By . For years students flocked to schools run by Corinthian Colleges (COCO), one of the largest for-profit education companies in the U.S. Attracted by late-night TV commercials and Internet ads for vocational certificates and online business degrees, they enrolled on the promise that the extra career training would give them a leg up in the job market. The marketing worked: At its peak, in 2003, the publicly traded company was worth more than $4 billion. About 72,000 students attend Corinthian’s three chains—Everest, Heald, and WyoTech. More...
04 octobre 2014
The For-Profit College That's Too Big to Fail
Think tenure protects you? With wealthy donors and less public funding, think again
By . During the height of Israeli’s air war against Gaza this summer, Salaita’s tweets about the conflict (some with “vulgar and inflammatory language,” according to the Chicago Tribune) caught the attention of his new employer. The chancellor didn’t think the trustees would approve his appointment, and she’d heard from several donors who said they wouldn’t be giving if Salaita joined the faculty. The university maintains that Salaita didn’t yet have tenure because he hadn’t started the job, and the trustees have stood behind the chancellor, saying the school “values civility as much as scholarship.” More...
Higher education officials urge students to complete degrees on time
By Samuel Speciale. Students are considered full-time if they take at least 12 credit hours a semester, but state higher education officials are saying more hours are needed to complete a degree on time. Those education officials say on-time degree completion takes four years and that students who fall behind are less likely to graduate. To remedy this, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission started an initiative Tuesday that will encourage students to expedite graduation by taking more classes each semester. See more...
This Country Just Abolished College Tuition Fees
By . Prospective students in the United States who can’t afford to pay for college or don’t want to rack up tens of thousands in student debt should try their luck in Germany. Higher education is now free throughout the country, even for international students. Yesterday, Lower Saxony became the last of seven German states to abolish tuition fees, which were already extremely low compared to those paid in the United States. More...
Bills in Congress could mean equal digital access for disabled students
By Ben Sheffler. Imagine not being able to access your course materials online because you have a print disability such as dyslexia or blindness. The technology and capability for access is out there, but your college has no rubric to follow to use the tools that provide it. More...
Low unemployment rates contribute to dropping college enrollment, officials say
By Morgan Jacobsen. College enrollment in the U.S. dropped by 463,000 students last year, the second year in a row that enrollment has declined. Between 2011 and 2013, enrollment plummeted by almost 1 million students, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report. More...
Saving For College: Why Degrees Cost Too Much
By John Wasik. As I peruse glossy college brochures for my daughter, there’s one important fact missing: How much public funding for college education has eroded in recent years and escalated costs for families.
Not only are state colleges getting less support from their legislatures, private colleges are sending millions of students into debt as well. All told, student debt has breached the $1 trillion mark. Many observers say this is our latest bubble. More...
4 Radical Ideas for Reinventing College, Drawn From Stanford Research
By Margaret Rhodes. Technology and data are reshaping every aspect of our jobs, at an astonishing speed. Yet our higher education system still clings to a format created about 800 years ago: a teacher, in front of a classroom full of students, giving a lecture. This dichotomy is at the heart of a current national debate over the value and cost of higher education, and how that education gets delivered. More...
Why Free Online Classes Are Still the Future of Education
By Issie Lapowsky. The MOOC was The Next Big Thing—and then it was written off for dead. But for Anant Agarwal, one of the founding fathers of this online reboot of university education, it’s only just getting started. Agarwal is an MIT computer science professor and the CEO of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based non-profit, edX, one of several purveyors of so-called “massively open online courses,” or MOOCs, which offer free online classes from elite universities to anyone in the world. More...
Building the University of the Future
By Vala Afshar. "Higher education is now ground zero for disruption," said Todd Hixon in a Forbes column, questioning the value, cost, and the antiquated business model of higher education. That said, there are a number of brilliant CIOs in higher education who are actively leading digital business transformation projects, aimed at minimize institutional disruption and improving the experience of the student, faculty and administration. More...
