By Goldie Blumenstyk. Student groups, veterans organizations, and others who want the federal government to put more teeth into its newest proposed “gainful employment” regulation are launching a visible lobbying and public-relations effort over the measure this week. There’s a Twitter campaign set for Wednesday—complete with its own hashtag, #studentsdemand—and a Capitol Hill news conference on Thursday featuring students at for-profit colleges and several U.S. senators. More...

By Eric Kelderman. In recent months, higher-education news coverage across the country has focused on the increased share of public-college costs being shifted from state governments to students. The prevailing story line goes like this: States have “disinvested” in higher education during the past quarter-century, “cutting” money for public colleges and forcing institutions to raise tuition to cover the loss of tax dollars. As a result, many of the stories proclaim, students are neck-deep, or worse, in student-loan debt, which is hampering the economy and perhaps even forcing them to borrow more money for other purchases. The first part of this narrative isn’t untrue, according to the figures reported annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers. More...

By Lee Gardner. The University of California at Los Angeles announced on Friday a $4.2-billion campaign, the largest goal sought to date by a public university in the United States. The Centennial Campaign is scheduled to conclude in 2019, the 100th anniversary of the university’s establishment. The bulk of the campaign’s total—$1.65-billion—is earmarked to build up the university’s research, while $1.5-billion would go toward student aid and faculty support, including endowed professorships. Some $800-million would finance a variety of construction projects. The remaining $250-million would be unrestricted. More...

By Clayton M. Christensen and Michelle R. Weise. Journalists, as 2013 ended, were busy declaring the death of MOOCs, more formally known as massive open online courses. Silicon Valley startup Udacity, one of the first to offer the free Web-based college classes, had just announced its pivot to vocational training — a sure sign to some that this much-hyped revolution in higher education had failed. The collective sigh of relief from more traditional colleges and universities was audible. More...

By JJ Feinauer. Humanities degrees are black holes where unsuspecting students trade in their parents' hard-earned money for some useless knowledge on how to contextualize the writings of Gabriel García Márquez.
Or at least, that seems to be the pervasive message out there for incoming college students looking to choose a major. But according to a report by Brigham Young University, those who choose to major in philosophy or comparative literature have more diverse career options than one might expect. More...