News Items from the Week of June 8, 2018

Cover | Outsourcing Student Success (Kindle Edition)
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International

Tuition fees ‘not the answer’ for Argentina as budgets squeezed | The head of Argentina’s largest university has rejected calls for the introduction of tuition fees in the country, even as an economic crisis puts campus budgets under severe pressure.

The transformative power of ‘rupture’ in higher education | A new book on African philosophy of education, which examines teaching and learning in the African university context, draws on its authors’ combined experience of setting up a massive open online course (MOOC) aimed at examining how teachers and students can use the African philosophical concepts of ubuntu and ukama to develop home-grown solutions to societal and educational concerns.

A new ranking – Countries ready for the coming wave of automation | South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Germany and Canada are the countries most prepared for the coming wave of automation driven by robotics, artificial intelligence and other technologies, according to a new ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

2018 TEF shines a light on excellence across the sector | The second round of TEF outcomes shows a diverse higher education sector that excels in making a challenging and stimulating offering to its students, says Chris Husbands.

For statistical prowess, the TEF does not even get bronze | Concerns about the teaching excellence framework’s rigour and integrity have not been addressed. The exercise needs a fundamental rethink, says Guy Nason.

Cash crisis: Irish universities fall further down the world rankings list | There is now no Irish university in the world’s top 100 as the country’s higher education sector falls further in global rankings. Trinity College Dublin has dropped from 88th to 104th, while the country’s largest university, UCD, is down 25 places to 193rd, perilously close to being edged out of the top 200.

U.S. National

Retail Giant to Offer Online Degrees for Employees | Walmart, one of America’s largest employers, is offering its workers a college education for $1 a day, the company recently announced. The associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in business or supply chain management can be received from three online programs and will be made available for Walmart and Sam’s Club’s 1.4 million part-time, full-time and salaried employees.

What We Know About Students Who Receive Federal College Grants | Two recent reports offer a good snapshot as to what’s happening for these students when it comes to college. One is from researchers at The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education and Penn AHEAD at the University of Pennsylvania. The other is from the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way.

The power of information: More data on Pell Grants could help bridge the graduation gap | Late in 2017, the federal government answered our call, collecting these data from colleges and making completion rates for Pell Grant recipients available to prospective and current students, parents, policymakers and institutional leaders. Third Way recently used these new data in their report, “The Pell Divide,” bringing more attention to the nation’s completion crisis for low-income and working-class students.

Private Colleges Give Ground on Student Data | The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities signaled a shift in its position on the federal government’s role in gathering data on outcomes for college students. David Warren, the group’s president, said NAICU was open to exploring legislation that would require colleges to collect and provide more student data to the federal government. However, that bill, known as the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act, isn’t the preferred option of most other college groups and student advocates seeking more data on student outcomes. And NAICU made clear it still opposes a federal system of student-level data — the policy outcome that transparency proponents say is essential to answering questions about why students persist and drop out of college.

U.S. States

Ohio State to expand unprecedented affordability commitment | Starting in spring 2019, the university will commit up to $3 million a year in additional financial aid to meet the tuition and mandatory fee needs of regional campus students who are from Ohio, qualify for federal Pell Grants and have successfully begun their college career. To be eligible, students must have successfully completed the equivalent of at least one semester and initiated or completed a student-success course.

Faculty Backlash Over Conn.’s Troubled Consolidation Plan | In the weeks since the accreditor for the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system rejected plans to consolidate the state’s 12 community colleges into a single system, a growing number of faculty groups have called for an end to the plan and for the departure of the leaders who proposed it.

Leaders of California’s Big University Systems Look Ahead at Finances, Safety, Capacity | The Master Plan for Higher Education in California – passed as the Donahoe Higher Education Act in 1960 – assures that higher education institutions in the state provide “appropriate educational opportunities” at reasonable costs to all qualified California students. Another goal of the plan is to “guarantee essential expansion without wasteful duplication” of educational resources.

Minnesota Middle Of The Pack In Higher Education Spending | And by 2020, 35 percent of job openings will require at least a bachelor’s degree and 30 percent will require some college or an associate’s degree, according to a report by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. With that in mind, it might surprise you to find out that Minnesota ranks 23rd in the country when it comes to per-student spending on public colleges and universities, according to the financial news and opinion site 24/7 Wall St.

North Carolina Among Biggest Spenders For Higher Education | And by 2020, 35 percent of job openings will require at least a bachelor’s degree and 30 percent will require some college or an associate’s degree, according to a report by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. With that in mind, it might surprise you to find out that North Carolina ranks 5th in the country when it comes to per-student spending on public colleges and universities, according to the financial news and opinion site 24/7 Wall St.

[Notice any similarities between the last two! Are there fifty of these?]

Institutional

‘Making Sense of the College Curriculum’ | How does the college curriculum evolve? That’s the central question of Making Sense of the College Curriculum: Faculty Stories of Change, Conflict, and Accommodation (Rutgers University Press), which is based on contributions in the form of in-depth interviews with 185 faculty members from 11 colleges and universities, representing all sectors of higher education.

What 6 Colleges Learned About Improving Their Online Courses | Debates around online education often get stuck on the question of whether it’s as good as face-to-face learning. Perhaps the better question is, How can online education get better? After all, many students choose online courses for their convenience, and in-person classes are often not an option for them. More than six million people take online courses each year, including one of every four undergraduates.

A Third of Your Freshmen Disappear. How Can You Keep Them? | Colleges redesign the first-year experience to improve retention, learning outcomes, and students’ sense of belonging.