By Beth Akers. Last spring, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) released new evidence on the relationship between student loan debt and home ownership.  It found that during the financial crisis, young people with student loan debt had become less likely than those without debt to take on mortgage debt (a proxy for home ownership) by the time they reached age 30.  It was suggested that this reversed the long-run trend in which individuals with student loan debt, who tended to be wealthier and more educated than their debtless peers, were more likely to own a home.  Although this analysis provided useful information about student loan debt, it is subject to a number of limitations. More...

By Stefanie Botelho. Milton Security Group, Inc., the premier manufacturer of the ICEGuard and Edge 7200 adaptive network security appliances and network management solutions, announced today the release of an integration system between their Cloud Authentication & Security (CAS for short) and Microsoft Office 365 for Education. More...

By Stefanie Botelho. The University of Houston has signed a deal with a group of investors to commercialize technologies created by its faculty, boosting the UH Energy Research Park as a focal point for entrepreneurial activity in the Houston region. The deal will be worth as much as $25 million, including $15 million for a new building at the research park, which will house laboratories and startup businesses. More...

By Lynn Russo Whylly. Transfer students just as likely to graduate from four-year colleges as direct university entrants.
Dozens of reports written over the last four decades have created the generally accepted theory that community college students who transfer to universities graduate at lower rate than do students who start out at four-year institutions. More...

By Lauren Williams. In-state students could attend college for free and pay percentage of incomes back after graduation.
Michigan legislators have introduced a plan that would allow in-state college-bound students to attend college for free and then, as graduates, pay a percentage of their income back. Known as a “pay it forward” model, the money paid back would go into a special fund to help other students attend college using the same plan. More...

By Stefanie Botelho. Technology continues to change the way learning and assessment are conducted in higher education. As the methods of learning are digitized, assessment must follow—but, not surprisingly, faculty using new testing methods are experiencing obstacles that don’t exist in the physical classroom. To preview the upcoming UBTech Conference session, “Prove yourself: Academic integrity in MOOCs and online courses,” UBTech speakers Darin Kapanjie and Carly Haines of Temple University discuss the challenge of online student cheating, useful digital assessment tools and more. More...

By Tim Goral. How university leaders can help level the playing field
According to the “For Women in Science” report, there is a shockingly low number of women in science. Does that surprise you?
I’m not surprised by the numbers, but I’m disappointed in them. Science needs women and women need science. If gender equality existed today, the world would have 300,000 additional scientists and researchers, which, when we think about it, means, going forward, a pool of three million potential women scientists in the next 10 years. More...