International
Hamas-Fatah feud stalls Gaza higher education | [T]he university and its more than 26,000 students have found themselves caught up in the political feud between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas, which governs Gaza.
#Fees2017: Growing calls for immediate stop to violent protests | President Jacob Zuma announced earlier this week that he has established a ministerial task team to assist higher education Minister Blade Nzimande to normalise the situation.
Could HE rankings be socially transformative? | That global rankings have made an indelible mark on higher education is incontrovertible. Their arrival at the millennium coincided with the acceleration of this phase of globalisation and signalled the transformation of higher education from a local institution into a global actor of geopolitical significance.
Universities and the quest for employable graduates | While an emphasis on expansion has seen the higher education sector in Sub-Saharan Africa grow from 2.3 million in 1999 to 6.6 million in 2013, quality of offerings has received less emphasis, with more recent concerns about quality translating into dissatisfaction with the calibre of graduates hitting the labour market.
Arab research ‘in crisis’ due to region’s growing instability | Academic research is “in crisis” in much of the Middle East and North Africa as growing security concerns compound problems of nepotism and poor infrastructure, a study says.
Switzerland: ‘nothing certain’ on future of EU research access | A proposed solution to Switzerland’s crisis in relations with the European Union that could potentially keep Swiss universities in the bloc’s research programme is a “move in the right direction” but “nothing is certain”, according to a senior sector figure.
Ethnic minorities more likely to regret going to university | Ethnic minority graduates of English universities are significantly more likely to regret enrolling in higher education, a study reveals.
U.S. National
Community College Enrollments Drop | The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that last year, community colleges enrolled about 5.9 million students, while in 2014 that number stood at about six million. In fact, the colleges have been on a steady decline since 2010, ending the increases many saw when the economic downturn hit in 2008.
Abdul-Jabbar: Poverty Biggest Barrier to Higher Ed | In a talk that touched on topics that ranged from poor police-community relations in the United States to international politics, author and NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar cited poverty as the biggest barrier that threatens to block the shots that low-income students have at higher education.
Study: Minorities less likely to attend top public colleges | Black and Latino students in the U.S. are far less likely than their peers of other races to attend elite public universities, according to a new study.
Which country really has the cleverest students? | The OECD tested literacy skills among graduates – and the high-flyers were not in the US or UK, but in Japan and Finland. These figures, based on test results rather than reputation, show a very different set of nationalities from the usual suspects.
Poll shows Americans want affordable tuition | New America, a think tank in Washington D.C., conducted a survey of 800 Democrats, Republicans and Independents which showed Americans believe higher education is “necessary but expensive.” Sixty-eight percent of respondents agreed the government couldn’t afford to provide free tuition at public colleges right now.
U.S. States
To show or not to show? Professors, students ponder class attendance with strike looming | On Monday, continuation of weekend talks fueled campus hopes for heading off a first-ever classroom strike across Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities by some 5,000 professors. But as night fell, a media blackout on the talks remained, and there was no comment encouraging or otherwise from the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties or the State System of Higher Education.
Faculty Strike at 14 Campuses | Faculty members from 14 public campuses in Pennsylvania went on strike Wednesday after contract negotiations came to a halt, leaving more than 100,000 students without classes.
Faculty Strike Throws Pennsylvania’s State-Owned Colleges Into ‘Organized Chaos’ | The last five times that the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and its faculty union tried to hash out a new collective-bargaining agreement, the union had voted to authorize a strike. Once it set a strike date. But in each of those instances, the two sides managed to come to an agreement.
Institutional
Subjectively Objective: Tenure and the Underrepresented Minority Faculty | Even for institutions with less obscure probationary employment guidelines for tenure and promotion policies, there exists a double standard for underrepresented minorities. This double standard exists where the middle-(wo)men in our educational hierarchy are emboldened with the ability to circumvent policies with subjective perceptions on the quality of the contributions of young, underrepresented minority faculty.
If Colleges Are Dismantled, Consider the Impact on Their Cities | Perhaps nowhere were the benefits of the reciprocal relationship between town and gown more evident than in early 20th-century New York City.
Not in My Classroom | [I]nstructional aspects of Illinois State University’s work with the Education Advisory Board, a major higher education best practices and research firm, have faculty members up in arms. In a recent op-ed in Vidette Online, the student newspaper, more than 30 professors accused Illinois State and EAB of telling them to limit course offerings with high failure or withdrawal rates and to make their courses more utilitarian.
College of New Rochelle president quits amid probe | College of New Rochelle President Judith Huntington has resigned in the face of an ongoing probe into the school’s finances.