International
Higher education committee concerned by fees crisis | “South Africa’s economy needs graduates and thus all parties must salvage what is left of the academic year and that should be balanced with the demands of students”.
DA calls for ANC to show political will to address higher education fees crisis | The Democratic Alliance (DA) says the African National Congress (ANC) has to show political will in order to address the current funding crisis in the higher education sector.
How Humanities Can Help Fix the World | There is no doubt that the United States is now producing an unprecedented number of B.A.s who know little or nothing about humanistic thought — and a growing number of humanities Ph.D.s who cannot find jobs.
‘Solving the Higher Education Funding Crisis’ by the Wits SRC | The University of the Witwatersrand student representative council (SRC) has compiled a “Free Education Model” that it believes is the first to contain input from students.
Online Education Is Now a Global Market | I met Simon Nelson, head of a company called FutureLearn. It’s a spinoff of the British Open University designed to deliver MOOCs, those free massive online courses. More than 60 universities across the U.K. and Europe have partnered with Future Learn to deliver their courses, mirroring trends of the growth of these online classes in the U.S. For better or worse, colleges now have to realize that they face competition from everywhere.
U.S. National
The Success of Evidence-Based Policies | A new report from the Council of Economic Advisers details how the Obama administration’s higher ed policies over the last seven years have begun to pay off, write Sandra Black and Jason Furman.
Helping prospective students make decisions about their future | Now when people search for more information about these colleges and universities, Google will display in-depth search results from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard, that detail graduation rate, average total cost with aid, average salary after attending that institution, and updated data on acceptance rate and undergraduate tuition and fees.
‘Our Compelling Interests’ | On one hand, our “exploding diversity,” as one essay calls it, reflects a complex, nuanced, intersectional identity map, and yet we live with the accumulated impact on our psyches, our daily life practices, our policies and our laws, of decades, if not centuries, of the rigid and yet pervasive architecture of segregation, and the “hibernating bigotry,” as Rupert Nacoste poetically labels it, that results when we don’t live together, go to school together, find jobs together, share our faiths, our dreams and our aspirations.
It’s time to free speech on campus again | As president of the University of California system, I write to show how far we have moved from freedom of speech on campuses to freedom from speech. If it hurts, if it’s controversial, if it articulates an extreme point of view, then speech has become the new bête noire of the academy. Speakers are disinvited, faculty are vilified, and administrators like me are constantly asked to intervene.
U.S. States
How Expensive Is Free College for States? (12 pages) | The Campaign for Free College Tuition (CFCT) is pleased to present the following report detailing the estimated cost to each state of making their public colleges and universities tuition free. We commissioned this research to establish a base line for st
ate policymakers to discuss appropriations and the eventual return that they might expect on such an investment.
States Fund More Student Aid | States funded and awarded about $12.4 billion in total student financial aid, according to the 46th annual survey from the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs. That’s up 6 percent nominally and 5.8 percent adjusting for inflation.
Deal likely struck on state budget crisis | SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – After a long day of behind the scenes talks and waiting on day six of a special session, a deal appears to have been struck on solving the state’s nearly $600 million budget crisis.
Does Performance Funding Work? | In the end, performance funding, like so many policies, is complicated and even contradictory. To the question of whether it works, our answer has to be both yes and no. It does prod institutions to better attend to student outcomes and to substantially change their academic and student-service policies and programs. However, performance funding has not yet conclusively produced the student outcomes desired, and it has engendered serious negative side effects.
Dramatic increase seen in high schoolers taking college courses | [T]he number of high school students taking classes offered by the San Diego Community College District has quadrupled in the past year, bringing the total to more than 2,000. Lynn Neault, vice chancellor of student services with the community college district, said a number of factors played into the jump, including getting an early start in forming a partnership with San Diego Unified School District after a new state law went into effect.
Institutional
‘Keep the Damned Women Out’ | [T]he reality is that coeducation at elite institutions that were once all male did not happen overnight — and didn’t happen without considerable backlash from alumni and others. Nancy Weiss Malkiel tells the story in “Keep the Damned Women Out”: The Struggle for Coeducation (Princeton University Press).
Pushing Trigger Warnings | American U student government launches campaign in support of mandatory trigger warnings — despite a recently reaffirmed faculty stance against them.
‘Success-tech’ can boost higher ed outcomes — but planning is key | Platforms like Tutor.com and early alert systems are providing institutions greater leverage in impacting student performance and access to learning resources, University Business reports.
‘Nail in the Coffin’ for Chicago State? | Chicago State declared financial exigency in February amid an ongoing Illinois budget stalemate that choked off funding to state colleges and universities. The loss of state money was felt at public institutions throughout Illinois, but it was particularly important at Chicago State.
Higher Education Gains a Tool for Benchmarking Focused on Student Success | The new standards are focused on ethical practices and equitable outcomes for students, particularly among underserved students including racial and ethnic minorities, and can be used by institutions for internal management, voluntary reporting, or to join the community of Certified B Corporations, companies who meet the highest standards of verified, overall social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.