| International |
The links between sexual harassment and corruption | Although very rarely, both Russian and Ukrainian media feature reports on sexual harassment at universities. Here are just a handful of examples. In Russia, a faculty member was fired from Saint-Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences for allegedly offering positive grades in examinations in exchange for sex. Sexual harassment scandals were also reported in Tyumen State University and South Ural State University. Usually, such scandals – if they gain a lot of publicity – end up with the voluntary departure or even dismissal of the faculty member involved.
Tensions between students rising amid ongoing protests | As the protests have continued – which began in opposition to a now retracted bill to extradite criminals to the mainland but have now morphed into a general protest against erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms separate from the Party-controlled system on the Chinese mainland – a few mainland students have openly assailed their Hong Kong classmates, causing tensions on campuses, while others quietly support the democracy movement but do not speak out for fear of retribution if they travel back to the mainland.
Equity in education | Paradoxically enough, higher education in India is under an ever-increasing pressure to perform to international standards and ensure quality education that is based primarily on the outcome of the education process. Higher education outcome measurement indices are predominantly numerical and quantity-driven internationally. Innovation is quantified through patents filed and received and the power of the alumni is measured in the millions that the alumni invests in their parent institutions as donations. Such peculiarities of measuring outcomes are driven by international considerations which do not focus on socio-economic equity of the reach and access of higher education.
‘Baby boom’ leads to surge in university enrolments | A ‘demographic bulge’ that is boosting the number of teenage Australians is putting increasing pressure on the nation’s universities. Facing a likely demand for 55,000 additional student places within 10 years, vice-chancellors want to know who will provide the extra money they need.
7 countries where higher education is free | Of the 36 developed, democratic countries that currently make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), seven of them subsidize tuition for public colleges and universities. The US, in contrast, charges the most money to attend public colleges among OECD countries. The average annual tuition for US public colleges cost more than $6,000, according to a 2011 report from OECD. When you add up the cost of living, books, and other expenses, the average cost of US in-state public university can total $25,290 a year, according to Value Penguin.
Turkey lacks skills to compete in today’s global economy | The mean literacy and numeracy scores in Turkey are more than 40 points lower than the international average, according to the OECD, while nearly 80 percent of 55 to 65-year-olds and more than 50 percent of 25 to 34-year-olds have not completed secondary education. Some 40 percent of Turkish adults lack basic information and communications technology skills, while 38 percent have no prior experience with computers, or lack basic computer skills.
| U.S. National |
Student borrowers ‘preyed upon’ by loan servicers, but lawmakers want to change that | Student borrowers ‘preyed upon’ by loan servicers, but lawmakers want to change that | On Tuesday, Sep. 10, the House Financial Services Committee took on student lending and its ramifications for the 45 million Americans borrowers. Both Democrats and Republicans on the committee agreed there are problems with the current student lending system. Specifically, lawmakers and consumer advocates criticized student loan servicing companies such as Navient, saying that student borrowers need more assistance and protections from these for-profit corporations.
Is Meritocracy Hurting Higher Education? | Social mobility has stalled and the public is losing trust. Time for universities to rethink their role in American life?
Student Debt Levels Rise, but More Slowly | Student loan borrowers who earned bachelor’s degrees in 2018 had an average debt of $29,200, up 2 percent from their peers in the Class of 2017, the Institute for College Access & Success said in its annual student debt report Thursday. That represents a slight slowing in the rate of borrowing, as the average debt level for borrowers rose at a steady average of 4 percent a year between 1996 and 2012 and slowed after that between 2012 and 2016 before reaching the 2 percent it rests at now.
College student loans: Debt hits a new high in 2018, though growth slows, as free tuition plans spread | A few decades ago, it was unusual to graduate with a lot of debt. The growth in debt loads is especially troubling, Huelsman said, given how diverse college students are compared with the predominately white classes of the past.
| U.S. States and Territories |
Free Speech Laws Mushroom in Wake of Campus Protests | Lawmakers, mainly Republicans, from states all over the country have subsequently intervened in matters of free speech in academe by proposing and helping to pass legislation that makes clear students can’t interfere with the speech of their peers or of visitors on campus.
Fall enrollment drops at most area colleges | Most East Texas colleges are seeing fewer students enrolled in the fall, with Kilgore College a big exception.
Free College for All in New Mexico | The New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship, announced Wednesday, would make it the second state after New York to cover tuition for residents over four years at all in-state public institutions…While the state says the program will encourage more students to attend college, some who research higher education question its potential…A first-dollar program pays for tuition and fees up front, allowing students to use Pell Grants and other aid to cover expenses like housing, food and books. For community college students, tuition is only 20 percent of the total cost of attending college, according to Tiffany Jones, director of higher education policy at the Education Trust, a nonprofit that works to close opportunity gaps.
New Mexico governor introduces program to make college tuition-free for in-state students | Designed as a “last-dollar” program, the Opportunity Scholarship would effectively cover any tuition and fees not paid for by federal grants or the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship, which typically leaves an unpaid tuition gap between 25 and 40 percent for college and university students, depending on the student and institution.
| Institutional |
Arizona State Moves On From Global Freshman Academy | Arizona State University’s Global Freshman Academy was supposed to open up undergraduate education to thousands of students, but it never quite lived up to the hype…Of 373,000 people who enrolled, only 8,090 completed a course with a grade of C or better, just over 2 percent of all students enrolled. Around 1,750 students (0.47 percent) paid to receive college credit for completing a course, and fewer than 150 students (0.028 percent) went on to pursue a full degree at ASU.
Colleges provide misleading information about their costs | The Trump administration is pushing to make college costs, outcomes and other information more accessible as an alternative to regulating institutions with high costs and poor results. But though advocates applaud this transparency — while also largely decrying the rollback of regulation — researchers are discovering that some of the data being made available through or linked from the College Scorecard, the principal federal higher education consumer website, is inaccessible, inaccurate or out of date.
‘Met with concern’: UNM holds onto accreditation | Ultimately, the reviewers elected to monitor UNM in three ways: Requiring a report on institutional response to student complaints, publication of student outcomes and development of a comprehensive credit hour policy by March 4, 2020; Embedding monitors into UNM in the 2023-2024 school year to determine if UNM has fulfilled its “Integrated Planning” focused on enrollment and finances; [and] A focus visit due by Jan. 3, 2022 to examine the implementation of corrective action about the “fiscal mismanagement issues with UNM Athletics and the Board of Regents shared governance issues”.