Honors Colleges on the Rise at State Schools

Article, CNN, October 11, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/10/11/honors.college.ap/index.html

With more and more students going to college, many public universities are pressured to maintain educational quality with fewer resources per student. When state schools get too big, some of the best and brightest students choose to attend more cozy liberal arts colleges that promise smaller class sizes and more individual attention from professors.

There is a growing trend among public universities to emulate the benefits of smaller liberal arts colleges. For highly talented students, many public universities offer admission to an honors college, which provides smaller class sizes, priority scheduling opportunities, and in some cases - choice housing.

Honor colleges are growing in popularity because both students and faculty benefit. Students are able to get something akin to a liberal arts education for state school prices, and it has been shown that professor retention rates are higher when professors teach highly motivated students.

Some in the education community are wary about this new trend, claiming that an honors college does not fall in line with the general mission of a public university. A public university's mission is to provide educational access at a low cost to as many students as possible. Because some students get preferential treatment in an honors college, those not in the honors system have to deal with larger class sizes and more scheduling restrictions.

Proponents of an honors college system argue that schools cannot take a cookie-cutter approach to education. All student needs are different, and in order to compete with liberal arts schools, large state schools have to serve the needs of highly motivated students. They also argue that an honors college sets a high academic bar at a school, and that honors students are role models for all students in an academic institution.