International
Subtle biases block women from leading universities | In 2014, the first year with available data for vice-rectors, the proportion of female vice-rectors in these 36 countries was 24.3%. Thus, the female share in recent years seems to be only slightly increasing. Regarding the top institutional position, meaning rector or the equivalent, such as president or vice-chancellor, in the 24 countries that have women in this position, only 14.3% of the institutions are currently led by females. The proportion of female rectors has been slowly but steadily increasing since 2014, when it was 10.5%. We can see a clear improvement with respect to 2008, when it was only 5.5%. Overall, 14 more countries have female vice-rectors or rectors in 2019.
When a degree just isn’t enough, also offer upskilling | The job selection process no longer entails submitting a written application and if ‘lucky’, a single interview. The process now often includes psychometric testing, multiple interviews and completing ‘on-the-spot’ activities to evaluate prospective employees’ creativity and critical thinking. It certainly advantages a graduate to be well rounded and have technical, practical career skills to complement the academic ones, along with other valuable life experiences such as travel, volunteer work and so forth. In an increasingly competitive market, employers can usually pick and choose from a wide range of prospective qualified employees and so a degree is no longer an automatic ticket to securing a position.
Teaching vs research – A real tension for young scholars | Speaking at the opening of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Young Scholars in Africa Conference which took place in Nairobi, Kenya from 1-3 March, Mouton said the notion that teaching and research functions should supplement each other seems more like a paradox than an ideal in many African universities. “At both individual and institutional levels in Africa, we observe tension, contradiction and even conflict between these two core academic functions, which systematically impacts more negatively on the research careers of young, relatively inexperienced (and powerless) scientists…”
Higher Education Financial Crisis Causes Cuts To University Staff | Cuts across UK universities have faced backlash from those at risk of losing their jobs. Staff at Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University are holding strikes to protest the University’s current plan to cut 10% of jobs. The University of Kent has recently joined this list of institutions planning to make employees redundant to cope with a large budget deficit. Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, has pointed out the difficulties facing the university sector at this time, saying that the ‘competitive market, Brexit, dip in the number of 18-year-olds and huge policy changes’ have plunged many UK universities into financial uncertainty.
U.S. National
Tuition-free college will insufficiently improve higher education outcomes | According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 63 percent of females and 57 percent of males who enrolled at a four-year degree granting institution in fall 2010 had completed their degree six years later. The completion rates for minority students and those at the bottom of the income scale are even lower than the national averages. Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that dismal completion rates even affect low income students receiving fully subsidized tuition at the nation’s most elite schools. Based on low college completion rates and unreliable employment outcomes for many who do graduate, it is clear that major efforts are needed to increase transparency and accountability in higher education.
Community Colleges and the Future of Higher Education | as an affordable, accessible, learning- and skills-centered option, especially for non-traditional students, community colleges deserve much more support, funding, and respect than they currently receive. Of course, community colleges face many emerging challenges. These include enrollments that fluctuate sharply according to the business cycle; the need to keep costs and tuition and fees low; competition from other providers of training and credentials, including relatively low-cost online “competency-based” providers; heightened demands for accountability in terms of graduation and transfer rates, licensure pass rates, and work performance following program completion. Meanwhile, their responsibilities are expanding, as these institutions must partner much more closely with K-12 school districts, four-year institutions, and local industry.
Another Ruling Chips Away at NCAA Limits for Athletes | The plaintiffs, a group of current and former Division I men’s and women’s basketball players and athletes who played football at universities in the Football Bowl Subdivision, alleged that the NCAA’s complex rules — approved and carried out by the member colleges and conferences — unfairly restrict what the players could reasonably get in exchange for their athletic talents in an open market. The association argued, as it has for decades, that the rules restricting compensation have maintained a form of “amateurism” that sustains public support for the college sports enterprise, and that requiring athletes to be students (and compensating them as such) helps integrate them into their campuses.
‘This is disgusting’: College cheating scandal shows ugly side of admissions game | Douglas Haynes, a UC Irvine vice provost for academic equity, diversity and inclusion, said the college admissions landscape began radically shifting in the 1990s. Students who used to apply to a few local colleges could more easily try their luck at dozens of schools using centralized online admissions platforms, such as the Common Application. Colleges began recruiting more students — both to increase diversity and to bring in revenue from application fees that helped them weather cyclical recessions, he said. At the same time, more applications lowered admission rates, which helped campuses burnish reputations as selective institutions in highly influential college rankings published by U.S. News & World Report, he and Paterno said. As state governments reduced public support for higher education, many campuses began recruiting students paying out-of-state tuition, including many from other countries. That in turn swelled the number of applicants even more. UCLA, the most popular university in the nation, now attracts more than 110,000 applications for about 6,000 freshman seats. “All of this is driving manic competitiveness in college admissions at all levels,” Paterno said. “A lot of this hype is making families crazy.”
Politicians aren’t asking the real question of the student loan crisis | And now some elected leaders want to make college “free,” while others want to make colleges “accountable.” None of them seem to ask the basic question, which is the only question that actually matters: What is college worth, and to whom? They don’t ask these questions because they know the answers are complicated, and that they will yield neither a compelling sound bite, nor a clear one-size-fits-all policy. But sometimes, seeing the difficult forest means looking past the easy trees. And $1.5 trillion in student loan debt is a very difficult forest.
Admissions scandal is an affront to higher ed’s role as ‘equalizer’ | In our country, higher education is touted as the great “equalizer” providing a pathway for a poor or middle income kid to get the credentials, skills and knowledge to have a chance to move on up to bigger incomes and have a better quality of life post-degree. A recent study by Georgetown University showed that on average getting a college degree does lead to higher lifetime earnings — over $1 million more for the person with the college degree compared to the lifetime earnings of a person with a high school degree and no college. Notice I didn’t say that it’s the elite college degree that leads to these higher earnings. It is “a” college degree.
U.S. States
Higher education, workforce development go hand in hand in Tennessee | Tennesseans want a sustained focus by state officials to reinforce progress made under Haslam. In fact, 89 percent of respondents think Gov. Bill Lee’s administration should spend about the same or more time and resources on higher education and workforce development as did his predecessor. Almost 80 percent agree that obtaining a college degree or certification beyond high school is essential for getting a good job, and 84 percent agree that it leads to a higher income.
SXSW EDU 2019: Why digital transformation in higher ed is not ‘an open playing field’ | UT Austin had a goal of increasing its four-year graduation rate from 52% in 2012 to 70%. Last year, it nearly reached that goal with a rate of 69.8%. New approaches to analyzing student data, such as predictive analytics, was key to that improvement, according to the university.
Government and private colleges face a collision course (Editorial) | he multi-faceted crisis in higher education is inevitably ushering in a new era of government involvement in college operation – not just among state universities but in private institutions as well…More regionally, Governor Charlie Baker is proposing a bill that would force more transparency by colleges facing closure. Massachusetts institutions would be required to notify the state Board of Higher Education if its financial situation could jeopardize its ability to serve current and admitted students. This would put the state in an oversight position, not just for public but private institutions.
Institutional
New Volume Adds Nuance to Research on Undergraduate Women in STEM | Perez-Felkner noted two interrelated patterns emerging from the data analyzed. Boys and men seem to “doggedly persist” and be overly confident in their pursuit of a STEM education even when they receive poor grades, lower test scores or negative peer or teacher feedback about their progress and abilities; the reverse is true for girls and women even when they have higher levels of ability, Perez-Felkner said. There are also some studies that indicate that minority women and women from low-income backgrounds seem to persist in STEM fields at higher rates, despite the stereotypes about who belongs in STEM fields, she added.
Online Courses Could Widen Inequalities, Not Narrow Them | Rather than being a low-cost alternative to face-to-face degrees, online courses actually cost more to develop and run, according to Xu, who is assistant professor of education and social context at the University of California Irvine. For example, data from the University of North Carolina suggests that the average cost of developing an online course is $5,387, 6% higher than the average for a campus course of $5,103, largely due to the cost of staff or consultants to assist faculty. The cost of delivering an online course is $17,564, higher than the $16,433 average for a campus course, due to the software and hardware required. Distance courses also tended to have smaller class sizes, 18 compared to 23 for campus courses, due to the amount of work needed to make sure students were engaged online.
One Way to Stop College-Admissions Insanity: Admit More Students | Instead of carefully crafting admitted classes—taking a little bit of diversity and a little bit of athleticism and a little bit of legacy and mixing them into the ideal freshman stew—institutions could open their doors and serve more students, Julie Posselt, an associate professor at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, told me…Selective institutions would undoubtedly take a “prestige hit” because of that, but it could alter the way parents think about college: not as social capital to be bought, but as an opportunity for learning and growth.
Academic Prioritization or Killing the Liberal Arts? | his term is increasingly being employed, in theory and in practice, by administrators at liberal arts colleges and universities across the country to explain or justify decisions to cut certain programs or even entire departments. Such decisions are essentially a death sentence for the liberal arts. It is a simultaneous devaluation of the many underrepresented, first-generation and social justice-oriented faculty (who were hired as a result of various diversity initiatives) who teach in disciplines such as foreign languages, women’s and gender studies, area studies, critical race and global studies, etc. Silent alarms go off in our heads and red flags begin waving whenever the term is used, because we know such euphemisms usually mean departments that serve the public good, such as the humanities, social sciences and even some sciences like math and physics, are going to be sacrificed for a robust expansion of other job-oriented programs such as health sciences, business administration, sports management and various pre-professional and polytechnic programs that serve the market-driven, neoliberal interests and profit-driven model of education.
Most colleges enroll many students who aren’t prepared for higher education | Data from 911 two- and four-year colleges revealed that 96 percent of schools enrolled students who required remediation in the 2014-15 academic year, the most comprehensive recent numbers. At least 209 schools placed more than half of incoming students in at least one remedial course. At least 569,751 students were enrolled in remedial classes that year. The true total is likely much higher because of inconsistencies in the way states track this data that may not capture adults returning to school or part-time students.