International
Mexican Higher Education: From Mass to Universal to Compulsory? | In his influential essay 40 years ago, Martin Trow theorized the evolution of educational systems of higher education from elite, to mass, to universal defined by their coverage. He also defined attitudes towards access as privilege, right or obligation. However, Trow was basing his framework on patterns of student enrollment, not university or government policy. So, when the Mexican state (a system of mass enrollment) makes higher education compulsory, confusion arises. To the best of my knowledge, there is no other country that mandates that its citizens pursue tertiary studies.
China Is Warning Its Students About Going to College in America. Here’s Why That Matters. | If geopolitical tensions bring enrollment declines, then American colleges’ finances as well as the country’s research prowess could take a hit.
Leveraging The Predictive-To-Prescriptive Analytics Paradigm Shift In Higher Education | With increased economic and demographic pressures, though, institutions are now seeking to move beyond descriptive and predictive analytics to alter outcomes through prescriptive analytics. Building on these benefits while shifting institutions into the next data-driven dimension, prescriptive analytics offers insights that move beyond predicting likely outcomes and employ optimization, heuristics (or mental shortcuts), and sophisticated algorithms to answer the following question: Given what we believe will happen, how can we best respond with specific steps to achieve or alter the outcome?
Universities urged to pursue their own research agendas | The time has come for African institutions of higher education to pursue Africa-focused research with real-life impact rather than follow research agendas set by foreign funders. This was the view expressed by Professor James Gashumba, vice-chancellor of Rwanda Polytechnic, who said a lack of research by African institutions was a serious challenge that needed concerted efforts to be addressed.
Switzerland and Australia top first OECD talent indicators | The prosperity of nations is increasingly dependent on their ability to attract talented and skilled individuals from abroad. Countries compete for this pool by implementing benign migration policies, which for the first time the OECD has ranked in an index. Switzerland and Australia lead in attractiveness, appearing in the top six in three talent categories of migrants featured in the OECD Indicators of Talent Attractiveness or ITA – highly skilled workers at masters-PhD level; international students in tertiary education; and foreign entrepreneurs.
The shape of global higher education – New report | The three pillars of international higher education – international student mobility, international research collaboration and transnational education – are interconnected and create synergies and complementary benefits for the parties involved. The study highlights the importance of national policy support for international engagement. Across the countries studied, international student mobility attracted most support, which was measured by the ease of obtaining student visas, post-study work opportunities and scholarships. The stronger the support for international students, the greater the inbound student mobility flows.
U.S. National
The College Dropout Crisis | Why do some colleges do so much better than others? Part of the answer involves structure. Students tend to do better when they are following defined academic paths, rather than “aimlessly signing up for classes,” as Pamela Jackson, the provost of Fayetteville State, said. Her university, for instance, no longer allows students to be classified as undeclared, instead assigning everyone a “pre-major” based on the interests they listed on their application.
Why Do Schools with Similar Student Profiles Have Very Different Graduation Rates? | [A] recent New York Times article by David Leonhardt and Sahil Chinoy on “The College Dropout Crisis” has received much less attention in the higher ed press than one would expect. The article’s key insight — that graduation rates vary dramatically among institutions with similar student profiles — is widely recognized among system administrators, but much less well known among faculty let alone students, parents, and legislators.
Rethinking the cost of college education | According to the National Center for Education Statistics, meanwhile, actual instruction accounts for a measly 27% of a typical university budget. This evidences a severe disconnect between what students think they’re paying for when they enroll at school, and where their money actually goes. In reality, what students are paying for when they sign tuition checks are the nice buildings and dormitories in which they spend their time, the tenured professors they see two hours a week, and the refurbished auditoriums in which they network.
College Dropout Crisis Hits Mountain West | There’s a college dropout crisis in America. That’s according to a recent report from the New York Times and the Urban Institute’s Center on Education Data and Policy. They found that roughly one in three students who enroll in college never earn a degree.
How the Democrats Got Radicalized on Student Debt | Just a dozen years ago, Democratic hopefuls such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Obama kept their proposals limited. Biden wanted to increase the Pell grant, a federal grant for low-income students, by $300 a year; Clinton similarly pushed to increase the maximum. “The first bill Barack Obama introduced in the U.S. Senate would have helped make college more affordable for many Americans by increasing the maximum Pell grant from the limit of $4,050 to a new maximum of $5,100,” a fact sheet released by the Obama campaign read. The candidates also pushed to make a switch in how student loans were disbursed. The government, not private banks, they argued, should be the entity distributing federal student loans.
(More) Bias in Science Hiring | Candidates with women’s names were rated as more likable than men by both physicists and biologists. Physicists rated male candidates as more competent and worth hiring than female candidates, and Asian and white candidates as more competent and hireable than black and Latinx candidates. Black women and Latinx women and men candidates were rated significantly lower than all other candidates in physics, as well.
Six Figures in Debt for a Master’s Degree | New data on program-level borrowing that the Education Department released last month through the College Scorecard shed light on how student debt works and what fields have the highest loan volumes. However, many higher education experts remain skeptical that putting more information into the hands of the public will affect enrollment decisions or tuition prices, especially for the graduate programs where borrowers take out the most loan debt.
U.S. States
How will Idaho reduce the achievement gap? | Idaho ranks in the Top 10 for college affordability, according to the College Board, but tuition has gone up 11 percent in five years. The rise is part of a continuing cost shift, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. In April, the State Board of Education approved another tuition and fee hike at state colleges and universities. The increase across the four-year institutions will average slightly more than $400.
Institutional
Reorganizing Away the Liberal Arts | In April, Tulsa provost Janet Levit announced a major reorganization of academic departments based on a report from the Provost’s Program Review Committee. This group of faculty members and administrators conducted a nearly nine-month review of the university’s programs. The largest change came in the Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences, which the university reorganized from 15 departments and 68 degree programs to three divisions with 36 degree programs.
An Upward Limit on Elite M.B.A. Tuition Rates | M.B.A. program enrollments have been on a decline, while the price of an M.B.A. has continued to rise around the country. Now, two business schools that are at the top of the pecking order for M.B.A.s — those of Harvard University and the University of Chicago — are starting to change direction. Both the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Harvard Business School were listed as part of the group of nine schools that have a total cost for a two-year M.B.A. program clocking in above $200,000.
U. of Alabama Returns Largest Gift in Its History After Donor Tells Students to Stay Away | The University of Alabama system’s Board of Trustees voted on Friday to return a $26.5-million gift to Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. after the businessman and philanthropist encouraged students to boycott the university in protest of the state’s new law effectively banning abortions. The gift, to the University of Alabama School of Law, was the largest in the university’s 187-year history.