By Chris Parr for Times Higher Education. The average completion rate for massive open online courses is less than 7 percent, according to data compiled by an Open University doctoral student as part of her own MOOC studies. Katy Jordan, whose Ph.D. research focuses on online academic social networks, took time out from her doctorate to gather information on the number of people completing a range of free web-based courses. So far, she has tracked down information on the percentage of students completing 29 MOOCs. Read more...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has outlined new steps for verifying international students' visas at immigration checkpoints, according to an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press. The changes are a response to the fact that a student from Kazakhstan charged with destroying evidence related to the Boston Marathon bombings was allowed to reenter the U.S. Jan. 20 despite the fact that he had been academically dismissed from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and his visa terminated. Read more...

The board of the National Education Association, which represents college faculty members in addition to elementary and secondary school teachers, on Friday approved a new statement on digital learning that is likely to be adopted as official policy for the union by its Representative Assembly in July. Read more...

The president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem is leading a delegation to China, where the university anticipates signing several agreements, including a cooperation agreement with Peking University to establish a Confucius Institute, a Chinese government-funded center for Chinese language and cultural education that will be the second in Israel. The university also expects to sign an agreement with a donor who has committed $8 million for scholarships for Chinese students. Read more...

Generation Xers (people who are now in their late 30s) are embracing the idea of lifelong learning, according to a new study by the University of Michigan. The study found that 1 in 10 GenXers are currently enrolled in classes to continue their educations. And 48 percent of the 80 million GenXers take continuing education courses, in-service training or workshops required for professional licenses and certifications. Read more...

As the days tick down until the rates on subsidized student loans will double to 6.8 percent on June 1, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, proposed a bill that would set the interest rate for federally subsidized student loans at the same rate as the Federal Reserve's discount rate to banks -- currently 0.75 percent. Read more...

Senators Marco Rubio, Ron Wyden and Mark Warner introduced a bill Thursday to require colleges to disclose data about their students' salaries in the first year after graduation. The measure would require colleges to break down salary data by major or program of study, as well as require them to report more information on remediation rates, debt for students who graduate and those who drop out, and continuation rates to graduate education. It would also disaggregate outcomes for Pell Grant and G.I. Bill recipients. The bill would also repeal the ban on a federal unit record data system to track students' outcomes in college and beyond. The previous version of the bill would have circumvented the ban by linking state unit record databases. Some House Republicans, privacy advocates and private colleges strongly opposed the creation of such a database in 2006, when it was proposed by the Bush administration. The bill, the Student Right to Know Before You Go Act, was first introduced in the last Congress; since then, transparency about graduates' debt and salaries has become a point of agreement for the Obama administration and some Congressional Republicans. Read more...