International
Mexico’s university graduate numbers are well below OECD average | Mexican adults are less likely to have a university degree than citizens of any other OECD country, statistics show. Of every 100 students who start primary school in Mexico, 21 will go on to complete university studies, according to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
Universities feel the brunt of a market-driven agenda | A quarter of a century ago, Uganda’s Makerere University embarked on an academic journey hitherto undreamt of in Sub-Saharan Africa: intensive marketisation of higher education…The initiative gave a new lease of life to Makerere: in a period of five years the Harvard of Africa moved from a situation in which none of its students paid fees, to a scenario where over 70% paid fees and stopped depending heavily on government subsidies.
Can we measure education quality in global rankings? | Clearly, assessing teaching and learning is central to determining the quality of higher education, but using current methodologies to produce comparative data is foolhardy at best. Rather than fooling ourselves by believing that rankings provide a meaningful measure of education quality, we should acknowledge that they simply use inadequate indicators for commercial convenience. Or, better yet, we could admit, for now at least, that it is impossible to adequately assess education quality for purposes of international comparisons.
Mapping the Academic Genome | This premise of precision is resonating and growing in postsecondary education. For example, instructional thinkers at the University of Michigan and National University advance the most explicit descriptions of precision academics — using learning telemetry and analytics to tailor instruction to the characteristics, needs, paths and paces of individual learners.
South Africa’s university students face a crisis: nearly a third go hungry | There is a common perception that students represent the elite, and so cannot possibly suffer from hunger. But this is a myth. In fact, the available evidence suggests that students are more likely to be food insecure – they are not able to access adequate nutritious food on a daily basis – than others in the general population.
U.S. National
The Student Debt Problem Is Worse Than We Imagined | Consider the official statistics: Of borrowers who started repaying in 2012, just over 10 percent had defaulted three years later. That’s not too bad — but it’s not the whole story. Federal data never before released shows that the default rate continued climbing to 16 percent over the next two years, after official tracking ended, meaning more than 841,000 borrowers were in default. Nearly as many were severely delinquent or not repaying their loans (for reasons besides going back to school or being in the military). The share of students facing serious struggles rose to 30 percent over all.
The cost of the American dream | There is a more than 30% gap in college graduation rates by family income. Even more discouraging, these gaps persist even among students with strong academic preparation; 74% of such students from high socioeconomic status graduate college, compared to only 41% of students with similar academic prowess but more economic disadvantage.
Student-Loan Leader at Consumer Watchdog Agency Resigns in Protest | Seth Frotman, student-loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is resigning from his post in protest next month. Frotman wrote in a resignation letter, made public on Monday, that the federal watchdog agency had pivoted to serve financial companies instead of the consumers the bureau was charged with protecting.
Language Ph.D.s: A Jobs Snapshot | Most English and modern language Ph.D.s are working in academe, and 52 percent hold tenured faculty positions, according to a new, limited study of their career outcomes from the Modern Language Association.
U.S. States
Teachers in Kentucky No Longer Have to Earn a Master’s Degree | The state Education Professional Standards Board voted on Monday to remove the requirement that Kentucky teachers earn a master’s degree by their 10th year in the profession. Now, there are only three states that require teachers to earn a master’s degree (or its equivalent) for license advancement, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality—Connecticut, Maryland, and New York.
Academic merit prioritized over financial need in state higher education programs | here is a state-run grant program designed to help more low-income Alaskans afford college. But it only receives around half as much money as the state’s merit-based program.
At many small colleges, administrative spending is surging | The Globe reviewed data from 132 private four-year, nonprofit colleges and universities in New England. A Globe review of federal data shows that many small, private colleges in the region are struggling to meet expenses as their tuition revenue has declined…Spending on midlevel, nonacademic staff positions described as “academic support” and “student services” grew most dramatically: by 34 and 36 percent respectively. In some cases that growth represents pay increases and in other cases more staff.
Institutional
Admitting students who later drop out is harmful | [T]he financial challenges faced by many smaller US institutions – Tuition Dependent Institutions or TDIs – prompt them to admit applicants found to lack the academic preparation to succeed in tertiary education. US TDIs tend to be non-elite smaller institutions without multiple revenue streams…TDIs have long responded with tuition fee increases moderated by admitting ever more applicants.
Cutthroat Admission: College Accused of Stealing Students | Mercy’s suit says that as of May 1, it had 42 new students who had accepted offers to enroll in the business honors program. By July 20, nine of them had notified Mercy that they would enroll instead at LIU. Confidential information about all nine of them was in the material Mercy says it tracked Weis sending from college accounts to his private accounts before he left the college.
Rutgers University-New Brunswick Strives to Make Students Feel at Home | As part of a pre-college initiative, Rutgers launched the Rutgers Future Scholars program for underserved middle school students in the New Brunswick, Piscataway, Newark and Camden areas. For five years, the selected students are provided with mentors and tutors. At the end of their high school career, if they are accepted into Rutgers, the students are given scholarship money that covers four years of their education, according to the program’s website.
Diversity and Inclusion at the Core of UW Experience | The University of Washington, Seattle campus has made steady gains in supporting the success of its underrepresented minority students, says university officials, noting that the institution has been selected as one of Diverse’s Top 100 institutions for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees conferred by minority students.
Colleges Say They Prepare Students for a Career, Not Just a First Job. Is That True? | The problem, as Roth sees it, is that colleges can end up downplaying the importance of transferable skills, like writing and speaking, that many courses develop. “It may be, as there’s a decline in attention to the ‘power skills’ or ‘soft skills,’” he said, adding that “students are really good at statistics, or dutifully figuring out a particular project, but don’t have the breadth of learning to help them move ahead.”
Justice Dept. Slams Harvard Admissions in Affirmative-Action Filing | University records show that race is among several nonacademic factors that Harvard considers in freshman admissions. Others include an interview, extracurricular activities, personal qualities, alumni relations, and work experience. Admitted first-year students for this fall were culled from a pool of nearly 43,000 applicants. Twenty-two percent of the admitted students are Asian-American, 15 percent are black, and 11 percent are Hispanic.
Stanford Won’t Boast About Applications or Admit Rates Any More | While Stanford won’t issue press releases going forward, it’s not making the information secret, either. Stanford will continue to report its data to the federal government and for use in the Common Data Set, used by many groups that publish rankings. A spokesman for Stanford said that information would be provided to the Common Data Set in time for use in rankings.
Land-Grant University Remains True to its Mission | Michigan State University (MSU)’s implementation of on-campus support services and pre-college initiatives within the community is one of the many reasons it makes Diverse’s Top 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs for minority students.
Standards versus standardization in higher education | It’s up to the faculty of each college and university to determine what a standardized score reflects within the standards of each institution, with what’s best for student learning at the forefront of our focus.
Posted: September 12, 2018.