| International |
Battle for Hong Kong reverberates in universities worldwide | The University of Hong Kong holds the title of the most international university in the world from Times Higher Education due to its diverse student make-up and emphasis on student exchange. Yet the resource scarcity of the city’s university system, as a part of the scarcity challenge the region faces as a whole, is now impossible to ignore.
New performance-based funding system for universities | Australia’s federal government has promised to allocate an additional AU80 million (US$54 million) to universities next year – but only on a ‘performance-based’ set of criteria. Adoption of the so-called ‘performance-based funding’ scheme was the main recommendation in a report to the government by an independent panel of senior academic leaders.
Lifting the lid on #FeesMustFall protests | #FeesMustFall was born at Wits in October 2015 following the announcement of tertiary institution fee increases and continued throughout the country until former president Jacob Zuma announced a freeze on tuition fee increases for 2016. Protests continued sporadically in 2016, ending finally with the announcement of a new plan by Zuma around free education for poor students in December 2016.
Toxic politics push ‘welfare’ universities to the brink | In South Africa political parties including the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have been accused of working through student protest leaders to undermine and corrupt the nationwide #FeesMustFall student movement, which emerged in 2015, to win access to limited resources within higher education and the broader society. Higher education institutions meanwhile are buckling under the weight of the new social welfare responsibilities foisted upon them – trying to meet many of the housing, health and nutrition needs of poorer students and provide them with a path to employment opportunities, but without the necessary resources and budget.
| U.S. National |
Facing Criticism, College Board Backs Away From ‘Adversity Score’ | The College Board is walking back the single, overarching “adversity score” that it had planned to attach to students’ SAT scores after it drew broad criticism…Rather, it grouped together data from the Census Bureau and public records about crime rates, median income, and parents’ education levels in each student’s environment. Those measures, combined with such other data as the academic rigor of a high school or receiving free or reduced-price lunches, were used to create a student’s overall adversity score.
New Website Tracks School Police Violence Against Students of Color | The website comes a year after the participating organizations released a national report – “We Came to Learn: A Call to Action for Police-Free Schools.” The report said that 24 percent of U.S. elementary schools and 42 percent of high schools have some sort of police presence, with Black and Latinx students disproportionately arrested by school officers.
What Can Real-Time Data Analytics Do for Higher Education? | Real-time data is information that is collected and immediately disseminated. Instead of collecting a bank of information and then processing it for analysis, the data is pushed out, cleaned and analyzed almost instantly. Much of the time, real-time data analytics is conducted through edge computing. By analyzing as close to the data source as possible, users can reduce latency, receiving information and making subsequent decisions more quickly.
An Admissions Group Is Scrambling to Delete Parts of Its Ethical Code. That Could Mean Big Changes for Higher Ed. | The National Association for College Admission Counseling sent a message to members saying the Justice Department had objected to some provisions, saying they “inhibit, to some extent, competition among colleges for students.”
End-of-Course exams: Do they lead to better student learning outcomes? | Final or cumulative exams and assessments at the end of a semester is common – and often compulsory – for national-level education in the UK and other Commonwealth countries like Australia and Malaysia. In the US, however, it’s not a compulsory aspect of high school education. Grades are typically given based on the combination of assignments, projects, quizzes and tests given throughout the semester.
| U.S. States and Territories |
Can Texas meet its lofty goals for a well-trained workforce in 2030? Departing higher ed leader says state must do more | One of the major initiatives launched by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board under Paredes’ leadership is the 60×30 Texas program, which aims for 60 percent of the state’s 25- to 34-year-old workforce to have a postsecondary degree or credential by the year 2030. Currently, around 44 percent of Texans in that age group have such a degree or certificate. That number has been climbing by an average of 1.1 percentage points over the past four years.
ND’s two-year colleges slightly more expensive than nearby competitors | A student affordability report produced by the North Dakota University System shows residents’ direct costs of an education — tuition and fees as well as room and board — at the state’s doctoral, master’s and four-year universities are below their regional counterparts. But that’s not the case for North Dakota’s five two-year colleges.
In the 2018-19 academic year, the average direct costs of North Dakota’s two-year colleges was $12,084, compared to the regional average of $10,720. The figures don’t take into account indirect education-related expenses such as books and transportation.
Higher Education Funding Commission holds inaugural meeting | The 19-member [Pennsylvania] Higher Education Funding Commission recently held its inaugural and organizational meeting and began working on reviewing and making recommendations on higher education funding, affordability and effectiveness, and administration and operations. When the commission proposes a funding formula, it will not go into effect until approved by an act of the General Assembly and enacted into law.
Report: More Burden for Students as Higher-Ed Funds Decrease in ID | College tuition prices are up and state funding is down in Idaho, creating an affordability roadblock for many students, according to a new report. The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy finds students’ share of higher-education funding costs has soared over the past four decades. In 1980, tuition and fees accounted for 7% of funding. Today they account for 47%. Alejandra Cerna Rios, policy director for the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, says those higher costs are putting a burden on Idaho students, who are struggling to graduate.
| Institutional |
‘A Culture of Sexual Harassment’ | [Marybeth Gasman, the Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor of Higher Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania,] is alleged to have made repeated references to her body and sex life, and those of staff and students — often people of color — at work and in running center group texts. Several former center assistants described Gasman as “fetishizing” some of her Latinx and black staff and students, such as by rubbing men’s arms and chests and asking a man and a woman to compare butt sizes and repeatedly encouraging them to hook up.
‘What Is Said or Done at the Center’ | Part of the 2017 sexual harassment complaint against higher education scholar Marybeth Gasman, revealed this week in Inside Higher Ed, is that she required graduate and staff assistants at her University of Pennsylvania research center to sign blanket nondisclosure agreements. “Basically what is said or done at the center stays within the walls of the center!” the agreement says, in bold.
Maryville University Projects Record Enrollment in 2019-2020 | More than 700 new, traditional students have enrolled in on-campus classes this fall, representing a record-breaking freshman class. Together with graduate students, Maryville’s total population attending on campus classes is over 4,000 students. Overall, online enrollment will account for more than 6,000 students, including more than 1,400 new online students this fall.
Associations Release 6 Steps To Harness Analytics and Save Higher Education | In a collective call-to-action for colleges and universities, the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), EDUCAUSE, and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) today released a statement on the importance of analytics – and how to harness it for better strategic decision-making. “Analytics Can Save Higher Education. Really.” highlights the importance of leveraging this critical asset to improve completion rates, campus operations, and much more. The statement recommends six guiding principles that lay the groundwork for analytics implementation.
ASU Looks Overseas With New Spin-Off | Arizona State University is creating another unusually structured company partnership, this time a “global university network” designed to help foreign universities expand their online and campus-based programs. The new Cintana Education, which was publicly unveiled today, will be headed by Douglas Becker, a big name in internationally focused higher education.