International
Internationalisation of HE may be accelerating | The increasing wave of nationalist, populist, anti-immigration and anti-globalisation trends in the United States, Europe and countries like Turkey and the Philippines make us wonder if the end of internationalisation is near.
Party seeks tighter control of 29 top universities | The announcement of new inspections to be conducted of the party committees of 29 top universities in China as part of the country’s anti-corruption campaign is not just about rooting out malpractice but is also the latest move by the government to tighten ideological control of universities, experts say.
Review to target rural education | The barriers and challenges hampering regional, rural and remote students [in Australia] from getting the best out of their education will be examined in an independent review.
U.S. National
Senate Democrats Question Role of DeVos Advisory Group | A new task force that will reportedly advise the U.S. Department of Education on issues of higher education could be “very problematic” if it seeks to weaken federal regulations meant to protect students, Senate Democrats say in a letter sent to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
Online Ed’s Return on Investment | New paper casting doubt about the merits of online education raises concerns, but also questions from researchers who say it is “seriously flawed.”
Failing to Keep Up | [T]he ethnic and racial makeup of administrators isn’t changing fast enough to keep up with broader demographic shifts — the line showing the percentage of minority higher education leaders is not growing closer to lines that show the country’s minority population or the percentage of minority college graduates.
U.S. States
Higher education in Puerto Rico in crisis | Last summer, the US Congress adopted PROMESA (the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act), creating the Fiscal Control Board, which has now ordered Governor Ricardo Rosselló to reduce UPR’s budget by $300 million in order to avoid the need to borrow more money.
University of Montana meetings, higher education public access, under scrutiny | In December, after six years of declining enrollment and an ensuing budget crisis, Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian asked former President Royce Engstrom to step down and requested that Sheila Stearns, former commissioner, serve as interim president.
Tennessee Finds Remedial Education Reform Success | A new report from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University sheds light on why developmental education may not be working at the community college level and offers some solutions.
Replicating the Tennessee Promise | While many states and cities are still working through the details and funding behind their attempts to create a free community college program, Tennessee has been busy expanding its scholarship.
Institutional
‘Huge Deal for a Small School’ | Since Simmons first began collecting tuition from online education, undergraduate tuition revenue has grown by about 10 percent, graduate in-person by about 2 percent and online by nearly 1,000 percent. As of fall 2016, the college enrolled 2,569 full- and part-time online students.
Measuring Adversity | College Board pilots system to help colleges make admissions decisions about who is disadvantaged — and evidence from one college suggests 20 percent of decisions might be different. But lack of emphasis on race concerns some advocates.
Closing the Gap | Black students graduate, on average, at a rate 22 percentage points lower than white students. Closing that gap will require individual institutions to improve completion rates and highly selective colleges to enroll more black students, a new report says.
Executive Order Falls Short of Some HBCU Leaders’ Hopes | The mostly symbolic order, which was spearheaded by Omarosa Manigault, a senior adviser to President Trump, moves the White House Initiative on HBCUs into the White House from the Department of Education.
Expert: 3-pronged Approach Key to Closing Black-White Graduation Gap | According to Dr. Andrew H. Nichols, Ed Trust’s director of higher education research and data analytics, closing the graduation gap will require three systemic changes. Institutions must work to close existing gaps among Black and White students, change broader enrollment patterns so that selective institutions are enrolling more Black students, and less selective institutions must work to improve their graduation rates.
Shouting Down a Lecture | Hundreds of students at Middlebury College on Thursday chanted and shouted at Charles Murray, the controversial writer whom many accuse of espousing racist ideas, preventing him from giving a public lecture at the college.