By Marni Baker Stein. Of all the systemic challenges facing higher education today, one has not received the attention it deserves: The sweeping transformation of the student markets we serve. Our colleges and universities continue to organize their schedules, policies, services, and curricular pathways around traditional students, although a substantial majority, even in the 18-to-24 year old segment, do not fit this profile. A large and growing percentage of post-secondary students work full-time while attending school. Others serve as family caregivers. Some balance both. Read more...

By Steven Mintz. For-profit universities provoke fierce criticism.
Among the charges: That these institutions deploy unscrupulous recruiting practices, leave students with crippling levels of debt, award worthless degrees, and inflate job placement rates. Students at the for-profits are more likely to drop out, default on their loans, and be left unemployed than those who attend non-profit colleges and universities. Read more...

By Steven Berg. I ask my students, “If you were a gladiator, which technology would you prefer:  a trident, a net, or a wooden sword?”  It is a question I would like you to consider; a question to which I will return. Even before Verus and Priscus entered the Coliseum in AD 80, individuals realized that access to higher education combined with appropriate technologies was a pathway to social mobility.  Although we often think of gladiators as slaves and criminals, many poor freemen chose to train to become gladiators.  These men made the decision to enter a gladiatorial school because they considered obtaining a higher education as their best opportunity for social mobility. More...