From the Economist, an interesting piece on the campus construction boom, especially in the sciences, and questions about whether bigger is really better:
...according to the Department of Education, the average annual cost of a standard four-year course at an American university has trebled since the 1985-86 school year. Ohio University increased its tuition fees by 2% to pay for its student centre, which contains a 250-seat theatre, a food court and a five-storey atrium. In addition, universities are increasingly being forced to rely on debt....Hiring more teaching staff and cutting class sizes would probably be of more help to undergraduates than much of the new construction. Universities such as Harvard may have the money available to improve their faculty to student ratio, allocate cash for assisting poorer students and go on competing in the building frenzy. But others do not have that luxury...
Read the whole thing here.
