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Education

Transfers and UNC’s flagships

I’m laying down a marker here, but bear with me: On a percentage basis, the UNC System’s flagship schools take fewer transfers from North Carolina’s private universities than do their counterparts in the system. In the fall of 2024, NC State and UNC Chapel Hill enrolled 54 and 31 transfer...

By Ray Gronberg

October 9, 2025

The cost of athletics, high school edition

As long as coach Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels football team is beating only the likes of UNC Charlotte, there’s going to be a lot of talk about the cost of college athletics in this state. But high school sports cost money too, and a new report to legislators from the...

By Ray Gronberg

October 8, 2025

School choice

It’s fair to say the leaders of the General Assembly pride themselves on fostering school choice across North Carolina, via the proliferation of charter schools and the Opportunity Scholarship private-school voucher program. But there’s at least one group out there that, while favoring “school choice,” says North Carolina’s work in...

By Ray Gronberg

October 8, 2025

WFU president stepping down next summer

Wake Forest University President Susan Wente will leave her job on June 30, the end of her fifth year in that role. My colleague Kevin Ellis reports the decision came after discussions with board of trustees leadership about the university’s current stability, positive momentum and the need for a succession...

By Ray Gronberg

October 2, 2025

Poe Hall at NC State update

NC State has sued Monsanto and a Pfizer subsidiary over the PCB contamination of Poe Hall, seeking to shield itself from the costs of cleaning up the site and the barrage of workers’ comp claims it fears are coming its way. In addition to damages, the university’s also seeking a...

By Ray Gronberg

October 2, 2025

Duke in the crosshairs

Duke University and Duke Health are getting battered from all sides these days, politically speaking. My Business North Carolina colleague Chris Burritt reported recently on the impasse between Duke Health and Aetna, the CVS Health subsidiary that by some reckonings is the country’s fifth-larger health insurer by market share. Duke...

By Ray Gronberg

September 29, 2025

Zoning exemption for UNC awaits Stein’s pen

Gov. Josh Stein, a Chapel Hill native, ironically may have the last word on whether the town loses its right to regulate UNC Chapel Hill’s land-use moves. House members completed action earlier this week on House Bill 926, sending this year’s regulatory reform package to the governor for his signature...

By Ray Gronberg

September 26, 2025

Regulatory reform bill passes in Senate

Senators voted 31-17 on Monday to pass a regulatory reform bill that will exempt UNC System institutions from local zoning and land-use regulations in Orange, Buncombe and Watauga counties. The provision builds on an existing exemption in Wake County for NC State, and comes amid local controversy over UNC Asheville’s...

By Ray Gronberg

September 23, 2025

A Project Kitty Hawk progress report

Project Kitty Hawk has spent $74.1 million of the $97 million the General Assembly gave it back in 2021 to expand the UNC System’s online degree offerings for adult learners, its leaders say. As of this fall, project-affiliated degree programs at N.C. Central, Appalachian State and East Carolina were serving...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2025

AI at UNC

UNC System President Peter Hans intends to hire a new “chief AI officer” as part of a broader strategy to ensure the university’s 16 campuses aren’t left to deal with new technology on their own. The hire will “help us oversee AI strategy for the system and aid our campuses...

By Ray Gronberg

September 22, 2025

Win-lose at UNC

UNC’s Board of Governors has agreed to take money from UNC Chapel Hill and three of the system’s smallest campuses to redistribute to the rest of its institutions. The approval of the $30 million “performance funding reallocation” came Thursday over the objections of several BOG members, among them former state...

By Ray Gronberg

September 19, 2025

UNC enrollment tops quarter-million mark

Enrollment across the UNC System’s universities hit a record high this fall, with preliminary numbers showing a collective 3.4% growth rate from the previous year. All told, the numbers indicate that 256,438 students showed up for fall classes, 8,511 more than in 2024. The system’s three largest campuses remain NC...

By Ray Gronberg

September 18, 2025

UNC tuition and enrollment

Only one UNC Board of Governors member objected on Wednesday to giving North Carolina public universities latitude to propose tuition increases of up to 3% for newly enrolled in-state students. Former Rep. Art Pope, R-Wake, said the system leaders would undercut their successes in keeping student debt down and a...

By Ray Gronberg

September 18, 2025

AI at UNCC

While Elon and Queens are merging, the UNC System’s institutions are poised to expand their academic offerings. Four new programs are on the docket for Board of Governors review this week, highlighted by UNC Charlotte’s proposal to set up new bachelor’s and master’s degrees in artificial intelligence. UNCC also wants...

By Ray Gronberg

September 17, 2025

North Carolina’s higher education sector is getting a major shakeup

North Carolina’s higher education sector is getting a major shakeup, as Alamance County’s Elon University and Charlotte’s Queens University are merging. Tuesday’s announcement from the private institutions left no doubt that in practice, the deal is more an Elon takeover of Queens than it is a merger of equals. At...

By Ray Gronberg

September 17, 2025

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