International
The making of university rankings – Has anything changed? | With the academic year now in full swing, and most university rankings published – the latest being the US News and World Report’s 2019 Best Global Universities ranking on 30 October – higher education leaders around the world are looking at where they stand in comparison to their peers. Each year some universities lose ground while others gain and there is always an abundance of commentary about the rankings and their methodologies. But has anything really changed over the years in the way they are compiled?
Ministers can’t ignore the coming higher education debt crisis | It should be one of the bright spots in the British economy, one that shines through the Brexit gloom, but the higher education sector has become a pin on which balances the most enormous mountain of debt. And with speculation that institutions may be in financial trouble circulating around the sector, ministers are nervous.
Fixing the education crisis in the Middle East and North Africa region | [I]n the Middle East and North Africa region, education has become a source of widespread frustration because it is not delivering the skills young people need in today’s world. Rather than leading to meaningful jobs and greater well-being, a university degree in the Middle East is now more likely to lead to a dead end of unemployment.
Education does not always equal social mobility | The relationship between national levels of income inequality and lower levels of intergenerational mobility is known as the Great Gatsby Curve…A 2015 study used cross-national comparable data from the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to shed new light on the role of education in relation to this curve: the study examined the relationships between a person’s education, their parents’ education and labour-market outcomes such as income.
Education Not Enough To End Income Inequality: OECD Social Mobility Report | For each year that a child spends in education, the gap between the rich and poor grows wider, according to a new OECD social mobility report. With a manifold increase in income inequality since 1990s, social mobility factors have stalled, meaning that fewer people at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder have moved up, the report findings state.
U.S. National
Equity Considerations for Policymakers & Researchers | New America reports that although Americans see the value in a college degree, they are disappointed with the higher education system, with millennials most likely to believe that colleges put the needs of the schools over that of students (Fishman, Ekowo, & Ezeugo, 2017). Much of this skepticism is driven by the fact that far too many students leave college without graduating and those who complete and graduate leave college with more and more debt, averaging nearly $17,000 for those who graduate and $28,000 for those who do not graduate, a total that continues to grow every year (The College Board, 2017).
Opinion | Why is college so expensive? | The novel “Why Does College Cost So Much?” argues that economically, college is not a product, but a service. It explains why the cost of college doesn’t decrease despite advancements in manufacturing technology. Colleges consist of workers with college degrees, many of whom earn much higher salaries than those without degrees.
New International Enrollments Decline Again | New enrollments of international students fell by 6.6 percent at American universities in academic year 2017-18 compared to the year before, marking the second straight year in declines in new enrollments, according to new data from the annual Open Doors survey.
‘The Academy Is Largely Itself Responsible for Its Own Peril’ | [T]he book was supposed to end with the inauguration of Barack Obama. That was Jill Lepore’s plan when she began work in 2015 on her new history of America, These Truths (W.W. Norton). She had arrived at the Civil War when Donald J. Trump was elected. Not to alter the ending, she has said, would have felt like “a dereliction of duty as a historian.”
The Real Cause of the Humanities’ Woes | Beyond its shaky foundation, Clune’s essay deflects blame from the real causes of the decrease in literary study: an ever-increasing emphasis on vocational and preprofessional education, a growing focus on quantitatively assessable outcomes, and a shift in employment choices by students away from education (which often overlapped with literary-studies majors) and toward the health sciences (the impressive statistical analysis of David Laurence at the Modern Language Association clearly shows all these changes).
Raising Awareness Around the Impact of Year-Round Pell | Recent study and survey findings around the impact of year-round Pell (YRP) signal an opportunity for colleges and universities to increase awareness about the benefits of the grant aid. YRP awards are tied to gains in students’ credit accumulation, completion rates and employment earnings, according to a study by Dr. Vivian Liu of the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teacher’s College. However, many eligible low-income students are unaware of YRP aid or do not take advantage of it, which could hinder their momentum towards degree completion, research finds.
U.S. States
How Tennessee educators are learning to address race and its impacts on college achievement | Tennessee’s reluctance to talk about race has been challenged by the disproportionately poor graduation rates of low-income students throughout the state. But a recent shift, led by Gov. Bill Haslam, is seen as a positive sign for many. Haslam has brought the topic of diversity to the forefront of conversations about why students in Tennessee aren’t completing community college at a higher rate.
Illinois schools join national effort to close achievement gaps, produce more college degrees | Four Illinois universities have joined an ambitious national effort to resolve persistent inequities in higher education. About 130 schools and university systems have signed onto a program directed by the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities in Washington, D.C., officials announced this week. Dubbed “Powered by Publics: Scaling Student Success,” the initiative groups together school leaders to brainstorm ways to improve access to higher education, eliminate achievement gaps among students and boost the number of students earning postsecondary degrees.
Californians want more funding for public higher education, survey shows | Most Californians believe higher education should be a top priority for the new governor and support increased funding for public colleges and universities, according to a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.
Public Universities Go Big To Improve Student Success | Earlier this month, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) launched a major initiative that deserves watching. It’s called Powered By Publics: Scaling Student Success. The project involves a national collaboration comprised of 130 public institutions that have committed to improving college access, closing student achievement gaps and dramatically increasing the number of undergraduate degrees that are awarded over the next decade.
Institutional
Iowa Wesleyan’s fate underscores woes facing others | And as the state continues to cut appropriations for public higher education, while also trimming support for the Iowa Tuition Grant — for Iowans interested in a private education — independent colleges and universities find themselves keying on four strategic spokes to keep their wheels turning.
New Data on Admissions: Criteria That Matter, Early Decision and More | [T]he report — issued by the National Association for College Admission Counseling — demonstrates, it’s actually not hard to get into college. The average four-year college admits nearly two-thirds of those who apply, and this is true from year to year in the study, going up or down by a point or so. For fall 2016, the year covered by the report (for those data), the figure was 65.4 percent, down slightly from 66.1 percent the year before. And this doesn’t count community colleges, which are open admissions.
ACE Study Outlines Best Practices in Campus Racial Crises | Active listening, speaking from the heart and being attuned to campus context were several critical takeaways of a new study by the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Center for Policy Research and Strategy which focused on how to deal with racial crises.
Going to Class While Black | A black student at the University of Texas at San Antonio was escorted out of her biology class by police for purportedly putting her feet up, the latest incident to go viral in the phenomenon of African American men and women having law enforcement called on them for everyday activities.
Lecturer Who Called Police on Student Wasn’t Biased but Needs Training, University Says | A lecturer’s “preoccupation” with students who put their feet on chairs is partly why she called the campus police on a peaceful student, the University of Texas at San Antonio said on Wednesday after investigating Monday’s incident. She displayed “poor judgment” but won’t be terminated.