| International |
Universities Demand ‘Dramatic’ Increase in Third-Level Funding | In a pre-budget submission released today, the Irish Universities Association (IUA) said an overall budget contribution of €377 million – in operational, research and capital funding – is necessary to cater to a sector it says has seen funding per student fall by 43 per cent in the last decade.
International students flocking to Turkey for higher education | In the last two decades… While international student mobility was usually from East to West, for the last decade, the trend is now slowly changing as many students prefer to get their degrees in countries like Turkey, Malaysia, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Russia.
Evidencing higher education for the common good | Here there is also an important role for social science research on higher education. At the Centre for Global Higher Education, we are investigating the contributions of higher education to public goods and common goods for the population as a whole in 10 countries.
Higher education can overcome social inequity, but it takes time | The research, funded by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) and supported by the Life Course Centre, drew on 15 years of data. it found that higher education could overcome social inequity in time, but outcomes for Indigenous graduates and those with disabilities often lagged.
Bengaluru ranks a poor 81 among global education hubs—and that’s India’s best |
Indian cities are among the least desirable destinations for international students. Not surprising then, that only four of them figure in a global ranking of the 120 most popular education hubs in the world. Only Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, and New Delhi found a place in the Best Student City Ranking 2019 report.
| U.S. National |
New Coalition Advocates for College Equity, Affordability | A new collaborative, The College Affordability Coalition, has formed to advocate for needed federal investments and protections to promote more equitable outcomes within the U.S. higher education system as federal lawmakers work on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
The student debt crisis has hit black students especially hard. Here’s how | Nearly 85% of black bachelor’s degree recipients carry student debt, compared with 69% of white bachelor’s degree recipients, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, a non-profit in Durham, N.C. The average white student loan borrower owes around $30,000; the average black borrower owes closer to $34,000.
Student loan crisis is undermining the U.S. economy. Here’s a way out. | The burden of student loans weighs most heavily on young people, with about two-thirds of all student debt owed by millennials and generation Z, which is just now entering college. But older Americans also owe an increasing amount of student loan debt. A growing number of baby boomers are taking out loans to help kids and grandkids. Several hundred thousand retired Americans have their Social Security or other federal government support payments garnisheed to pay defaulted loans.
Why Education Research Needs More Development | Education research has long been the subject of criticism, much of it justified. However, the real problem is that education research rarely is oriented toward education development. This must change in order for student outcomes to improve, particularly among students of color and students from low-income areas.
Student debt repayment is completely different for white and black Americans | More than 20% of black college graduates will default on their student loans, compared to about 4% of white graduates.
According to the Demos report, Debt to Society, a typical white male borrower will have paid off 44% of his loan balance 12 years after beginning college. A typical black female graduate will have watched her balance grow by 13% and over half of black male graduates will have defaulted on their student loans within 12 years of beginning school. Default means that no payments have been made for nine consecutive months.
| U.S. States and Territories |
Don’t leave us a loan: Wisconsin’s efforts to end student debt crisis | Wisconsin is not immune to the student debt crisis either. Our state ranks 21st for average student loan debt at $29,569. Sixty-four percent of Wisconsin students have some sort of debt, ranking us sixth in the nation, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.
Carolina is the nation’s best value in public higher education for the 18th time | For the 18th time, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has ranked UNC-Chapel Hill the No. 1 value in American public higher education. Carolina has topped the list every year Kiplinger’s has published a “best value” ranking.
Rethinking Remedial Education in the Nation’s Community Colleges | Many higher education researchers and student-success advocates have long criticized no-credit remedial or developmental education in community colleges as a “trap” – an unintentional barrier to student success, particularly for its impact on low-income and minority students’ persistence and completion outcomes. Because placement into remedial courses often relies on the use of a single placement test like the ACCUPLACER, colleges across the country are beginning to explore and implement multiple measures placement alternatives, transition to co-requisite models of remediation or eliminate developmental education all together.
Washington State is betting big on free college. What lessons can Pa. advocates learn? Opinion | Washington state doesn’t have a problem finding educated people to work in its booming high-tech economy – it’s just most of those people come from out of state. This is why Washington enacted the landmark Workforce Education Investment Act into law in May 2019. The main idea behind the new law is to make college more affordable.
California Acts to Fix Problem Blocking Aid for Online Students | Officials in California believe they have solved a problem that the Trump administration last week said could have barred federal financial aid to tens of thousands of Californians enrolled online at public and private nonprofit colleges in other states.
Is a college degree worth it for Coloradans? Yes, new state data says, but at what cost? | Earning a college degree or post-high school training in Colorado not only results in higher wages down the line, but better health outcomes, greater life expectancy and fewer interactions with the criminal justice system, according to a new report by the Colorado Department of Higher Education. The report concludes that earning a post-secondary certificate or degree is worth it, but it also lays out at what cost.
Study Shows Higher Earnings For Pell Grant Recipients, But Many Utah Students May Be Missing Out | [I]n Utah, many students may be missing out. Nationwide, Utah has the second lowest completion rate — 38% — of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), according to the National College Access Network…By not completing the FAFSA, Utah students left “almost $40 million on the table” in 2017 and 2018, said Dave Woolstenhulme, Utah’s interim commissioner of higher education, who said the state played a role in the students not taking advantage of Pell Grants.
| Institutional |
Instead of Closure, a Merger | Thursday’s announcement of a planned merger between Vermont’s Marlboro College and the University of Bridgeport, in Connecticut, appears to look more like Wheelock than its counterpoint. The struggling institution, whose student body had dwindled to 142, began a formal process last November of seeking out potential partners, and it culminated in an arrangement that will turn the college into a liberal arts arm of the larger (5,500-student) Bridgeport.
What’s the reputation of your institution worth? | “Reputation is an organization’s most competitive asset,” noted Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick, a global PR firm, at a panel on college and university reputation at the recent CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) Summit 2019. According to research by Weber Shandwick, as much as 60% of market value is attributed to company reputation and damage to brand reputation tops the list of risks to organizations around the world.
‘The College Dropout Scandal’ | David Kirp says the graduation rates of most American colleges and universities are unacceptable — they are simply too low. In The College Dropout Scandal (Oxford University Press), Kirp makes the case for dramatic improvements. A professor at the Graduate School of the University of California, Berkeley, he outlines his views in this email interview.
Philosophy Degrees and Sales Jobs | New data from Emsi, a labor market analytics firm that is part of the Strada Education Network, sheds light on the career tracks for graduates of six relatively common academic programs, with widely varying levels of perceived applicability to jobs: languages and philosophy, the social sciences, business, communications, engineering, and IT. Not surprisingly, the typical path is more of a swirl than a straight line.