By Michael Stratford. Congressional investigators have found “serious weaknesses” in how the Education Department manages a program meant to help defaulted borrowers get their loans back on track, a Government Accountability Office official said on Wednesday. Read more...
15 mars 2014
Debt Management Disarray
Another Push for Debit Card Rules
By Michael Stratford. The Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General on Tuesday became the latest federal investigator calling for stricter rules on the debit cards offered to college students to gain access to financial aid funds. In a report, the inspector general’s office said the department should enact new rules on colleges entering into agreements with financial institutions or other companies to provide debit cards on campus. Read more...
The Sky Isn't Falling
By Paul Fain. Education technology can help higher education up its game. But adaptive learning, digital badges and free online courses don’t spell doom for colleges. And plenty of yeomanlike work needs to be done before those innovations can reach their potential. Those were common messages at two recent higher ed conferences: the annual meeting of the American Council on Education here this week and, somewhat surprisingly, at last week’s SXSWedu in Austin. Read more...
Global Hubs
By Elizabeth Redden. In five years, Columbia University has created a network of eight global centers: in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago. “Even though some units of the university might have had international operations around the world, and even though we have had study abroad programs forever and we have had faculty who have engaged in collaborations around the world, a couple of things were missing,” said Safwan M. Masri, Columbia’s executive vice president for global centers and global development and director of the global center in Amman. Read more...
Bucking the Branch Campus
By Elizabeth Redden. George Washington University was, like many American universities, contemplating a campus in China. Under the leadership of Doug Guthrie, the former dean of the business school and the vice president for China operations, George Washington was in discussions about possibly developing a campus in partnership with the University of International Business and Economics, in Beijing. But after Guthrie was fired from his administrative posts in August for budget overages in the business school, the university shifted course, convened a faculty advisory committee, and, last month, confirmed it would not proceed with building a China campus after all. Read more...Gainful Employment's Partial Unveiling
By Paul Fain. Update: The Education Department released its proposed “gainful employment” rule this morning. See the bottom of this article for updates.
This morning the Obama Administration plans to release its eagerly awaited "gainful employment" standards for vocational programs at for-profit institutions and community colleges. The overall structure of the proposed regulations looks the same as a draft version the U.S. Department of Education released in December, according to an embargoed news release the White House circulated on Thursday evening. Read more...
Universities to get near 6 per cent cut to ‘most teaching budgets’
By . Teaching grants for universities in England are to fall by more than the £45 million announced last month, the country’s funding council has said. In a letter to institutions from Madeleine Atkins, Higher Education Funding Council for England chief executive, it has been revealed that most teaching budgets will drop by 5.85 per cent in 2014-15.
This is a higher cut than previously expected when the higher education budget was unveiled in the government’s annual grant letter, which was released last month. More...
Average graduate applies for 12 jobs before landing one, survey claims
By . Poll also highlights growing importance of online profile. Graduates apply for 12 jobs on average before getting their first role, according to a survey. To add to their frustration, one in four receive no feedback whatsoever from unsuccessful applications, according to the poll of 2,000 UK students and graduates commissioned by the professional networking site LinkedIn. More...
Ethnic minority groups more likely to have a degree than whites
By . People of Indian and Chinese descent in England and Wales are almost twice as likely to have a degree as white British people, a new study says. Research by the University of Manchester’s Centre on Dynamics and Ethnicity (CoDE) shows the number of people from ethnic minorities gaining a degree-level qualification has risen sharply over the past decade. According to the 2011 census, 43 per cent of those with Chinese heritage had a degree, while the figure stood at 42 per cent for those of Indian ethnicity and 40 per cent for those from black African groups, which had a large number of international students. More...
Universities should face more scrutiny over competition, says OFT
By . The Office of Fair Trading wants further scrutiny of English higher education to judge if some rules for students may breach consumer protection law. The OFT published today the outcome of its call for information on higher education in England, launched in October 2013 to see “how choice and competition were working” in the sector. The report recommends that the Competition and Markets Authority - the OFT’s successor body which takes over on 1 April - undertakes a “compliance review” of the sector. The OFT warns that hidden charges for students and increases in fees for international students during their courses are among practices that “might breach” consumer protection regulations. More...
