International
University of Tasmania’s plans to expand Launceston and Burnie campuses must be supported | LAST week I found myself sitting between two high achievers at the University of Tasmania’s scholarship dinner.
Curriculet Closes Shop | Curriculet, which over the past four years built a platform where students can read digital books, articles and take quizzes, will be closing its doors this summer.
Goodbye from Third Degree and reflections on the state of higher education | This is the final Third Degree post. So it’s time to take stock and have a look over the life of the blog to see which higher education issues are still relevant, what has changed across the sector and what the future holds for universities.
‘Dr. Karen’ Kelsky on UK Academics: Similar Crisis Suffered by US Colleges, Universities May Be Coming to the UK | Higher education staff, academic interns and students suffer from the trend of privatization among US colleges and universities and this could be experienced by UK counterparts soon, according to Karen Kelsky.
Chilean artist steals and destroys $500 million worth of student debt papers | Late last week, Chilean police arrived at Santiago’s Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral and removed a white bin of gray ash — allegedly all that remained of $500 million worth of student debt notes.
Blackbaud Launches Comprehensive Higher Education Offering | In conjunction with its annual Higher Education and Hospital Forum event, Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLKB), the leading provider of software and services for the global philanthropic community, today announced a new solution offering that combines 35 years of software innovation and industry expertise with value-added services to help higher education institutions excel in fundraising and constituent relationship management.
University staff strike over 1.1% pay offer | Members of the University and College Union (UCU) started the strike on 25 May, which will continue on 26 May, after a last-ditch meeting with employers held last week failed to break an impasse over a 1.1 per cent pay rise offer for 2016-17.
Professor Ghada Barsoum discussed the challenges facing Egypt’s Higher Education at the “Faculty at the Forefront” series | Ghada Barsoum, assistant professor at the Department of Public Policy and Administration at AUC said that getting quality education remains Egypt’s biggest challenge.
U.S. National
U.S. Education Department Awards $13.4 Million in Grants to Improve Services, Outcomes for Children with Disabilities | The U.S. Department of Education announced more than $13.4 million in grants to higher education institutions to fund quality personnel preparation programs to help improve services and results for students with disabilities.
Overtime Impact at 2-Year Colleges | Employees at community colleges may be the most affected by the Obama administration’s new rules for overtime pay, especially as the sector continues to see dwindling resources from their states.
The Broken Bargain With College Graduates | In his recent commencement address at Rutgers University, President Obama focused on the noneconomic reasons for going to college.
Whom Do College-Affordability Efforts Help the Most? | The proportion of the highest-earning families who get financial aid in the form of so-called merit grants from universities is up from 23 percent a decade ago to 28 percent today, the government’s National Center for Education Statistics found, while the proportion of the lowest-earning families getting aid has dropped from 23 percent to 20 percent.
U.S. States
Here are ways to make college in Maine more affordable | Close on the heels of a report that ranked Maine colleges among the least affordable in the nation, a pair of agencies released a list of strategies to address the problem.
What’s the Matter With Kansas Budget Cuts? | State has changed its formula to impose deepest reductions on universities that receive more outside support.
University of Tennessee diversity funding bill allowed to become law | Gov. Bill Haslam allowed the bill that diverts about $445,882 from the University of Tennessee’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion to minority engineering scholarships to become law without his signature, his office announced Friday.
How Maine’s low college completion rates make higher education less affordable | Students who graduate from Maine colleges and universities carry some of the most staggering debt burdens in the nation.
Jeb Spaulding: College affordability should be a front burner issue | Of the 6,000 or so Vermonters about to graduate from high school, more than 2,000 are unlikely to further their education after June. They will join a growing cohort of young Vermonters who lack the credentials necessary to succeed in our economy. In fact, Vermont has the lowest college enrollment rate in New England.
States that tie higher education funding to performance have it all wrong, report says | [A] new paper from the Century Foundation argues that such performance-based funding models are reinforcing disparities within public higher education and doing little to move the needle on completion.
Institutional
Advocates for Diversity in STEM Still Priming Pump for Pipeline | In the 1970s, Norman Francis’ epic tenure as president of the nation’s only Black Catholic University was just beginning, and at the same time, he learned that the number of Black students in the nation’s medical schools was dwindling. Unequal education, he concluded, was robbing Black students of their chance to even get into college, let alone medical school.
Asian-American Groups Accuse Brown, Dartmouth, and Yale of Bias in Admissions | A long list of Asian-American groups plans on Monday to call for federal investigations of Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Yale University for alleged discrimination in admissions.
Green River College faculty on strike over proposed program cuts | Faculty at Green River College walked off the job Monday, striking to protest a proposal by the college to eliminate 11 programs and courses to save money.
Utah Valley University Changing Landscape with Latino Initiative | UVU also tripled its annual number of Latino graduates from 2004 to 2014, thanks to support and outreach by many university staff and faculty.
Adjuncts Vote to Unionize at Saint Louis U. | The vote followed successful union drives by the SEIU at other campuses in the St. Louis area, including Washington University and St. Louis Community College.
Uncertainty, Unpredictability, Chaos | As an enrollment manager, I have been wishing for change to the system in the same way a parent awaits good news of the healthy birth of a child. But can so many changes be good for families sending a child off to college?
Full-Time Instructors at Ithaca College Form Union | Full-time, non-tenure-track faculty members at Ithaca College voted to form a union affiliated with Service Employees International Union, they announced Tuesday.
University of Akron will not renew contract for freshmen ‘success coaches’ | Sixteen coaches, most recent UA graduates, were hired and each worked with as many as 275 students. They earned $28,000 to $32,000, plus benefits and were to follow the students through their academic career. Critics questioned the need for coaches
5 Damning Findings From the Baylor Investigation | Baylor University on Thursday released a summary of a long-awaited investigative report into its handling of sexual-assault allegations — and, with it, word of a housecleaning of sorts.