By Kevin Kuzma, Online Editor

The notion clashes with just about every aspect of the foundation of traditional colleges and universities. As far as it relates to seeing students through to employment, “accountability” has never ranked high on the roster of concerns for tenured professors, college presidents and chancellors, or for many student services departments on the campuses of America’s most esteemed learning institutions.

With public university administrators continually arguing for tuition increases to counter state appropriations cuts, it seems far-fetched that their budget problems could be solved by eliminating student tuition and fees altogether.

But that’s the idea put forth by a group of students from the University of California at Riverside, who in January proposed a new funding model for the University of California system that seeks to solve two of the system’s biggest problems: unpredictable and large decreases in state appropriations, and the steady increase in tuition costs.

Washington, DC – February 2, 2012 – Following today’s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing, Coalition for Educational Success Managing Director Penny Lee released the following statement:

“The nation’s focus on economic recovery continues to highlight the importance of higher education in filling available jobs in growing industries. Through innovative and creative training programs, career colleges work hard to prepare ‘job ready’ graduates at a low cost to taxpayers.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shareholders of for-profit education company Education Management (Nasdaq: EDMC ) are smarting today, with their stock plunging as much as 22% following release of its second-quarter results.

New students are more likely to drop out of online colleges if they take full courseloads than if they enroll part time, according to findings from a research project that is challenging conventional wisdom about student success.

But perhaps more important than that potentially game-changing nugget, researchers said, is how the project has chipped away at skepticism in higher education about the power of “big data.”

Sustain the link between accreditation and access to federal financial aid.

Set a national minimum standard for states to follow in ensuring consumer protection in higher education.

Consider structuring accreditation so that it is judged based on institution type or mission rather than geography, and so that accreditors can more easily distinguish between colleges of varying quality.

Define a common set of data that the federal government would collect and share with accreditors, both to minimize reporting burden and to assure consistency. The data might include licensure, job placement and completion data -- the latter collected "through a privacy-protected national unit record system."

The private, for-profit college industry would stop regulating itself at the state level under a bill that a Kentucky House committee approved Wednesday.

"This is not everything that we probably all would like to see in the bill, but it is doable and it is a start," said Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, the bill's sponsor. A stronger bill last year was passed by the House but died in the Senate in the face of aggressive industry lobbying.

House Bill 308, which proceeds to the full House, would abolish the controversial Kentucky Board for Proprietary Education, which licenses scores of for-profit schools offering two-year associate degrees, technical certificates and other diplomas in various career fields.

Corinthian Colleges Inc reported a second-quarter profit that beat market estimates as the new student enrollment declined at a slower pace from last year, and the for-profit education provider forecast a strong third quarter.

Corinthian forecast third-quarter earnings of 15 cents to 17 cents, versus analysts' average estimate of 13 cents. It expects new student enrollment to be flat in the quarter.

Santa Ana, California-based Corinthian's second-quarter new student enrollment fell at a moderate pace of 3 percent.

The company, which runs the Everest, Heald and WyoTech campuses, has been facing a sharp decline in student numbers after it tightened admission standards to comply with new education rules.

Every year, millions of African American and Hispanic students enroll in career colleges – for-profit institutions of higher learning like the University of Phoenix or ITT Tech – and each year, represent 39 percent of all graduates from those schools.

For some students, for-profit colleges are their only opportunity to receive higher education. That option may be taken off the table, however, if the Department of Education is successful in reintroducing the ‘gainful employment rule’ into federal financing of college education.

Following a flurry of higher-education policy proposals by President Obama, the U.S. Department of Education on Monday hosted a symposium meant to advance the administration's goal of increasing the nation's number of college graduates.

The president has said that he wants the United States to have the highest rate of college completion in the world by 2020. So far, however, the administration has focused more on getting students into college than on helping them finish their degrees, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said to participants at the symposium.