International
Foregrounding the public good benefits of university study | [R]regardless of whether higher education is understood to be an economic driver or a means of credentialing skills, putting economic advancement as the main purpose of higher education is an inadequate conception of its significance. Perhaps more useful is to foreground the public good benefits of university education – goods that move beyond the benefits accrued by the graduate.
What do the latest subject rankings mean for India? | In the upper echelons of rankings India continues to rely heavily on a few elite, small and focused public institutions, namely the Indian Institutes of Technology, whose graduates are world class, snapped up in Silicon Valley and are extremely valued members of the Indian diaspora. However, for a nation that is confronted with the challenges of providing high-quality, mass education, including to disadvantaged groups, and in both urban and rural areas, the limited number of very high-quality institutions is an area of concern.
UK’s industrial strategy requires more university funding | The status quo, in terms of investment in R&D, creation of intellectual property and non-exploitation of knowledge, and the low levels of numeracy and literacy, cannot continue if the UK wishes to become a future global economic powerhouse.
New measures developed for performance-related funding | If the number of statements published is a measure of activity, the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science is impressively busy, having published six statements in five days last week dealing with measures to improve quality, enable performance-related funding and gear higher education to the future job market.
German coalition to boost university funds, with strings attached | Universities anticipate much greater scrutiny of teaching outcomes, potentially even ‘peer review’ of lectures.
The crisis in higher education | The news in recent months has been full of university bosses on bloated pay packets making extravagant expenses claims; of lectures being closed down by students who don’t like to hear things they disagree with; and of dons downing chalk to defend their generous pensions. The sector generally has become embroiled in politics.
Education For Black People In SA Is In A Terrible State | In 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked South Africa’s education system in the bottom two out of the 76 countries the organisation reported on. Disparities within the education system are still an issue despite the fact that there are plans, such as the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 or the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (Asidi), to improve education and foster future human prosperity.
European Rules (and Big Fines) for American Colleges | A German student uses your website to apply for admission. An alumnus who lives in Italy makes an online donation. A faculty member spends a sabbatical in France and communicates with colleagues back home. These routine digital interactions — common in most higher education institutions — will subject colleges in the U.S. to the European Union’s comprehensive privacy rules, which go into effect May 25. Many experts believe American colleges are not prepared — and could face steep fines as a result.
U.S. National
The latest test for college students: Are you employable? | Higher education now had to contend with not just the structural problem of student loans but the employers who were increasingly unhappy with graduates who were unprepared for the workplace.
Employment for Everyone | With the rise in student debt levels and the lingering effects of the Great Recession, doubts about the value of a college degree has risen, too — and the liberal arts have taken a particular pounding. That has led to lots of discussion (in, among other places, Inside Higher Ed’s opinion pages) about whether liberal arts colleges and programs should become more focused on shorter-term vocational outcomes, by changing their offerings, how they operate, and the like.
‘A Different Kind of University’ | [T]he University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point announced its plan to cut 13 majors — including those in anchor humanities departments such as English and history and all three of the foreign languages offered — and, with them, faculty jobs. Tenured professors may well lose their positions.
The growing student debt bubble | Americans owe over $1.4 trillion in student loan debt, according the Federal Reserve. That’s more than the gross domestic product of 183 countries. Let’s take that in: Americans owe more in student debt than the total value of everything produced by most countries in the world.
Walkouts Nationwide | Exactly one month after the Parkland, Fla., massacre, students across the country exited classrooms at 10 a.m., some quiet, some carrying signs demanding gun reform from lawmakers. The victims’ names were read aloud in places, at others chants arose: “It could have been us.”
U.S. States
More Pennsylvanians must be able to ‘pursue their happiness’ | According to US News’ Best States Index, when it comes to higher education, Pennsylvania ranks dead last among the 50 states based on several indices. Compared to students in most other states, those in Pennsylvania, on average, face higher tuition and fees and rack up more debt by graduation. A recent College Affordability Diagnosis rates Pennsylvania 49th in terms of affordability.
The Persistence Project | Getting to know students beyond academic assignments and lectures proved to be a key for Oakton, in addition to other changes the college made to improve the first-year experience. In one year the overall fall-to-fall persistence rate increased from 45 percent to 48 percent. Last year the rate increased to 50 percent. But the persistence rate for approximately 1,200 students who were directly affected by the project was significantly higher — 53 percent last year. Oakton’s goal is to eventually reach a 54 percent rate for the college over all, which would put Oakton on par with its peer institutions.
Streamlined College Degrees Save Hoosiers $35 Million Annually | The Indiana Commission for Higher Education revealed today that a state policy aimed at streamlining college degree requirements and increasing on-time graduation is saving Hoosier students an estimated $35 million per year in tuition expenses. The student-friendly policy has produced a net savings of nearly $200 million since the Indiana General Assembly passed “credit creep” legislation in 2012.
What you should know: Ohio’s proposed merger of education, training agencies moving quickly | Ohio Gov. John Kasich has long pushed to take over Ohio’s education department, whose structure he sees as a hindrance to unified school policy. A bill moving swiftly through the state Legislature includes that takeover and more. The legislation would merge three state entities and place the new combined agency under the governor’s watch.
Institutional
What a Professor Can’t Say | Marybeth Gasman, Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor of Education at Penn and a scholar of minority-serving institutions, said Wax has the right, guaranteed by academic freedom and tenure, to pursue the research that interests her. But in order to comment on the performance of black students across the law school, “one must have data.” And given Ruger’s comments, Gasman said, it’s apparent Wax “did not have data,” and relied instead on “false” anecdotes to make her assessment…Gasman said she wondered why Wax was “compelled to make disparaging comments about African-Americans at all,” since it is always her hope that faculty members are “familiar with stereotype threat, the ramifications of prejudice and racism and their impact on students and the need to empower students rather than disparage them.”
Whiteness characterises higher education institutions so why are we surprised by racist students? | Rufaro Chisango, a black student at Nottingham Trent University, tweeted a video of students chanting ‘we hate the blacks’ outside of her dorm. This shockingly racist abuse has quite rightly drawn widespread condemnation. Two students have been suspended from the university and were also arrested by police in relation to the incident.
Students Say Diversity Is More Important Than Free Speech | College students value a diverse and inclusive environment more than free speech rights, according to a new study on student attitudes on free expression…The report from Gallup and the Knight Foundation comes at a turbulent time on college campuses nationwide…Asked to select which is more important, about 53 percent of the students interviewed for the study picked diversity, versus 46 percent who chose free speech.
Black Male Student-Athletes Still Face Harsh Inequities | A report from the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center spotlights the pervasive disparities between graduation rates for Black male student-athletes, student-athletes in general and Black undergraduate men overall.
Changes to Higher Ed Accountability Portend a Big Downside for Students of Color | Based on some basic assumptions about how program-level accountability would operate, roughly one-third of black and Hispanic students could be left out of its measures, along with 4 in 10 Asian students. This means that lawmakers may have to choose between a program-level accountability system and a system that holds institutions accountable for how they serve students of color.
Technology, Ties to Slavery Among ACE Meeting Topics | During the keynote session, Presidents Ruth J. Simmons and John J. DeGioia explained how their universities created unique projects — the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University and the Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation working group at Georgetown University — that would “walk people through the truth” and shed light on each institution’s ties to slavery.
Changing the Curriculum Is Hard. So Is Measuring Its Success. | Curriculum has implications for the very way a university sees itself. So it can change how a university is marketed to prospective students. It can dramatically alter the work schedule of professors and have implications for how many graduate students a department can fund. Adding a diversity requirement, for example, could steer students toward some classes and away from others, reshaping a department’s resources.