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      /NEBHE\
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   [*NEBHE/          NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION
   |N B*E/           45 Temple Place,  Boston, Massachusetts 02111
   NEBHE*)
   |B E  \/)         Voice:  (617) 357-9620
   |H*__*_/          FAX:    (617) 338-1577
   [E/               Internet: jhoy@rcnvms.rcn.mass.edu


For Release: April 16, 1994             CONTACT:        John O. Harney
                                                        Julie Lanza

NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION REPORTS FINANCIAL PRESSURES STILL
BEARING DOWN ON REGION'S COLLEGES AND THEIR STUDENTS

        BOSTON-- As New England appears poised to emerge from the economic
thicket, the region's colleges and universities and their students
continue to face fierce financial pressures, according to a series of
articles to be published next week in CONNECTION: NEW ENGLAND'S JOURNAL OF
HIGHER EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

        CONNECTION is the journal of the New England Board of Higher
Education (NEBHE).

        The new issue features essays by distinguished New England educators
and others on trends in tuition, state support for higher education,
endowments and financial aid, as well as commentaries on science
education, town-gown relations and the future of university presses.

        A summary of articles follows:

COIN OF THE REALM % NEBHE President John C. Hoy notes that virtually all
New England colleges and universities are tuition-driven, but questions
how long students and their families will sustain rising tuition costs.
Between 1982 and 1991, personal income grew by 99 percent in New England,
while average tuition rates shot up 134 percent at public institutions and
127 percent at private institutions.

A HIGH-STAKES BET ON THE FUTURE % David W. Breneman, a visiting professor
at Harvard University and former president of Kalamazoo College in
Michigan, warns that no income source -- tuition, endowment, private
giving, state or federal appropriations -- is likely to grow enough to
allow higher education to solve its budget problems on the revenue side
alone.

FINANCIAL AID: THE BUMPY ROAD AHEAD % Bates College Vice President for
Administrative Services and Admissions Dean William C. Hiss explains what
one New England campus is doing to cope with steady increases in the
number of families qualifying for financial aid. Hiss acknowledges that
the long-revered policy of admitting students regardless of financial need
involves insupportable fiscal risks for some colleges and universities.
"We don't like making need-based decisions," writes Hiss, "but we prefer
that to making aid awards that would require budget cuts or to meeting
only partial needs of students."

TUITION FUTURES IN NEW ENGLAND % Rhode Island's former Higher Education
Commissioner Eleanor M. McMahon explains one way five New England states
are helping families cope with rising college costs. Since 1988, McMahon
reports, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont have
sold a combined $1.2 billion in tax-free college savings bonds, which will
be worth about $2.6 billion upon maturity.

DIRECT LENDING: IS NEW ENGLAND'S STUDENT LOAN INDUSTRY LIVING ON BORROWED
TIME? % CONNECTION Associate Editor Julie Lanza examines the new Federal
Direct Student Loan Program. But she warns that the most sweeping
experiment in higher education financing in 30 years will eliminate the
traditional role of the multibillion-dollar student loan guaranty industry
-- and possibly a lot of New England jobs.

NEW ENGLAND'S ENDOWMENT WEALTH IS ENORMOUS... AND ENORMOUSLY SKEWED %
A NEBHE analysis reveals that while the total market value of endowments
held by New England colleges and universities grew from $3.6 billion in
1977 to an estimated $20 billion today, the majority of the region's
students are endowment have-nots. The study shows that New England's total
endowment wealth amounts to $25,235 per full-time student on average. But
half of all New England college students attend institutions with
endowment levels below $976 per student -- a level that NEBHE reports is
"insufficient to support more than 1 percent of all institutional
expenditures."

FINANCING PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE % University System of
New Hampshire Chancellor William J. Farrell explains why legislators in
Concord last year made a historic decision to end the 12-year decline in
the New Hampshire state government's share of the university system's
operating budget.

MAINE COALITION HALTS BUDGET SLIDE % John J. O'Dea, the Senate chair of
the Maine Legislature's Joint Committee on Education, recounts the ups and
downs of higher education funding in Maine.

WHAT SCIENTIST SHORTAGE? % Kevin Aylesworth, the founder of the Young
Scientists' Network, lambastes science policymakers for spreading "poorly
supported tales of an actual or 'impending' shortage of scientists and
engineers." Aylesworth charges that the rhetoric has created a substantial
oversupply of technical talent. In physics, for example, Aylesworth says,
universities are producing about two Ph.D.s for every job opening.

WHERE THE JOB ENGINE IS REVVING UP: EMPLOYMENT IN EMERGING HIGH-TECH
COMPANIES % CONNECTION looks at a study by Corporate Technology
Information Services (CorpTech) of Woburn, Mass., and detects the whir of
job creation among emerging New England firms that manufacture computer
software and hardware, subassemblies and components, telecommunications
equipment and environmental technologies.

ENGINEERING EDUCATION'S 21st CENTURY CREDO: % Bernard M. Gordon, the
president and chairman of Analogic Corp. and founder of the Gordon
Institute of Tufts University, offers a new prescription for engineering
education. "Rather than being well-rounded and well-grounded," Gordon
writes, "young engineers of the 1990s are often over-specialized and
conditioned to succeed only within narrowly defined areas. In place of
grit, ingenuity, and commitment has come complacence and an expectation on
the part of many younger professionals that solutions will be easy and
automatic, and rewards substantial."

TOWN MEETS GOWN IN NEW HAVEN % Former New Haven Mayor John C. Daniels
reflects upon relations between one of the nation's poorest cities and one
of its wealthiest institutions. "Yale and New Haven both are aware that
the city's problems are the university's problems as well, and that each
must work constructively and creatively with the other to ensure a
positive future," Daniels writes. But there's work to do. For starters,
Daniels urges Yale to enroll more New Haven residents, especially African-
Americans.

PRESSING DEMANDS: THE FUTURE OF UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING % CONNECTION
Associate Editor Julie Lanza explores the future of academic publishing in
New England. University presses account for almost 20 percent of the books
published in the United States, but enjoy only 2 percent of the total
profits from U.S. book publishing. As the budgets of colleges and
universities and their libraries dwindle, Lanza says the small world of
academic publishing is getting smaller.

SCHOOL TIES: COLLEGES AND SCHOOL REFORM % Massachusetts Undersecretary of
Education Andy S. Gomez warns that efforts to bring schools and colleges
together to improve education often produce cultural conflicts that can
stall, even sink, the most determined collaborative efforts.

REWARDING FACULTY WHO TEACH % Susan A. Holton, a communication professor
at Bridgewater State College and founder of the Massachusetts Faculty
Development Consortium, examines the teaching vs. research debate and
finds some New England institutions are developing "a sense of community
among faculty members who are interested in teaching excellence."

        To subscribe to CONNECTION, contact the New England Board of Higher
Education, 45 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111, or call (617) 357-9620.
Subscribers receive four issues, including the special annual FACTS
directory of New England colleges, universities and institutes.

        NEBHE is a nonprofit, congressionally authorized interstate agency
whose mission is to foster cooperation and the efficient use of resources
among New England's approximately 260 colleges and universities. NEBHE
programs are principally focused on the relationship between New England
higher education and regional economic development.

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Gene V Glass                                         Glass@ASU.BITNET
College of Education                                 Glass@ASU.EDU
Arizona State University      602-965-2692           Tempe, AZ 85287-2411