International
Manufacturing internationalisation of higher education | Of the 200 institutions listed in 2016, only 49 are in the 2017 ranking, although the number of institutions listed dropped from 200 to 150. This is understandable because a condition for eligibility was that institutions not only needed to be included in the top 500 of the THE World University Rankings, but were also required to have at least 100 votes in the academic reputation survey.
Leading the way to high-skilled jobs? | Scaling up higher education in Africa can produce a high-skilled workforce capable of doing these jobs. Africa’s current Gross Enrolment Ratio in tertiary education is 9% – well below the world average of 33%. Africa compares unfavourably to other developing regions too. For example, South Asia’s ratio is 21%, World Bank data shows.
Online Education Costs More, Not Less | The survey, conducted by the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET), found that most colleges charge students the same or more to study online. And when additional fees are included, more than half of distance education students pay more than do those in brick-and-mortar classrooms.
U.S. National
‘The Great Shame of Our Profession’ | If you are a tenured (or tenure-track) faculty member, you are both the instrument and the direct beneficiary of exploitation.
First-time international graduate enrolments rise 5% | Enrolments in United States universities of first-time international graduate students increased by 5% in autumn 2016, the same rate of growth as the previous year, says a report by the US-based Council of Graduate Schools, a Washington-based non-profit.
Maybe College Isn’t the Great Equalizer | {A] new study says that the economic impact of college — in postgraduation wages — is very much tied to the income of students’ families growing up, with students from wealthier families earning more than others.
Economist: Education Alone Won’t Close Racial Wage Gap | Though Black college graduates generally fare better than Black high school graduates, higher education has not proven sufficient to remedy America’s racial wage gap, a leading labor economist said recently during a Black History Month lecture.
U.S. States
Goldrick-Rab: Focus of college affordability fight shifts from feds to states, cities | [A]dvocates for higher education affordability need to re-focus their efforts on state and local opportunities, Goldrick-Rab said, pointing to the governor of New York and the mayor of San Francisco as setting examples for others to follow in their recent proposals to make public college tuition free in their jurisdictions.
Schilling: Look at multi-pronged approach to education crisis | The scale of the $360 million shortfall in K-12 education is enormous — 43 percent more than the $251 million in draconian budget cuts taken by state agencies, community colleges and the University of Wyoming.
Promise Too Costly? | Oregon’s free community college scholarship faces money woes and criticism, particularly from the state’s four-year university leaders, who cite the program’s higher-income beneficiaries while also worrying about enrollment declines at their institutions.
State appropriations for higher education increase for public colleges | The state of New York saw a 2.8 percent increase while the state of Hawaii had the largest increase — 10.5 percent increase — according to the report. Higher education spending overall, however, is not at the rate it was before the financial crisis in 2007.
Students, officials push for funding at Higher Education Day | Comments in support of higher education brought cheers and tears Tuesday at the state Capitol as more than 300 students, faculty and administrators gathered to promote Oklahoma’s public colleges and universities.
Institutional
Yale Removes Slave Proponent’s Name from Residence Hall | After a wave of student protests, Yale University announced over the weekend that it would remove the name of John C. Calhoun—a Yale alumnus—who was a proponent of slavery, from an undergraduate residence hall.
Obsessed With Smartness | According to a 2016 book by Alexander W. Astin, a longtime analyst of higher education, the collective desire of our colleges and universities to fill beds and seats with the brightest students suggests we have lost our way. In Are You Smart Enough? How Colleges’ Obsession With Smartness Shortchanges Students, Astin argues that our narrow-minded pursuit of the smartest students not only contradicts the very purpose of higher education, but perpetuates the economic inequalities that many faculty members fight against in their work.
Good Teaching: Where the Money Should Go | While the findings from two or even 200 studies may provide different results, the combined findings of over 1800 studies spanning a decade are harder to dismiss. When it comes to college and choices of whether and where to attend, students and their parents should ask many questions. We encourage they add to their list of questions those that specifically inquire about the importance an institution places on high quality teaching.
How One University Extended Its Reach | Saint Louis University’s first-ever strategic enrollment plan, assembled seven years ago, was part of an effort to reposition the Roman Catholic institution as a national research university and to prepare for the changing demographics of its primary recruitment market, which was predicted to experience a steep decline in high-school graduates.
80 Cents on the Dollar | A gender pay gap at the top levels of higher education leadership has persisted over the last 15 years, according to new research released Tuesday by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, known as CUPA-HR. A gulf between the number of men and women in the most prestigious, highest-paying jobs has not closed significantly, either.
Note: Several articles touch on the theme of inequality and higher education. Yet, there is still little regard for the processes by which higher education institutions manufacture inequalities in students’ preparedness, engagement and outcomes. In lieu of broader consideration, we offer a link to our Shell Game of Academic Preparedness…