By Duncan Black. The best thing about the Obama administration proposal to provide free community college is the universality of the proposal. For too long, even liberal proposals for government programs intended to disproportionately help lower income individuals have been saddled with various income requirements, adding uncertainty and complexity to both qualifying for and administering these programs. More...

By Christopher Gergen and Stephen Martin. On the surface, at least, it's back to business as usual for colleges and universities across North Carolina as the spring semester gets underway.
At some of our state's institutions, however, the New Year promises to be anything but typical - a testing ground for bold reforms that could help re-shape the face of higher education nationally. More...

By Troy Onink. In a stunning development in the mysterious world of college admissions, students at Stanford University were able to follow a “tried and tested” five-step process published by Fountain Hopper, an anonymous student-run website at Stanford, to legally obtain their college admissions records. Fountain Hopper’s simple five-step process (they even have a a pre-populated template to submit your request) is based on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which mandates that schools must provide students access to their educational records. More...

By Peter Hancock. President Barack Obama called for increased public investment in higher education during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, laying out themes he is expected to elaborate on Thursday when he visits Kansas University.
Among other things, he called for offering two free years of community college for qualifying students; expanding tax credits for college tuition; and reducing monthly payments on existing student loan debt. More...