A Revenge Scenario For Student Loan Borrowers
By Christina Fitzpatrick. Years ago, a troubled co-op board in Harlem rented me an apartment that was uninhabitable.
I wrote a few letters, stopped people in the laundry room, and tried to bargain kindly, until finally I went downtown to a courthouse. The woman who spoke to me was harried and tired. She asked three questions before concluding I had no rights in the matter. She shouted, “Next!”
Out of frustration, not willfulness, I stayed put. I kept talking. My eyes began to tear, then brim, like some damsel crashing a wedding with a gun.
Courting the international student in a fast-spinning world
By John LaBrie. In the past several decades, the world has experienced an explosion of student mobility that transcends domestic borders. The United States has benefited greatly from this trend—there were a record 765,000 international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities during the 2011-12 academic year—but this is changing, and quickly. China is spending a quarter trillion dollars a year on its own educational institutions, working quickly not just to keep their own students, but to bring in others from all over the world. And they aren’t alone. In what may seem to be a strange turn, U.S. students may well find an affordable and high quality alternative—abroad. South Korea, for example, is in the process of establishing its first “global” university in Incheon. The goal is to recruit 60 percent of the student body from outside South Korea, including a surprising 25 percent of the overall student population targeted to be from the United States. More...
Debt-Free Degrees
By David Bergeron and Steven Klinsky. In many respects, higher education in the United States – with credits awarded on time a student sits in a chair – remains trapped in the 19th century and has been slow to embrace technology. Online education from traditionally accredited colleges has been available since at least 1999, but almost always at the same high tuition cost as the traditional “physical” courses. New ideas, such as tuition-free massive open online courses (MOOCs), are now emerging, but are generally not accredited. Read more...
What Do I Tell My Students?
By Shawn E. Fisher. “Now bear with me, Gentlemen, if what I am about to say has at first sight a fanciful appearance.”
--John Henry Cardinal Newman, from The Idea of a University
Imagine your job is to help students get into college, and one of the students you’re advising says to you, “It has always been my dream to study philosophy at Harvard.”
Let’s say that this student is graduating from a private prep school and you know that money will not be a major worry for her either during or after the college years. Read more...
Time to Change the Rules?
By Paul Fain. A growing number of reform-minded lawmakers on Capitol Hill want to see more of online “innovations” like competency-based education. To help out, some are making noise about changing federal financial aid policy and the accreditation system. That was the message during a hearing Thursday of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The hearing and several emerging pieces of legislation are harbingers of how the looming debate over the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act might shake out. Read more...
How Higher Ed Fits Into New Budget Talks
By Michael Stratford. As Congress resumed negotiations on the federal budget this week, higher education advocates are once again pressing lawmakers to end automatic spending cuts, which they’ve said are devastating to scientific research. Representatives from both chambers and political parties gathered on Wednesday for the first formal budget talks since Congress reached an agreement earlier this month to reopen the government after a 16-day shutdown and to temporarily raise the nation’s borrowing authority. Read more...
U.S. to Finalize Rules Aimed at Distressed Borrowers, Default Rate Manipulation
The Education Department is set to issue a package of final regulations on federal student loans that are aimed, in part, at helping distressed borrowers and preventing colleges from manipulating their default rates. In a notice last week, the department said it would officially adopt the rules “within the next several days” (though they would not take effect until next July). In addition to making minor changes to reflect legislative changes, the 423 pages of rules also beef up some protections for federal student loan borrowers. Read more...
Moody's: University Downgrades Continue
Negative ratings pressures have intensified on higher education, according to a Moody’s Investors Service report for subscribers that reviewed the ratings agency's work through the end of the third quarter. There have been 21 downgrades of public colleges and universities this year but no upgrades. That's due to "declining state funding, flat or declining enrollment and lack of expense containment," the agency said. Read more...
Coursera to Improve Access Abroad With Physical 'Learning Hubs'
Massive open online course provider Coursera will provide physical spaces in which to use its digital content, the company announced on Thursday. Along with five partner organizations, including the U.S. State Department, Coursera will establish "Learning Hubs" at more than 20 locations around the world, including at campuses and U.S. embassies. The hubs will provide free access to the Internet and Coursera's MOOCs, but the company is also promising a more traditional learning experience. Some courses will feature in-person sessions, which can range from tutoring to discussions, moderated by a "local facilitator who has familiarity with the subject." Read more...