International
Dearth of evidence of value of international cooperation | The benefits of international cooperation in higher education are widely assumed and the costs of such cooperative activities are occasionally acknowledged in the professional and academic discourses on higher education internationalisation. But until recently, the dearth of empirical evidence on the outcomes and impact of international cooperation in higher education has remained largely unchallenged.
Finding a sustainable future for student mobility | [O]ne of the key determinants of translating aspirations into reality is the availability of financial resources to study abroad. Affordability is enabled not only by self-financed resources like loans and savings but also external resources like institutional or governmental scholarships or funding. As a result, the bulk of globally mobile students come from high- and upper middle-income countries, who account for 27% and 40% respectively of total outwardly mobile students. Lower middle-income and low-income countries made up 33% of outward mobility in 2017, according to University Information Services.
Mergers and splits – Are we creating pseudo-universities? | Usually, there is an array of reasons justifying mergers and splits of higher education institutions in various countries. Typical justifications include the need to improve efficiency, reinforce regional relevance, decentralise and stimulate diversity within the sector, reduce costs, and-or increase quality and excellence.
OECD: Adult education needs ‘sustainable’ funding | The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) today publishes a report called Getting Skills Right: future-ready adult learning systems, which argues that many developed nations “need to urgently scale-up and upgrade their adult learning systems to help people adapt to the future world of work” to prepare for new technologies, globalisation and an ageing population.
Almost half of third-level students studying computing don’t finish | A report published today (14 February) by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) analysed the rates of completion of 34,059 students who entered Irish universities, institutes and colleges full-time at undergraduate level in the 2007-2008 academic year. These students were then tracked over the following decade to see how they performed, revealing a relatively high completion rate of 76pc across the board.
Public outrage growing after Doug Ford’s claims he can stamp out ‘crazy Marxist nonsense’ on campus | Ford delivered his complaint about students earlier this week in a fundraising email that called for Progressive Conservatives to send money in support of his government’s efforts to stifle the free speech of students. The email specifically noted that the government was making it optional for Ontario university and college students to pay some fees that were previously attached to their tuition. Ford said that this change would help his government stamp out the expression of some political ideas. “I think we all know what kind of crazy Marxist nonsense student unions get up to. So, we fixed that. Student union fees are now opt-in,” said the pitch for political donations, signed by Ford himself.
Fixing the education crisis in the Middle East and North Africa region | By 2050, the MENA region will have to create 300 million new jobs just to ensure the employability of the extensive youth population entering the labour market. Therefore, unless governments start rectifying these issues now by investing in quality education and enhancing learning; many of these young individuals will have disarray lives with consequences that will affect both regionally and globally. Many unemployed graduates in countries ranging from Morocco and Tunisia to Egypt and Lebanon demonstrate a waste of valuable human resources. This is particularly true for young women, who achieve relatively higher outcomes in learning assessments than young men, and who surpassed them at universities; but face double the unemployment rate in comparison.
U.S. National
Accountability in higher education after deregulation | A strong accountability system is necessary to protect the investments federal taxpayers make in students. Too many students and too much federal aid flow to low-quality educational programs that do not lead to degrees, or lead to degrees but not good jobs, and result in students incurring substantial costs and debts that burden them for years.
Higher Education Under the Microscope | Counterbalancing institutions’ stress on diversity is the growth of exclusive programs at public universities. These include the expansion of honors colleges, restricted admission into highly ranked majors (particularly programs in business and engineering), and entrepreneurship and leadership programs that enroll a small fraction of the undergraduate population. Higher education does not exist in a bubble, nor is it immune from outside forces. It reflects society as much as it helps shape it and is not perched above and beyond on some rocky crag. In a period when the stratification of income and wealth has increased substantially, colleges and universities not surprisingly reflect that fact.
Giving to Colleges Is Up 7.2% | The new study shows the sources of gifts, in the year studied and the year before. While alumni give more than do nonalumni, the latter category is growing at a faster rate. Corporate giving went up only modestly, and not at all when adjusted for inflation.
The Economic Gains (Yes, Gains) of a Liberal Arts Education | The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has now released a new analysis by two economists that examines the questions of the economic payoff of a liberal arts college education. The study makes no claims that liberal arts grads outearn those in, say, engineering. But the report says the claims that a liberal arts degree isn’t worth its cost or will hurt a graduate’s career prospects prove untrue. Specifically, the report says attending a liberal arts college for most students leads to meaningful economic mobility.
ACE Study: Racial Equity Gaps Still Plague Higher Ed | While the non-White undergraduate population nationally grew from 29.6 percent to 45.2 percent from 1996 to 2016 and the non-White graduate student population concurrently increased from 29.6 percent to 32 percent, wide disparities persisted in faculty and administration diversity. Full-time faculty ranks in 2016 were 73.2 percent White, 9.3 percent Asian, 5.7 percent Black, 4.7 percent Hispanic, 3.1 percent international, 2.6 percent unknown, .9 percent more than one race and .4 percent Native. College presidents were 58.1 percent White men, 25 percent White women, 11.8 percent men of color and 5.1 percent women of color while people of color made up 42.2 percent of maintenance and service staff and one-third of campus safety personnel. Given “ever-expanding inequalities” in higher education revealed by the study, the need for data and analysis “has never been more critical” to efforts to close equity gaps, said Dr. Armando I. Bengochea, senior program officer for diversity and director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which funded the study.
U.S. States
Alabama’s Teacher Shortages Reach ‘Crisis’ Level | In the 2017-2018 school year, there were more than 1,700 teachers in grades seven through 12 who were not certified to teach the English, math, social studies, science or special education classes they were assigned, said Ryan Hollingsworth, executive director of School Superintendents of Alabama. Some of those teachers may have a one-year emergency certificates or are “teaching out of field,” meaning they’re certified in other subjects…There aren’t enough new teachers in the pipeline, Hollingsworth said. The state’s education colleges recently graduated just more than 500 new educators to teach the core subjects that are being taught by more than 1,700 uncertified teachers.
Application Growth Finally Slows at U of California | And Reider noted that it may not be a bad thing at all that some students — perhaps those from out of state who have read about the political pressure on UC to admit more Californians or from in state who are aware of how long the odds are of admission — may not be applying. “Someone might be listening to the message about not applying to colleges that you are not going to get into,” he said. Other experts say that the application decline in California is notable for what it may signal about the future. Nathan D. Grawe, a professor of economics at Carleton College, is the author of a book — Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press) — that has been terrifying to many admissions leaders in the Northeast and Midwest because of his projections of declines in the number of potential students for many institutions. The book has been regularly cited in discussions of recent closures of small New England colleges.
The Budget Crisis Facing Conn. Public Higher Education [podcast, 49 minutes] | Connecticut’s state college and university system is facing a looming financial crisis. That crisis could lead to a $32 million budget gap in two years if tuition stays flat. Different options are being considered to mitigate against the growing debt, including attracting more students and fortifying the system. One of those options includes free tuition. [Free tuition discussed @ 7:45 mark — “Interviewee: “Free comes at a cost, number 1…” Interviewer: “I mean is that even possible…to even discuss free college tuition for all?”]
Institutional
Vermont by Degrees: Addressing Accessibility, Affordability, and Outcomes at Castleton University | Historically speaking, it has been a lack of access to formal education that has been an inhibitor of equality and growth. Whether it is a lack of opportunity, a lack of aspiration, or a more likely combination of the two, access plays a significant role in today’s higher-education landscape in Vermont — especially in its rural, blue-collar communities. Of course, it’s true: Not everyone needs to go to college. What’s clear, however, is that everyone needs to continue to learn, and the data points to the reality that some form of higher education leads to greater prosperity and better health, and opens doors to a more equitable future.
The Virginia Scandals Spread | Students following the Virginia controversies have been looking at yearbooks at their institutions, and many are reporting that they are finding blackface and other racist images.
Survey Links Integrated Student Services to Better Outcomes | Colleges and universities that have effective collaboration among their academic, student life, financial aid and career services supports for students have better retention and completion rates than do peer institutions that don’t mesh those functions, according to a new survey.
Your Niche Is Not Enough | It’s a reminder that niche does not trump the fundamentals of sound business practices. It’s a lesson we learned through other distinctive institutions that have faced closure, like Antioch and Sweet Briar Colleges…”Is there still room for unconventional schools like Hampshire College?” asks Jon Krakauer, an alumnus, in The New York Times. There absolutely is. The real question is less sexy: Can unconventional schools adopt mundane but solid and proven business practices to sustain themselves?
‘Standing Up for What’s Right’ | Wright State’s faculty union went on strike last month after the university’s Board of Trustees imposed a contract following protracted negotiations. Not only did the union not agree to the terms, but Wright State’s “last best offer” included major red flags for professors: no pay raises and a continuing-appointment timeline for non-tenure-line professors that the union argued would have almost doubled the current eligibility period, to 12 years. And there was no ability to bargain for health care — an important form of compensation for professors who haven’t received a raise in five of the last eight years.
A Black Graduate Student’s Perspective on University Speech Codes | Critics of speech codes contend that public universities cannot restrict speech as it violates the First Amendment, which protects hate speech with a few narrowly defined exceptions. Accordingly, public universities must be careful in writing and enforcing their speech codes as failed attempts have worked against both the university and the marginalized students such restrictions aim to protect. For example, a broad speech code may be subject to judicial invalidation or litigation as was the case for the University of Michigan. Universities can also be vulnerable to litigation if they take actions such as uninviting speakers to their campus on the basis of their viewpoint.
Colleges Say More Teaching Is Better. They’re Wrong. | Fewer courses means more time for independent studies, and for integrating students into our research programs. Fewer courses means more time for innovative assignments, rather than using the same old methods because they’re what we know best and all we have time for. Teaching fewer courses, in other words, makes us better teachers. And, in a competitive market for talented students, it’s a selling point for institutions looking to demonstrate that students will have the attention of their professors, and all the opportunities that come with it.
Wright State Faculty Ends One of the Longest Strikes at a Public University in U.S. History | Rudy Fichtenbaum, president of the American Association of University Professors: “I think that, you know, this is—the corporatization has really been part of an entire neoliberal agenda that seeks to destroy public services and public goods. And in higher education, in particular, it’s leading to a privatization of public universities and colleges. What is happening is that these institutions, more and more, are being starved from public resources and have to rely more on tuition. And then, when there is no tuition, they are forced to go out and look for a variety of other schemes at raising money. And, you know, this is something that is really undermining public higher education.”
Panel considers financial aid, right to education | Because many of Notre Dame’s undergraduates come from affluent backgrounds, those who come from economic insecurity frequently feel isolated, she said. “I’ve had students share their anger with me, stemming from class or residence hall discussions. They find themselves stuck in the middle of a discussion where poor people are being talked about in sometimes kind, sometimes ignorant ways,” Nucciarone said. “And what the people around them don’t know is that there is a poor person standing right in front of them.”