University residences used to be about providing an affordable communal living environment for students. Today, Universities have turned them into profit centres on campus. Sure, there are common areas, but the idea is to give students has much private space as possible at the highest price possible. It should come as no surprise that the private sector is looking at university housing profits margins and looking to cash in themselves. Canadian Apartment Magazine, a trade publication catering to apartment owners and managers, ran an opinion piece last month written by Derek Lobo noting that student housing is a profitable growth market, “you can get more dollars per square foot than a conventional apartment.”  (Hattip: Glen Weppler’s blog)

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An article published by Inside Higher Ed (which has become a strong website over the last few months) notes that American public flagship universities are failing at increasing the percentage of their student body originating from underprivileged backgrounds. The problem is that while the universities are increasing the percentage of their overall aid directed at the lowest income students, they continue to pump massive amounts of money into aid for the highest achieving potential students which is increasing the representation of students from rich families. The following paragraph can easily apply in a Canadian context:

“But countervailing pressures — especially the desire to recruit the most academically skilled students in order to climb in college rankings schemes — have led them to continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on students with no financial need.”

While the increase in aid for the neediest students at American flagships is admirable, it is not doing enough to address social mobility. …

Multi-ball is what I’m entitling posts with many unrelated thoughts and links. Yes, I’m using a pinball term.

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When asked what I miss most about being an on-campus student at the University of Manitoba, I always answer the chapel at my home college. This year, the chapel at St. John’s College held its annual Christmas Eve service. The choir from Trinity Presbyterian Church sung at the mass and one of their members uploaded a few pictures to a blog. The candles outside on the walkway make me long even more for my resident student days.

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The current education minister in the United Kingdom is calling for a pre-election all-party education debate to occur in the lead-up to the country’s general election latter this year. Britain will experience its first leaders debate later this year after the third large political parties agreed to hold the debate.

It’s an interesting idea, but sadly would be hard to transplant to Canada.

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Pinball news! There are photos of a test model of Stern’s next pinball Machine Big Buck Hunter Pro. pinballnews.com has coverage here: http://www.pinballnews.com/games/bigbuckhunter/index.html

Not sure what I think of the machine right now. It looks like it will be an interesting and challenging game. That said, the last couple of Stern pinball machines have been major disappointments.

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Speaking of pinball, I’ll be skipping again this week. Really behind on school and writing. My own fault, I’ve been slacking.

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The Wall Street Journal’s blog Real Time Economics wrote last week about a novel paper produced by the United States Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia stating that higher education retention rates can be improved by offering insurance policies to cover student debt for those who fail. …