By Matt Reed. Greetings from Seattle! I’m here, fighting off some serious jet lag, for the Chair Academy conference. It’s my first time in Seattle since 1996. By Matt Reed. Last year, in an effort to make it easier for students to register themselves for classes, we lowered the credit threshold beneath which they had to check in with an advisor first. The idea was that students who are well on their way and know what they’re doing (there’s also a GPA requirement) shouldn’t have to check in for a perfunctory appointment before signing up for classes. Read more...By Matt Reed. In what seems like a previous life, I slogged through John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice. Rawls argued that we should judge policies that would treat different people differently by applying what he called the “difference principle.” Broadly, the idea was that different treatment was justified to the extent that it offered the greatest benefit to the least advantaged. Read more...By Matt Reed. In politics, the incumbent advantage refers to officeholders who have an easier time winning elections than their opponents, precisely because they’re already in office. Time in office brings with it name recognition, connections, and a track record. Those aren’t unalloyed goods, necessarily, but if you haven’t done something horrifying, they tend to help. Read more...
In 2001, Texas became the first state to pass a law granting in-state tuition rates to undocumented students. This week, lawmakers are considering a bill to repeal the law, The Houston Chronicle reported. While the fate of the effort is unclear, it has strong backing from the state's Tea Party movement. Read more...
Female students -- especially in their first year -- are more likely to actively participate and less likely to feel anxious if they have the chance to work in small groups that are majority female, according to a new study that will appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read more...
The U.S. Department of Education on Monday clarified that colleges are able to take some active steps to help students avoid excessive loan amounts.
Federal law requires that colleges in most cases disburse to students any amount of federal loan they request so long as they are eligible for it. Read more...
For the first time in its history, Harvard University hired an equal number of women and men as junior faculty members in 2014-15, according to a new report from its Office of Faculty Development and Diversity. Harvard took on 62 new tenure-track faculty members this year, exactly half of whom were women; 24 percent were minority. Read more...
James Ritchie, a male student, has resigned as women's officer of the student union at the University of Tasmania. Ritchie's recent election to that post set off a furor. He has said repeatedly that he is committed to fighting discrimination against women. Read more...
The American Enterprise Institute's Center on Higher Education Reform today released two new reports on competency-based education, which follow a report the center released in January. The first paper uses results from a survey of hiring managers at companies around the country to learn about employers' perceptions of the emerging form of higher education. Read more...
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