International
Universities – Critical partners in building sovereignty | Broken or inadequate relationships between governments and their local academic communities can undermine autonomous, democratic policy-making, leaving national polities prey to the agendas of foreign powers, according to a new study published by African Minds.
The higher education crisis | Building student power means gaining more and more control over our campuses and the decisions that affect us as students. In the end, student power means a student-run higher education system. It’s our education – we should control it.
U.S. National
Taxing The Rich Collegiate-Style | Although buried deep (page 75) in the GOP plan, and having only modest positive revenue effects, the proposal to tax the endowments of private universities with endowments over $100,000 per student is a levy on the wealth of very rich schools populated mostly by very rich people.
‘Taxing a Coupon’ | Graduate students and higher education experts warn GOP plan to tax tuition waivers would be disastrous to both students’ finances and institutions’ teaching and research missions.
The Turning Point For Higher Education | The 2008 financial crisis led to big reductions for higher education at the state and local level–politicians were not going to raise taxes during periods of high unemployment to support state universities.
Higher Education’s ‘White Power’ | President of higher ed research group documents white dominance in the academy and urges scholars to use their work to help disenfranchised people.
U.S. States and Territories
UNLV, UNR fail to rank on top schools study | Nevada students on the hunt for the best higher education have to look out of state to get it.
Puerto Rico fears brain drain following hurricanes’ devastation | Universities worry that young scientists affected by humanitarian crisis might ‘leave and not return’.
A Lack of Tuition Strategy | States lack coordination and clarity, according to survey finding more than two-thirds of respondents reported no unified approach to address affordability.
Institutional
U of I Prepared in Case of Future Budget Crisis | The Chancellor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says the campus is implementing a financial and budget plan that can sustain a budget crisis.
Colleges respond to nationwide enrollment decline | According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, overall postsecondary fall 2016 enrollments decreased by 1.4 percent from the previous fall, representing a continuous enrollment decline for institutions nationwide. This downward trend has led to colleges—including Columbia—absorbing the impact of lower revenue and making adjustments to attract more students.
Boosting Completion by Softening Standards? | City Colleges of Chicago has received a heaping of praise in the last few years for dramatically improving single-digit graduation rates. But a new report is calling into question just how the system of seven two-year institutions has increased degree completions, alleging it softened standards and manipulated data in the pursuit of better graduation rates.