International
In age of AI, universities will need to rethink their purpose | There are multiple challenges facing education in a future digital society. The digital university will see the rise of artificial intelligence, deep learning (machine learning), robotisation, ‘intelligent systems’ in manufacturing and ‘Industry 4.0’ strategies, sometimes called the ‘fourth industrial revolution’, which presage what some critics have called the move to the ‘Bioinformational Society’.
Edtech’s potential not fulfilled yet, says OECD | The new edition of the OECD’s Trends Shaping Education report was presented at the Education World Forum by the organisation’s education director Andreas Schleicher, who suggested that many global changes face the international education sector, but they do not need to be negative. Link to OECD 2019 Report
Lessons from UK’s austerity and looming Brexit for SA higher education | “It is clear that South African higher education is facing some very great challenges over equality, access, affordability and who pays, as well as some philosophical and moral challenges around curriculum contest and historical perspectives.”
U.S. National
Four Predictions For Higher Education In 2019 | [I]ncome-share agreements are merely a different form of debt. For almost all students, federal student loans offer lower rates and a similar option to repay as a share of income. Income-share agreements may make sense for some students, but they are niche products that complement federal loans, not a solution to college affordability.
Colleges Lose a ‘Stunning’ 651 Foreign-Language Programs in 3 Years | Higher education, in aggregate, lost just one such program from 2009 to 2013. From 2013 to 2016, it lost 651, said Dennis Looney, director of programs at the MLA.
U.S. States
Higher Ed must keep getting more students to degrees | For our state to thrive and have a qualified workforce to meet the demands of today’s economy, we need 66 percent of working-age New Mexicans to have some postsecondary credential – a certificate or associate, bachelor’s or graduate degree – by 2030. To achieve this, we must continue to focus on graduation rates for both traditional students – first-time, full-time freshmen who go straight to college right after high school – and nontraditional students – those who did not go from high school to college, went to college but did not finish or adults who have no college education.
Regulating College Closures | Massachusetts takes a swing at regulating small colleges at risk of shutting down in order to better protect students. Institutions at risk would have to be public about their financial vulnerabilities 18 months before a possible closure.
Institutional
Student-Centered Learning and Student Buy-In | Hypothesizing that student buy-in would increase as the share of students who completed a revised course grew within a given student population — due to a new sense of “community,” and not just teacher efficacy — the authors of the study measured learning gains and attitudes during a course transformation at a small liberal arts college.
How Universities Can Respond to Their Slavery Ties | Georgetown’s official response to its slaveholding past was stingy, unimaginative, and largely focused on the university itself. The working group’s recommendations and report were widely criticized as unsatisfactory and even illegitimate, for lack of participation by the descendants.
Another Small College Will Close | Green Mountain College announced Wednesday that it will close at the end of the spring semester. The college, a small private institution in Vermont, has a 185-year history and is known for its environmental programs. But the college’s announcement said it couldn’t attract enough students or a partner to maintain operations in a way that served students.
‘Give Me a Chance,’ Says U. of Oklahoma President, Under Fire for Response to Racist Videos | “I’ve been a CEO in the past and haven’t been in the academy,” Gallogly said. “And so I have much to learn. I’ll be the first to say that.”
Posted: January 31, 2019
Note: Delayed by holiday schedule…and then Block Editor (Gutenberg update) to WordPress 5.0. Here is the most helpful article I found about the new Block Editor functionality in WordPress:
How to Disable the Block Editor (aka Gutenberg) and Use the Previous WordPress Editor | The block editor is an intriguing system, but it’s also generated a lot of criticism. As such, some people would prefer not to use it at all. That’s actually easy to do, using a dedicated plugin created by the core WordPress team (more on this later).