is moving."In St. Mary's, parents and district officials decided to expand the program for the upcoming school year. Text and cellphone applications are shut off, so the data plan will cost about $17 a month per phone. The phones are free because of government pricing, but students will have to foot the bill if they're lost or broken.

It's worth it, Menchhofer argues. "We need to teach them to be responsible users of cellphones," he said. "There's a right time and a wrong time to use them."Elliot Soloway, the creator of Go Know!, which developed the software, said trying to sell it was a slog for years because of the cellphone ban in most schools. But he said he thinks it's about to change because he's been getting increasing requests."Kids want to use the same tools inside school they use when they walk out the door," he said. "Kids don't worry about small screen sizes or typing trouble. Kids today are the mobile generation and it's time we embraced this as a way to better educate our students."But the purported educational value of the cellphones doesn't seem to sway most school districts, including New York, the largest in the country with a million students. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is in charge of the schools, emphasized his opposition in a recent speech to National Urban League executives, who exploded into applause.

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Funding for teaching at England's universities is being cut

Every university is affected by the revised grant allocations from the funding council (Hefce).But the biggest cuts are at those with the most students: £2.5m at the OU, £1.4m at Manchester, £1.2m at Leeds.Unions reacted angrily but the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) said the sector had to tighten its belt like everyone else.

The University and College Union (UCU) said the £65m would equate to the loss of a further 1,500 full time lecturing and support staff, days after it had complained at nearly 6,000 cuts affecting 100,000 students.UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said this was just the first wave of likely new cuts."What kind of message does this send out to future generations of educators?

"It seems absurd that in a week when the government has done so much soul searching over widening participation that it is putting up new barriers for people wishing to study."The news would come as "a hammer blow" to staff and students, she said.National Union of Students president Wes Streeting said: "It is disgraceful that the quality of teaching in our universities is going to be compromised by significant cuts to the teaching budget."Any savings should be made from peripheral areas of the sector, not from the bread and butter of teaching itself."In a time of economic crisis, it was essential to maintain high standards in higher education so people could improve their skills or retrain to meet the changing demands of the labour market, he added.

The chief executive of the vice-chancellors' organisation Universities UK, Diana Warwick, said: "We said back in May, when the secretary of state first outlined this £65m cut, that this was a blow to institutions, not least in that the detail of the institutional allocation would not be available until now, so late in the year."This has made planning for the year ahead, 2009-10, all the more difficult in what is already a very challenging financial climate."She said a properly funded higher education sector was vital if it was to continue to make a substantial contribution to the UK economy and to remain internationally competitive.The impact of the teaching funding cuts will be compounded by this week's announcement that universities in England can recruit another 10,000 students this year - but will not be given any funding for teaching them.These are for full-time undergraduate student places for 2009-10, in courses which the government says will equip young people with the skills they need for the jobs of the future.

It says this means sectors such as digital industries, the low carbon economy and advanced manufacturing and business services.

Priority course areas are:

* Biological and related health sciences (excluding psychology, sports science and those that are primarily practice-based)
* Physical sciences (excluding geography)
* Mathematical and computer science
* Engineering
* Technology
* Economics
* Business studies

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is expected to make a speech on the future of higher education early next week.

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Colleges offering courses in programming iPhone applications

There's an app for just about anything, or so Apple says.And colleges and universities across the country are taking notice, offering courses in programming iPhone applications to computer-related majors. The courses represent a new path of study for many colleges and universities recognizing the longevity of smartphones and social media, college professors say.iPhone apps, short for applications, are single-purpose programs that allow users to do everything from read the news to play musical instruments. They are largely produced by independent programmers who pay a $99 fee to create, test and distribute — many times for profit — their app.An iPhone Developer University Program launched last fall, however, allows qualifying colleges and universities to produce iPhone apps at no cost, spurring several institutions to offer a course in the technology.

Apple declined to comment on the number of schools participating, but they include Stanford and NJIT.Stanford University is offering a course to 60 students taught by two Apple employees in app development technology. The university started the program last fall and expanded it for the spring semester."Students are really liking it," says teaching assistant Paul Salzman. "We have twice as many students apply as there are slots, so we distribute a survey and have to slim it down." The two Apple-employed lecturers declined to comment, as per an Apple company policy.The information taught in the class is so popular, Salzman says, that the course is filmed and distributed at no charge on iTunes. The video downloads have prompted viewers around the world to create discussion boards and even a website based on the course."It's such a big marketplace," Salzman says. "It's a low entry fee — getting your app on the store is not that hard, there's not a big price — and then you have so many users that can get your application. So it's the current big thing, applications on the iPhone. And we're putting it within the reach of students."

NJIT, a science and technology university in New Jersey, offered the course for the first time this spring. Jim Robertson, director of university Web services, came up with the idea before he even heard of Apple's university program."It was only after we really started going down the line and writing it up as a course and running it by the dean to get it on the schedule that we realized, 'Oh! There's a developer program for universities that we can apply to,' " he says, noting that they have since opted to take advantage of the program.Robertson says he used money out of his own budget to give each student an iPod Touch to test his or her apps. Among the apps his students are working on are a "rock, paper, scissors" app and a financial engineering calculator for use on the NJIT campus.

"I started the course because there's a low threshold to entry and because Apple has set up this whole iPhone economy," Robertson says. "Student entrepreneurs can get into this and start making money and gaining experience. And I think some of these apps that our students are developing are only going to be steppingstones toward more complex and involved apps."The opportunity to make money off a college course was a major draw for Tyler Auten, a senior information technology student at NJIT. So far, Auten has made hundreds of dollars off of three apps he has in the iPhone store.The first app Auten created was "Kids Be Gone," designed in Robertson's class, which emits a high-frequency sound only kids can hear. The app, as the name suggests, was designed to keep children away from the iPhone user. Auten says he experimentally provided the app at no charge for 24 hours and was shocked to see it downloaded by 2,000 users."It blew my mind," he says. "Most classes at NJIT are theory-based, but this one really gives you a way of making money."

Other schools are incorporating the course in a smaller way, either as a part of its existing curriculum or a seminar. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, iPhone app development was taught as a zero-credit, week-long seminar."It was very focused on the mechanics of how to program for this particular platform," says Ph.D. student Edward Benson, who taught the course. "I think the hurdle to the development platform for the iPod is very high, so it was primarily a launching pad to get them familiar with the technology." Benson says the program was inspired by Stanford's course and has led to one of his students working with a Boston-area hospital on a health care app.He says the seminar inspired students to solve real-world problems."It's incredibly empowering and gives students a sense of urgency that they don't normally have," he says. "You start to see a maturity in these students as they start to solve these problems."

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Oldest student to hold a High school diploma

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There’s at least one guy with a new high school diploma who’s not worrying about getting into college or finding a job.After all, Takeshi Murata is 84.Murata was 18 and a student at University High School in Greeley, Colorado, in 1944 when he was drafted to fight in World War II, according to the Greeley Daily Tribune newspaper.

Though he was the son of Japanese immigrants, he grew up speaking English. In the Army, he was trained in an intelligence unit and given some studies in Japanese. After the war, he was sent to serve in U.S. military headquarters in Tokyo.”I really didn’t know Japanese that well,” Murata told the Tribune. “But I’d learned a little in the intelligence schools, so they sent me.”

He met his wife, Chikako, there, he said. They married in Japan and in 1947 returned to northeast Colorado.Murata approached his old school, thinking his military intelligence classes should suffice for any coursework he missed when he left school at 18.”The school officials told me I wasn’t qualified to graduate,” he told the Tribune.Murata dropped the diploma quest and followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a farmer. He raised five children — each of whom earned college degrees.

But Murata still had no diploma of his own until a teacher at the school, Jeanne Lipman, heard his story last year. She found Murata’s report cards, got an original diploma from one of his old classmates and turned them over to University of Northern Colorado President Kay Norton. The high school is now called University High; the university ran it when Murata attended.Norton presented the diploma to Murata on Wednesday night, and his family celebrated with cake and a party. Murata, smiling, joked about the lengthy process.”I’m 84 years old now,” he said. “What am I going to do with a diploma? Look for a job?”

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Top 10 Universities in Australia

1. Australian National University
2. The University of Sydney
3. The University of Melbourne
4. The University of Queensland
5. The University of New South Wales
6. Monash University
7. The University of Western Australia
8. The University of Adelaide
9. Macquarie University
10. RMIT University

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Top 10 Universities in Canada

The top 10 Universities in Canada:

1. University of Toronto
2. University of Alberta
3. Université de Montréal
4. The University of British Columbia
5. McGill University
6. McMaster University
7. Université Laval
8. University of Calgary
9. The University of Western Ontario
10. University of Ottawa

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Top Ten Universities in USA

Top Ten Universities in USA

1. Harvard University
2. Princeton University
3. Yale University
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5. Stanford University
6. California Institute of Technology
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. Columbia University
9. Duke University
10. The University of Chicago

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