International
Tempest in the rankings teapot – An African perspective | It is that season when ranking entities announce their ‘findings’ on the comparative stature of the world’s universities. As usual, the ‘premier’ universities remain at the top and the rest are relegated to the bottom – African universities in particular. The ‘rankers’ go about their business, some with audacity, but too often without sufficient concern for veracity, authenticity or integrity in their methodologies and, especially in the case of Africa, without sufficient data.
Meeting the challenge of sustainability | The new president of the Association of African Universities, or AAU, for 2017-20, Professor Orlando Antonio Quilambo*, was elected at the association’s 14th General Conference. He spoke to University World News about his plans at the helm and the importance of Africa-based funding for the organisation.
Vemo Education Raises $7.4 Million in Seed Funding to Tackle College Affordability and Help End the Student Debt Trap | Vemo Education, the first company to help postsecondary institutions develop, launch, and implement income share agreements (ISAs), announced today that it has recently closed $7.4 million in seed funding.
‘Robot-Proof’ | In the era of artificial intelligence, robots and more, higher education is arguably more important than ever. Academic researchers are producing the ideas that lead to technology after technology. On the other hand, a challenge exists for higher education: how to produce graduates whose careers won’t be derailed by all of these advances.
Graduate employability ranking: the best university for getting a job | Three UK universities are among the top 20 in the world for graduate employability, according to a ranking by higher education think tank QS.
Some European nations in ‘real trouble’ on HE funding, OECD warns | Higher education investment in a number of European countries is falling significantly behind other developed nations because governments are failing to tackle a funding shortage by either boosting public spending or allowing fees to rise, it has been warned.
New data shows Canadians might actually be getting too much education | I don’t want to talk down the family business—my spouse and I both teach at university—but a graph in the latest edition of the OECD’s Education at a Glance might make a person think we Canadians are overeducated.
U.S. National
Upcoming Conference to Focus on Crisis in Education | “The Crisis in Black Education” will be addressed by some of the nation’s leading Black scholars and activists later this month at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
The 2017 Survey of Admissions Directors: Pressure All Around | Only 34 percent of colleges met new student enrollment targets this year by May 1, the traditional date by which most institutions hope to have a class set.
Survey: Millennials Divided Over Goal of Public School Education | A GenForward survey found that millennials are split on the fundamental issue of what the main goal of a public school education should be. Nearly four out of 10 millennials believe that the main goal of education should be academic preparation, and just under three in 10 believe it should prepare students to be good citizens. The remainder believe that the purpose of education should be workforce preparation.
For Students Imperiled by Trump’s DACA Rollback, a Scramble for Answers | Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration was ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, provoking different levels of panic among Mr. Rivas and the hundreds of thousands of other so-called Dreamers who face the possibility of deportation over the next few years unless Congress acts.
Inequality crisis: Blacks and Latinos on the road to zero wealth | Between 1983 and 2013, median black household wealth decreased by 75% to $1,700 and Latino household wealth fell 50% to $2,000. At the same time, median white household wealth rose 14% to $116,800.
U.S. States
Two changes that would make higher education more effective for today’s students | Much of the economic news today features the phrase “shortage of skilled workers.” It’s a familiar problem and traditional higher education, in its current state, isn’t designed to make the course correction needed.
ND colleges affordable, but strive for education that matches investment | College freshmen are now a few weeks into their first year on campus at North Dakota colleges. On the other end of the spectrum, recent graduates who donned caps and gowns last spring are now a few months out — and likely considering the prospect of their first student loan payments.
UNC Vote Halts Civil Rights Center From Engaging in Litigation | In a move that was widely regarded as a foregone conclusion, the University of North Carolina board of governors voted on Friday to ban centers across the university system from engaging in litigation. In practice the ban applies only to the UNC Law School’s Center for Civil Rights, since it is the only center that pursues litigation.
Dems slam Rauner over higher education problems | Illinois public universities have seen their rankings plummet after the damage done by Bruce Rauner’s 736-day budget crisis. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois State University and Southern Illinois University are among the schools that have suffered lower rankings under this failed governor.
Institutional
After All but Closing, Sweet Briar Will Shift Curriculum and Pricing | The curriculum changes, hammered out in just three months by the college’s faculty, will abolish traditional academic departments and instead align professors in three groups, one focusing on engineering, science, and technology, another on the environment and sustainability, and the third on creativity and the arts.