Massive open online courses don't pose a threat to M.B.A. programs -- in part because they target different student demographics, three University of Pennsylvania researchers claim in a new study. Analyzing student data collected from nine MOOCs offered by the Wharton School, the university's business school, the researchers found 78 percent of the more than 875,000 students resided outside the United States. Read more...

The University of Southern California's Pullias Center for Higher Education on Friday released a proposed research agenda on the for-profit sector. The five-page document grew out of a meeting the center hosted in April. The event featured five papers with different perspectives on for-profits, which sought to "move beyond hyperbole" by confronting the competing narratives about the sector. Read more...

President Obama will announce Monday that he plans to expand an income-based repayment program for federal student loan borrowers, The New York Times reported.
The administration plans to broaden eligibility for its Pay As You Earn program – which caps student loan payments at 10 percent of borrowers’ discretionary income and forgives any unpaid debt after 20 years – to include an estimated 5 million additional borrowers who have older loans, according to the Times.
Obama will also formally announce that the Education Department plans to renegotiate the contract it has with federal student loan servicers to include incentives for helping borrowers avoid default. Read more...

By Michael Roth. “What would the United States look like if we really gave up on liberal education and opted only for specialized or vocational schools? Would that really be such a bad thing?”
The interviewer was trying to be provocative, since I’ve just written a book entitled Beyond The University: Why Liberal Education Matters. Read more...