Latest news with #MungChiang
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Other higher education institutions in IN weigh in on flat fees
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – The University of Southern Indiana (USI) is proposing that tuition and mandatory fees be held flat for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 academic years in response to a recommendation by Governor Braun and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, but is USI the only university considering this? Purdue University Officials with Purdue University agreed on flat rates for the fourteenth year in a row. The Purdue University Board of Trustees say on April 4 it endorsed President Mung Chiang's request for a 14th consecutive tuition freeze and approved his faculty and staff salary policy request for fiscal year 2026 for the main campus with a 2% recurring increase, plus a 0.5% nonrecurring recognition of 'exceptional' employee contributions. 'Purdue is in a unique position in American higher education: We can continue freezing tuition and maximize student access as a land-grant institution while simultaneously maintaining our commitment to the dedicated faculty and staff vital to achieving excellence at scale,' Chiang said. 'At a time when many universities have chosen salary freezes or reduction in workforce, Purdue is in a strong position financially to make salary investments to recognize the capabilities of its workforce and further improve its competitiveness in recruiting top talent.' Officials say the freeze of core tuition and mandatory fees — to be formally approved by trustees in late spring 2025 per state statute, after the legislative budget setting — means Purdue students will see no increase in tuition through at least the 2026-27 academic year. Base undergraduate tuition will remain at $9,992 per year for Indiana residents and $28,794 for out-of-state students through 2026-27. According to Purdue University, except for the pandemic year of 2020-21, Purdue has offered a merit increase every year since 2010. In November 2020 more than 15,000 employees received a one-time appreciation award of $750. U.S. Supreme Court to hear Representative Bost's case on mail-in voting Ivy Tech Ivy Tech says it is planning to hold tuition and fees flat for the next two years. Ivy Tech says it will recommend its State Board of Trustees hold these fees flat for the next two years in compliance with the recommendation by Governor Braun and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. Leaders from Ivy Tech will present this adjusted structure to the State Board of Trustees for adoption during its June 5 meeting in Indianapolis. Ivy Tech says it last raised tuition in 2023 after changing the structure of its distance education and tech fees and integrating those into the tuition rate for students. Tuition increased in Academic Year 2023-24 from $2,243.25 to $2,455.76 per semester for full-time students. In Academic Year 24-2025, it increased from $2,455.76 to $2,577.11 per semester for full-time students. However, this fee restructuring and reduction effort ultimately resulted in 70% of students paying less during the 2023-2025 biennium than in the previous two years. On Friday, Ivy Tech announced a statewide reduction in force impacting 202 employees in Indiana, including 11 in the Evansville service area. Crews work to repair sink hole near Oak Hill Cemetery Indiana University Indiana University says it will recommend that tuition and mandatory fees for in-state undergraduate students be held flat for the next two years. Officials say the IU Board of Trustees will hold a public forum on the proposed tuition and fees for the 2025-27 academic years at 12:15 p.m. on June 12, at IU Bloomington's Henke Hall of Champions. While IU is proposing no increase in tuition or mandatory fees for in-state undergraduate students, the board will consider a proposed tuition increase of up to 2% for graduate programs, with an exception for some programs in the health and medical fields. IU says beginning in fiscal year 2024, the university reduced the number of academic fees by half. IU Bloomington also announced earlier this year that it will increase its minimum stipend pay for graduate students who hold part-time teaching or research appointments, effective July 1. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Blazing New Trails To The Endless Frontier: Transforming America's University Research
By Mung Chiang, President of Purdue University (This was an opening keynote at the SEMI EXPO Heartland on April 1 in Indianapolis, with additional examples of events since.) For fourscore years or so, the research enterprise that fueled the American innovation engine was built on the Bell Labs and National Science Foundation models. In the latter, a social contract was implicitly agreed upon between the American people and their elected officials and the country's top universities after the adoption of 'Science: The Endless Frontier,' written by Vannevar Bush for President Harry Truman in the concluding months of World War II. In this contract, much research would be carried out at universities, including private ones, and, through both federal/local tax benefits and government budgetary allocations, public resources would be used as the primary funding source for research at these universities. They would then carry out both the 'knowledge dissemination' and the 'knowledge creation' mission. The NSF was subsequently created in 1950, and the Sputnik moment accelerated the U.S. government's investment across many funding agencies. The peace dividend of the 1990s was shared with these agencies, especially the National Institutes of Health. Both models were based on essentially a monopoly enjoyed by the funding source. Both were choices made, indeed well made, but these were not and are not the only choices. Now at the midpoint between the end of World War II and the end of the 21st century, we are at an inflexion point. The American public wants to explore a new social contract where federal tax dollars assume a smaller portion of the financing equation for research carried out in universities. Purdue University Daily twists and turns aside, is this mostly a transient process, or will it be long lasting? Academia might not be going back to the same good ride of the past 75 years. A new equilibrium for university research could emerge. This premise bounds the scope of the rest of this discussion, knowing that the arguments for resuming the last three-quarters of a century into the future centuries have also been articulated in passionate public advocacy. If fundamental changes are coming ashore anyway, what can we do to maximize the vitality of university research in the new situation? In particular, how should universities work with private capital, both profit-seeking and philanthropic ones, in future decades? Now, private capital for university research is not new, but boosting its scale and scope requires a new culture and innovative mechanisms. There were legitimate reasons why the primary source of funding has comfortably been the government rather than companies and gifts. But today's necessity might incentivize a revisit and reimagination. New arrangements and processes are required for all parties, because industry and academia are naturally misaligned and misfit in many dimensions: All industries would be incentivized if Congress would create a tax benefit for corporations' funding of university research. With skin in the game, some might become a partner with, or even a distributor for, federal research funding. We also recognize that the university-industry relationship is a hexagon: research, recruiting, online learning, IP licensing, philanthropy and economic development. If we do well in one with a company, we should try to elevate the other five too and synergize across all six. Purdue has started experimenting with '360 partnership task forces' with Eli Lilly and Company and SK hynix, with growth toward some of the other 400 companies we partner with. Purdue has always been one of the most industry-coupled universities in the country, and it's getting even better each day as we build out America's Hard Tech Corridor in the heartland. Our semiconductor degrees program has an industry leadership advisory board. Our enterprise publicity campaign is carried out jointly with corporate partners. Our Daniels School of Business now requires AI literacy as a graduation requirement. Training workshops for faculty and staff new to the world of industry partnership started in the spring 2025 semester. Collaborations among previous silos are building new muscles across the offices of Industry Partnerships, Sponsored Program Services, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, Technology Commercialization, and fund-raising development. Just in the past few months, we have had numerous successes across various sectors. The following examples pilot key elements of an emerging playbook, one that favors scale, speed and agility. A watershed moment was the announcement on May 9, 2025, in Indianapolis of the largest university-industry research program: $250 million over the next seven years of funding from Eli Lilly and Company to Purdue University in medicine discovery, foundry and manufacturing. Other recent examples abound too: But a tough concern remains: how to support fundamental research (and those disciplines removed from industry)? That is the spring source of a waterfall that cascades into new economic equations and, eventually, quarterly profits. Several ideas are worth exploring, though none are satisfactory yet: Now let's briefly turn to philanthropy. A capital campaign covers all dimensions of the university, and research and innovation are often not the natural top priority. While this tendency can be improved through staff training and donor cultivation, especially in areas like the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research or the life sciences, additional models warrant exploration. One emerging model is for the benefactors to provide a gift that creates an affiliated research institute, where the affiliation is strong and clear (e.g., faculty joint appointment, patent agreement, etc.). Donors might feel more in control via the resulting governance structure and mission specification. Universities can still benefit from research support and a translational pathway. Clearly, a whole set of parameters needs to be worked out: gift tax, intellectual property, conflicts of interest, and financial terms. With a $20 million gift from Professor Phil Low, a long-time leader in drug discovery and cancer treatment, Purdue announced April 29 the launch of the Low Institute for Therapeutics, creating new models in this direction. Let's not forget: The total wealth in America is not shrinking. Appreciation for research results still lingers in society. But universities need to get creative in architecting new pathways. Devils live in the details, but so did they when NSF was launched in the 1950s. Details can be created for a new mindset, as first movers enjoy timely advantages. Paraphrasing Vannevar Bush in 1945: The frontiers are still endless; we might just have to blaze some new trails to continue the worthy pursuit.
Axios
09-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
Lilly investing $250 million in research at Purdue
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly will invest $250 million in an eight-year research partnership with Purdue University. Why it matters: There's a lot of uncertainty around federal research funding at the moment, so landing what could be the largest-ever agreement of its kind between private industry and a university is a big deal. The big picture: The initiative will bring Lilly researchers to Purdue's West Lafayette campus and Purdue researchers to Lilly facilities and will focus on accelerating drug discovery, development, and manufacturing using AI and other technology-driven approaches. What they're saying: "This may not be the only part of the future of research, but it certainly is an increasingly important part," said Purdue president Mung Chiang during the Friday announcement. Context: The Trump administration has instituted spending cuts and freezes to federal grants that have roiled major academic research programs. "In the face of uncertainty about exactly what funding will be available, institutions are grappling with, 'What choices do we have?'" Elena Fuentes-Afflick, chief scientific officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges, told Axios' Erica Pandey. "For decades, American prominence on the world stage in scientific research has been possible because of NIH funding," she said. "The disruption interrupts the ability to make discoveries, to make impactful findings." Plus, the disruption has implications for companies, which rely on the pipeline of scientists and technologists coming out of universities. State of play: The collaboration between Lilly and Purdue will allow the pharmaceutical company to strengthen its own talent pipeline by training its next generation of workers. "The alliance between Purdue and Lilly can make sure Lilly gets the very best Purdue students to stay in the state and work here at the state's largest company," said Lilly CEO David Ricks. Kurt Ristroph, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue, has already worked with the existing Lilly and Purdue Research Alliance Center. There's always been a benefit to working on research with companies, Ristroph said, in that you get to help them solve real-world problems. Now, he said, there's the added benefit of having this investment as a buffer to the uncertainty at the federal level. "It's good to know that this is here," he said. "But more than that, it's good to know that we'll be able to work on problems that matter."
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Purdue trustees endorse 14th consecutive tuition freeze; faculty and staff salary increases
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) — The Purdue University Board of Trustees has endorsed a 14th consecutive tuition freeze and approves a 2% recurring increase for faculty and staff for the 2026 fiscal year. A nonrecurring 0.5% increase has also been approved as a recognition of exceptional employee contributions. 'Purdue is in a unique position in American higher education: We can continue freezing tuition and maximize student access as a land-grant institution while simultaneously maintaining our commitment to the dedicated faculty and staff vital to achieving excellence at scale,' says President Mung Chiang. 'At a time when many universities have chosen salary freezes or reduction in workforce, Purdue is in a strong position financially to make salary investments to recognize the capabilities of its workforce and further improve its competitiveness in recruiting top talent.' Officials say base undergraduate tuition will remain at $9,992 per year for Indiana residents and $28,794 for out-of-state students through 2026-27. Other student fees are under review, and the full 2025-26 and 2026-27 fee schedule will be announced for public review in May. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Threat to national security': House calls on Purdue to release info on Chinese students
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent Purdue President Mung Chiang and five other university presidents a letter this week, demanding information on students from China and their research on U.S. campuses. 'America's student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing,' said the letter released Wednesday, signed by Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, R-2, the chairman of the House committee, 'providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security.' The letter said U.S. universities are beholden to the tuition from international students, particularly those from China, but that the presence of Chinese national students jeopardizes national security. 'The intelligence community has warned that American campuses are 'soft targets' for espionage and intellectual property theft. The U.S. Department of Justice has further raised concerns that 'international students' motives aren't just to learn but to share that intelligence with foreign superpowers to see a competitive advantage,'" the letter said. A Purdue spokesman has not responded to attempts for comment Friday morning. Beijing on Thursday demanded protections for Chinese students in the United States after the congressional panel asked the universities to hand over the detailed information on their students, according to the Associated Press. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Chinese students account for about one-fourth of all international students in the United States, according to AP, and that their activities have promoted 'the economic prosperity and technological development of the U.S.' 'This is in the interest of both parties,' Mao told reporters at a daily briefing, AP said. 'We urge the U.S. to stop overstretching the concept of national security, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students, and not impose discriminatory restrictive measures on Chinese students.' Citing a 2024 Harvard study, the U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP letter also said, "Only 25% of Chinese national graduate students intend to immigrate to the United States or another western country after completing their graduate programs.' But of the four options in the Harvard study, "Chinese Graduate Students' Experience of U.S. Higher Education Through Covid and U.S.-China Tensions," about half of the respondents answered they were, 'Likely to stay in the U.S. or another Western country for at least a few years after graduation, or for their first post-graduation job.' The study interviewed just 45 postdoctoral or graduate students, .00015% of the 300,000 Chinese national students studying in the United States, according to the study. Purdue has a population of 2,043 Chinese national students, according to spring 2025 online data from Purdue, about 3.52% of the university's overall population. Of that, 1,340 are graduate students, 10.37% of the graduate student population. At Purdue, international students pay only $310 dollars more than out-of-state students. The yearly tuition of an out-of-state student with eight or more credit hours is $28,794, compared to the $29,104 an international student in the same bracket would pay, according to Purdue bursar's office data. The presidents of Carnegie Mellon, Stanford University, the University of Illinois, the University of Maryland and the University of Southern California also received the same letter, according to a press release from the House Select Committee on the CCP. The letter did not state why these universities were chosen. As of Friday morning, none of the other universities has publicly issued a statement. Moolenaar's office also did not return comment. The letter asks for information about the students that includes: a list of all universities that Chinese national students previously attended; their sources of tuition funding; the type of research they are conducting; a list of laboratories and research initiatives where they currently work; a country-by-country breakdown of applicants, admittances, and enrollments at the university; whether the university has policies to prevent foreign nationals from working on projects tied to U.S. government grants (e.g., Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation funded research); restrictions on Chinese nationals enrolling in export-controlled coursework (e.g., advanced semiconductor engineering, quantum computing, AI, and aerospace engineering); and what percentage of Chinese graduates from the university remain in the United States, and what percentage return to China. This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue University urged to release info on Chinese students by House
