International
Is there really a free speech crisis in Australia’s universities? [podcast] | In a government-commissioned review, former High Court chief justice Robert French concluded that “claims of a freedom of speech crisis on Australian campuses are not substantiated”, but nonetheless recommended a national code to strengthen protections around free academic expression.
How Countries Make Higher Ed Affordable: What the Data Shows | While government subsidies for postsecondary education have declined notably over time in the U.S., driven by cuts in state support for state-run public institutions, many other OECD countries have seen recent cuts in education subsidies as well. Those include Spain, Ireland, Canada and Australia.
Why is free university tuition not popular with many? | Four years into its implementation, nobody in Chile seems to want to ‘own’ the free tuition policy instituted in 2016. This is surprising, for the most universally acknowledged virtue of the idea of free tuition is its overwhelming political appeal: an idea so popular with the voters should not find itself bereft of champions. Aside from the beneficiaries and their families, who are understandably happy about not having to pay for tuition or get a loan, why is it that hardly anyone in academia, political parties or institutions of higher education in Chile seems to support the policy course set by decision-makers in 2015?
Human factor behind integrating technology into learning | In today’s higher education arena, higher education institutions seem to integrate technologies into their functions at a much slower pace than other industries but with high expectations. The critical question now is no longer whether technology is useful or not, but how it can be used in an optimal way. What does successful technology integration in higher education mean? What conditions or factors determine successful integration?
Massive funding cut imposed on higher education | The new government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, in its maiden budget announced on 11 June, has imposed a massive cut of 37% to the higher education development budget, which is the source for around 70% of higher education costs. This will reduce the budget to PKR29 billion (US$189 million) compared with the budget of PKR46 billion (US$300 million) allocated in July 2018 by the outgoing government of the Pakistan Muslim League. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) had demanded PKR55 billion in its budget proposal to the current government.
Academy battles Orbán move to take control of science | The Hungarian Academy of Sciences has urged members of parliament and everyone who is concerned about the freedom of science to back them in opposing government proposals to strip the society of its research institutions and hand them to a new body whose members would be appointed by the prime minister. The Hungarian prime minister, right-wing populist Viktor Orbán, said Hungary is among the weaker performers in international innovation rankings and that its research needs to be improved to strengthen its ability to obtain significant scientific and innovation funds. But the Academy has warned that if the proposals, which were submitted to parliament on 4 June, are passed in their present form, “the freedom of scientific research will be violated and basic scientific values crucial for the country may be lost”.
U.S. National
IHEP Brief Continues Conversation on Need for Data Privacy and Security in Higher Ed | As part of IHEP’s Postsecondary Data Collaborative initiative, the brief, “Postsecondary Data Infrastructure: What is Possible Today,” introduces a “Five Safes” framework to guide secure data practices across higher education. This week’s brief examines “safe projects,” “safe people,” “safe settings,” “safe data” and “safe outputs” for institutions to secure their data access and use, and similarly explores examples of how the government and other agencies control data use and analysis.
To Begin Solving Student Debt, the Education Department Must Factor In Race and Ethnicity | The data showed that the average black or African American borrower who entered college in the 2003-04 academic year had made no progress paying down their debt by 2015; in fact, they owed more than they originally borrowed. Even worse, nearly half of black or African American student borrowers had defaulted on their loans within the 12-year time period. These findings revealed a repayment crisis for black borrowers and raised serious questions about how the American higher education system serves all communities of color.
Outcomes-Based Graduate School: the Humanities Edition | Some critics say that most Ph.D.s only want to be faculty members and that the only reform that matters is the creation of more tenure-track jobs. These critics claim that efforts to broaden graduate education and prepare students for diverse careers only pull students away from their main goal: joining the tenured professoriate. But the experience at Lehigh suggests it’s possible to do both. The department’s new, broader doctoral training has helped English Ph.D.s escape the adjunct treadmill and succeed in multiple job markets, including the tenure-track one that these efforts are supposedly a distraction from.
NCAA’s Discriminatory APR Scores | A few weeks ago, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) released their annual Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores for each Division I team. While the annual announcement of these scores typically generates headlines that APR scores are improving, these headlines are disturbingly misleading. Without fail, each year historically Black colleges & universities (HBCUs) and other low-resourced schools are the primary recipients of low APR scores and are disproportionately penalized. With the latest release of APR scores, 75 percent of the penalized teams with low APR scores are HBCU teams. While the NCAA may have had good intentions when it established the APR metric 15 years ago, the standard is discriminatory because it rewards student athletes at wealthy colleges and universities and punishes those at less wealthy schools.
The Public’s Support for (and Doubts About) Higher Ed | The picture that emerges from Third Way’s comprehensive survey of nearly 1,400 Americans who describe themselves as likely to vote in the 2020 general election is of a public that still believes in the value of colleges and universities and their degrees and thinks the institutions must do a better job of educating students affordably and effectively. The survey also suggests that the public is more centered in its views about higher education than the politicians on the right and left who purport to represent them.
U.S. States
Affording college a top worry among California voters | The report is based on an analysis of a February PACE/Rossier School poll that found college affordability was the second most important education-related issue among voters, trailing only gun violence in schools. The poll surveyed 2,000 registered voters in California with an estimated margin of error of 2.9 percentage points. The report shows that low-income voters are more likely than high-income voters to be concerned about college costs and that, in some counties, concerns vary along racial and ethnic lines.
Institutional
Equity audits would strengthen colleges and universities | The question of fairness and equity in postsecondary education goes far beyond the college admissions scandal. In 2016, students of color comprised at least 45 percent of undergraduate students. Yet, people of color were underrepresented among higher education leaders, administrators, and full-time faculty—individuals who have the most influence in crafting institutional policies and practices. According to a report by the American Council on Education, 83 percent of college presidents identified as white, and 16.8 percent identified as people of color. Among faculty, full professorships were more likely to be held by whites. In fall 2016, 73 percent of full-time faculty employed by higher education institutions were white, and 21 percent were faculty of color. Among instructors, lecturers, and faculty with no academic rank at all types of institutions, a larger share were American Indian or Alaska Native faculty, Black faculty, Latino faculty and faculty of more than one race.
FIU recognized for first-generation student success programs, initiatives | “As one of the largest minority-serving universities in the nation, we have a proactive and innovative approach to student success that has resulted in increased retention and graduation rates, especially for first-generation students,” said Elizabeth Bejar, Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs. “We count the talent, dedication and hard work of our first-generation students as one of our institution’s strengths and we hope to serve as a model for supporting the success of these students.”
Larger Donations, Fewer Donors | Citing the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Voluntary Support for Education (VSE) survey, which collects data from institutions all around higher education, Giving USA reports total contributions to higher education reached $46.73 billion in 2018, a 7.2 percent increase from the previous year.
The Surreal End of an American College | Like most other colleges across the country, Newbury College, a small, private liberal-arts school in Brookline, Massachusetts, held classes through the end of this past spring semester and then bid farewell to cap-and-gown-wearing seniors. But unlike almost every other college, those classes, and that farewell, were the school’s last: Newbury officially ceased operations at the end of May.