Yet institutions of higher education must do their part to keep tuition in check and provide students with skills that will enable them to find jobs, he said.
“Obviously, affordability is a huge issue,’’ Kerry said during the meetings. “The bottom line is, we have to adjust the model.’’
The secretary and senator first met privately with the college presidents.
“Both of them were there in listening mode, which I thought was extremely productive,’’ said Joseph Aoun, president of Northeastern University and incoming chair of the board of directors of the American Council on Education.
University presidents nationwide have raised concerns about President Obama’s proposal to make some federal financial aid contingent on schools’ willingness to keep tuition in check. That topic came up in the private meeting, said Lee Pelton, president of Emerson.
“I think they understand the issues we face,’’ Pelton said, referring to Kerry and Duncan. “We all have the same objectives, which are to make sure that our higher education system is strong and robust and meets the needs of students and industries and society.’’
Instead, much of the conversation focused on a major factor driving tuition up at public institutions, the fact that many states have stripped them of their historical funding base.
“We are seeing a weakening of the public higher education system nationwide,’’ Aoun said. “There are enormous cuts year after year. So we have the privatization of the system, where they are forced to raise tuition in order to compensate.’’
Today, UMass receives $30 million less in state funding than it did a decade ago, UMass officials say.
The group also discussed the possibility of a loan forgiveness plan for students who choose majors and careers in mathematics and scientific fields. And it considered some troubling comparisons between the American higher education system and its counterparts in other countries, a point that clearly made an impression on Kerry, who brought up the topic in the student town hall that followed the private meeting.
