International
Universities, adrift for years, must now get a grip | A recent audit of public and private universities has laid out in the open what some have long suspected: Kenya’s public institutions are poorly funded and often disgracefully managed.
Standing up for the facts in an era of post-truths | As universities, as a society, we must be mindful of how important it is to ask questions, to follow our curiosity, to challenge boundaries and to never rest with the answers.
U.S. National
What the Working Class Wants | Colleges and universities face a steep challenge separating fact from fiction in the eyes of working-class and middle-income voters, according to recent focus group work conducted by the American Council on Education.
Plenty of Work Remains in Effort to Close Higher Ed Gender Pay Gap | According to Bichsel, who authored a study titled “The Gender Pay Gap and the Representation of Women in Higher Education Administrative Positions: The Century So Far,” the gender gap in higher education has been consistent for the past 15 years.
U.S. States
A Boom in Promise | Interest in free community college programs has been gradually spreading across the nation. But no other state can match California’s boom in Promise programs.
California Democrats unveil a sweeping financial aid plan to help students avoid debt | Seizing on growing concerns over college affordability, California lawmakers proposed what would be the most generous college aid plan in the nation Monday, covering not just tuition but also living expenses that have led to spiraling student debt.
Expert: College Promise Programs must be ‘Sustainable’ | According to the most recent count from the College Promise Campaign, an initiative tracking these numbers, nearly 200 states and localities have initiated “College Promise” programs.
Take a Closer Look at What This Important Higher Ed Grantmaker Is Doing | Close readers of Inside Philanthropy’s coverage of higher ed will notice that we pay quite a bit of attention to grantmaking by Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation. This funder doesn’t always ring a bell for people outside the Midwest, where it’s focused, but it’s doing interesting things and its grantmaking offers a window into some important trends in higher ed philanthropy.
Geoffrey Mearns: Legislative priority, outcomes-based funding model, goes to Governor; more to do | Yesterday, the Kentucky House of Representatives joined the Senate by passing Senate Bill 153, our legislative priority this session, to create an outcomes-based funding model. The model allocates state support based on three main components: student outcomes, credit hours completed, and institutional operations.
Institutional
Deep Cuts at Aquinas in Tennessee | Aquinas College will cut degrees in arts and sciences, business and nursing. It will eliminate residential housing and student life activities. And, significantly, it will not be accepting any federal funding.
The New Version of Administrative Creep | Administrative creep, then, is not a matter of mean-spirited administrators conspiring to undermine the faculty. Instead what most of us face is death by 1,000 bureaucratic emails — incremental, even micro, administrative requests that serve to reshape our identity, bit by bit, and increasingly define who we are and what we do. So how should we resist?
‘Walking on Water’ | College and university presidents need an ever-widening skill set to succeed amid quickly mounting pressures and fast-changing demands, experts said Tuesday, the final day of the American Council on Education’s annual meeting.
MU chancellor, chief budget officer paint bleak fiscal crisis | Specific ways to address MU’s $20 million shortfall by June 30 include using $3 million of University Hospital reserves, MU Interim Chancellor Hank Foley said Wednesday.