Robert Kelchen

@robertkelchen

Professor & department head, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I study higher ed finance, accountability, and financial aid. Washington Monthly rankings data editor. Dad, gardener, and baker. Personal account.

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Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· 18d

I talked with the Associated Press about Howard's decision to drop 502 incoming students who had not paid their registration fees on time. apnews.com/article/howa...

Robert Kelchen, a professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, said colleges generally try to walk a fine line in making sure students can enroll, but also making sure students pay their bills.

Howard “either had students who owed a lot of money and they didn’t think a lot of students would pay, or potentially, they have a really big incoming class and they can replace those students,” Kelchen said.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· 21d

A new survey of parents finds that most want their kids to pursue some type of education after high school, although they're worried about affordability. And that "job training or certification" category? That's largely done by higher education. www.insidehighered.com/news/student...

A chart summarizing what parents want for their kids right after graduating high school.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· 22d

Well, shoot...

Some Kelchen guy with the lead article in the Chronicle of Higher Education at this moment.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· 24d

There are few things more enjoyable than finishing up mowing (team reel mower!) at sunset.

Zinnias, marigolds, and other flowers enjoy a steamy July evening.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· 25d

I enjoy being there for my kids as much as possible while also juggling my day job. It's also why I'm in no hurry to move up the administrative ladder. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/re...

Potty-training consultants, who work intensively with toddlers over several days, charge anywhere from $600 to $4,500. Private bike-riding lessons, the kind of thing many parents handle on a Saturday afternoon, can run $80 to $450 per session. Don’t want to pack your kids up for summer camp? You can hire someone for $125 an hour. For families who want full-time dedicated staff, a travel nanny costs $120,000 to $170,000 a year; a private governess, a tutor who blends academics with social development, can today reach $200,000.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· 26d

My research (coming out soon!) finds that colleges try to preserve faculty positions when making cuts. Cutting staff is still painful, but it's the most politically expedient option. Gift link. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Colleges and universities nationwide face a battery of financial challenges, from federal research cuts to declining student populations. Schools are trying to become more flexible as workforce and student needs grow more unpredictable, said Robert Kelchen, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who specializes in education finances. Administrative and support-staff jobs are “the least painful area to cut,” he said.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jul 12

It's peak tomato season right now, so we roasted and canned some today. Plus, our everbearing strawberries are giving us extra to make into jam.

Lots of fresh tomatoes from the garden, ready to roast!

Three quarts of roasted tomatoes and a pint of strawberry jam as a bonus.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jul 8

Here is some AI slop trying to get attention on state funding for higher education. I have written quite a bit on the topic over the last 15 years, but I sure didn't do SHEEO's great State Higher Education Finance report.

Inside Higher Ed analysis highlights creativity needs amid flat funding.

Expert Perspectives and Real-World Case Studies
Dr. Robert Kelchen, SHEF lead, attributes the FY2025 dip to enrollment recovery outstripping budgets. In West Virginia, cuts stemmed from one-time prior funds expiring, prompting efficiency drives. Illinois' high funding supports robust access, contrasting Arizona's struggles with 47 percent shortfalls.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jul 4

I was in Washington twenty years ago for a summer internship and went to the Fourth of July parade. I still think regularly of all the joy that new Americans brought to the celebration, as this is what makes our country special.

Recent immigrants celebrating America on July 4, 2006.

Sikhs saying "Happy Happy Fourth July! God Bless America!" on July 4, 2006. I think of this all the time two decades later.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 29

I keep making this point when discussing college closures. Nobody wants to be the one to make the politically painful decision, and everyone would prefer that someone else does it. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/29/m...

Historically, federal and state governments have been reluctant to step into the affairs of private colleges, said Robert Kelchen, a professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, because intervening can be “a political mess.” No one wants to see a school die, and regulators especially “don’t want to be the one blamed for killing the school,” he added.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 29

I have a Google alert set for my name, which is something that any public-facing person should have. One of the results this morning was an AI slop piece that featured this graphic. Yikes.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 24

USA Today published a piece from a foreign essay-writing company as sponsored content. It claims that the number of community colleges has collapsed (nope!), and I'm not dignifying it with a link. But IPEDS classifies institutions with a few bachelor's programs as four-years.

The two-year college pathway is disappearing. Public community colleges have declined from 1,092 institutions in 1997 to 817 today. Private two-year institutions fell even more dramatically, from 771 to 451 in just over a decade. This erosion disproportionately affects students who depend on locally accessible education.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 22

This Washington Post editorial claims that state funding has not improved student outcomes. There is plenty of evidence to the alternative, which they regrettably omitted. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202... nces.ed.gov/programs/dig... www.nber.org/papers/w27885

College administrators desperate to protect bloated budgets will insist in the coming years that they need big state bailouts. But more spending hasn’t kept higher education affordable and, even worse, hasn’t necessarily led to better student outcomes.

The six-year graduation rate at public institutions has increased from 51.7% to 63.5% over the last two decades. Community college graduation rates went from 23.6% to 30.2%, although students often transfer or find jobs without completing degrees at that institution.

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We overcome identification concerns related to the endogeneity of state appropriation variation using an instrument that interacts the baseline share of total revenue that comes from state appropriations at each public institution with yearly variation in state-level appropriations. Our analysis is conducted separately for two-year and four-year students, and we analyze individuals into their mid-30s. For four-year students, we find that state appropriation increases lead to substantially lower student debt originations. They also react to appropriation increases by shortening their time to degree, but we find little effect on other outcomes. In the two-year sector, state appropriation increases lead to more collegiate and post-collegiate educational attainment, more educational debt consistent with the increased educational attainment, but lower likelihood of delinquency and default. State support also leads to more car and home ownership with lower adverse debt outcomes, and these students experience substantial increases in their credit score and in the affluence of the neighborhood in which they live. Examining mechanisms, we find state appropriations are passed on to students in the form of lower tuition in the four-year sector with no institutional spending response. For community colleges, we find evidence of both price and quality mechanisms, the latter captured in higher educational resources in key spending categories. These results are consistent with the different pattern of effects we document in the four-year and two-year sectors. Our results underscore the importance of state support for higher education in driving student debt outcomes and the long-run returns to postsecondary investments students experience.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 18

I shared a few thoughts about why higher ed is making public statements about regaining public trust. What didn't make it into the piece: my comments on how WashU and Vanderbilt are trying to position themselves as more conservative Ivy alternatives. www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

The recent public statements and investigations are intended to underscore not just the public service that universities provide, and the necessity of independence from political pressure, but also their desire to regain public confidence, according to some university leaders.

There seem to be two strategies at play with recent efforts, said Robert Kelchen, a professor of education policy at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

“One is trying to head off additional scrutiny and investigations from the federal government,” he said. “And the second is using the administration’s preferred language, really, against the administration.”

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 16

It's purple bean season from the garden! They turn green after being blanched.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 12

One community college in Texas is being forced to undo a student fee increase due to a gubernatorial order. One of the stated drivers for increasing student charges: declining bonuses for student achievement under the state's new performance funding metric. fortworthreport.org/2026/06/10/t...

Community colleges get extra state money when students with greater needs earn a certificate. But in fiscal year 2027, that extra funding will shrink — from 25 cents to 20 cents on the dollar for low-income and academically underprepared students, and from 50 cents to 40 cents per dollar for adult learners 25 and older.

TCC expects to lose $2 million in state funding because of this change, although Anglin said the college hopes to make up the difference by outperforming state projections and increasing enrollment.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 10

Just a friendly reminder that theology is classified as a "professional" program by ED. And education programs have better debt-to-earnings outcomes than several other professional fields. www.educationnext.org/new-caps-on-...

But the label is misleading: The “professional” classification in this context does not carry a judgment on a degree’s worth or the level of expertise an occupation requires. Historically, the term “professional degree” has referred to a handful of high-cost but also high-earning fields such as medicine, dentistry, and law—and that is the understanding of the “professional” classification that the department’s definition seeks to preserve.

In recognition of these higher salaries, but also the higher costs involved for medical school and the like, OBBBA allows students in “professional” programs to borrow up to $50,000 per year, more than twice the maximum at standard graduate programs. The legislation restricts that extraordinary level of borrowing to programs where graduates earn salaries on par with doctors, dentists, and lawyers—and unfortunately, education doesn’t fit that description.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 10

This is quite a passage in a piece diving deep into the University of Florida, whose board is set to vote on a new president today (and a positive vote is not guaranteed). www.chronicle.com/article/u-of...

Recently, I got a firsthand glimpse of how this environment is affecting faculty members. I met a professor for coffee at a Starbucks on NW 13th Street, right next to Gainesville High School, where I was a student in the 1990s. We weren’t discussing anything particularly controversial, but the professor was nervous; she only wanted to talk on background. After a while, we moved to a table outside so as not to be in earshot of anyone. A few minutes later, though, a woman came outside, ostensibly to talk on her phone. The professor was unnerved. What if this woman was secretly recording us? Why was she holding her phone behind her back, just feet from our table? Was this one of the nameless, faceless people who’ve been making a meal of discrediting UF over the past year?

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 8

It's really hard to find a buyer for a closed rural college due to the specialization and low quality of facilities. Plus, some of the buyers are just, ahem, interesting people (gift link). www.wsj.com/us-news/verm...

"If you ever want to feel like you’re going nuts,” the 50-year-old said in an interview, “buy a college campus in the middle of nowhere.”

Bhakta is combing through proposals from entities that promise to maintain the roughly 115 acres. He says he is looking for applicants who can show “an alignment with the vision of the revival of the United States, Western civilization and Christendom through faith-based education.”

The recipient should also budget $1.5 million a year to maintain existing infrastructure and catch up on deferred maintenance, according to Bhakta’s website.

He said U.S. colleges leave students “brainwashed with communist and wokeist ideology,” and that he wanted to fill the void in Poultney with a resort that could teach young Americans the craft of “first-class” liquor. The core of Bhakta’s ethos: Young Americans’ drift away from alcohol is damaging society.

“When people are alone, high on gummies and shrooms in front of their computer, they feel desperate,” he said. “This could be solved in part by going to the local pub and having a beer.”

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 5

I see you, June. And I got the first tomato of the season... from plants I started from seed!

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· Jun 2

I talked with Inside Higher Ed about a fascinating new model that allows students to enroll in a master's degree program without having earned a bachelor's degree. It's something worth keeping an eye on going forward. www.insidehighered.com/news/student...

Robert Kelchen, a professor of education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, told Inside Higher Ed that Hazelden Betty Ford’s approach aligns with the broader industry push for higher education “to do things quicker, faster, better, and see what works.”

Kelchen pointed to competency-based education and the growing deployment of three-year bachelor’s degrees with reduced credit loads as similar examples of colleges innovating in ways that “can save students time and money” and “get people out in the workforce quicker.”

But, he warned, some students may need remediation and additional support to be successful.

He suggested that accreditor approval could also be an obstacle, though that wasn’t the case for Hazelden Betty Ford. As accreditors face mounting scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has accused such organizations of driving up costs and stifling innovation, Kelchen suspects they are likely to be more flexible.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· May 27

I shared a few thoughts with Inside Higher Ed about the surprising news of Michigan State's president heading to Clemson. Michigan State, Michigan, and Wisconsin are the three toughest leadership jobs right now. All three jobs are open. www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

With Clemson—led by a board largely appointed by state officials in a state long dominated by Republicans—Kelchen argued that Guskiewicz is getting a greater sense of certainty. He added that while Clemson is a step down “from a prestige standpoint,” it provides more day-to-day stability.

Kelchen noted, too, that Guskiewicz’s parting message was “extraordinarily rare” for a president in underscoring his strained relationship with the board as the impetus for his exit.

Now, as Michigan State begins its next presidential search, it will do so with a reputation for persistent board dysfunction that will likely complicate the search and drive up salary demands.

“They’re going to have to pay the next president a lot of money,” Kelchen said.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· May 27

The end of May brings summer flowers. It's a beautiful time of year!

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· May 20

Fact check: true.

Me, in a short sleeve button-down shirt walking to the office.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· May 20

I shared a few thoughts in this piece on efforts in multiple states to limit scholarships for international students. It's an easy political target at this moment. magazine.qs.com/qs-insights-...

Robert Kelchen, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, says he is “not surprised that a growing number of Republican-led states are trying to restrict scholarships for international students”.

“This follows decisions to eliminate in-state tuition benefits for DACA students and also matches efforts from the Trump administration to restrict immigration,” Kelchen says. DACA is an acronym for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and refers to students who arrived in the United States as children without lawful status.

Kelchen says while the proposed measures could potentially grant more financial aid to in-state students, it would also take away from allocating financial aid based on merit alone.

“I expect this trend to continue, especially as Republican primary voters are focused heavily on immigration,” Kelchen says.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· May 18

Happy first day of academic summer! Campus is a lot quieter than last week. As a department head, I'm only on campus 1-2 days per week in the summer instead of the normal four. It's my time to get caught up on research and strategic planning.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· May 18

My research on the growth of master's programs got a partially credited cameo in this WSJ piece on relatively high unemployment (but still low in the grand scheme of things) for recent graduates. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

Master’s degree programs have proliferated over the past two decades, increasing 69% to more than 33,500 programs between 2005 and 2021, according to a report published by the Postsecondary Education and Economics Research Center. Even more programs have launched in the past five years, many with a focus on artificial intelligence reskilling.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· May 17

You're doing great work! And people just love gardens...my blueberries say hi.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· May 14

The reaction of so many institutions when someone below them thinks they're a peer.

Robert Kelchen@robertkelchen· May 13

This is an unusually tart back and forth between the Department of Education and financial aid administrators, who are struggling to implement changes coming July 1 without final regulations in all areas. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...