By Michael Stratford. The U.S. Department of Education last fall switched its approach to estimating how much it improperly paid out in Pell Grants and student loans after officials learned their initial methodology would have shown large jumps in erroneous payments, the department’s watchdog unit said in a report issued Tuesday. Read more...

By Michael Stratford. A congressional hearing here Wednesday was the latest illustration of what has, in recent years, become a bedrock reality of the politics of higher education at the federal level: lawmakers across the political spectrum want to hold colleges more accountable for student outcomes. Read more...

By Kellie Woodhouse. When Harvard University’s endowment fell by more than $10 billion during the 2008 financial crisis, it was a blow to the institution. But a lot of college presidents across the country considered the loss -- and the remaining $26 billion in Harvard’s endowment -- and thought that perhaps there were worse problems to have. Read more...

By Kellie Woodhouse. Public universities are using non-need-based aid to recruit out-of-state students, at the expense of low-income and in-state students.
That’s the thesis of a report released today by New America. Read more...

By Scott Jaschik. The Association of Writers and Writing Programs normally comes to the defense of controversial writers. On Monday, however, the group announced it has kicked Vanessa Place, a prominent and sometimes controversial poet, off the planning committee for the association's 2016 meeting. Read more...

By Scott Jaschik. For the last week, many in academe have been debating comments made on Twitter by Saida Grundy, a new faculty member at Boston University, in which she said, “Why is white america [sic] so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?” Amid the debate, some have speculated about what would happen if a white professor made generalizations about black students. Read more...

By Scott Jaschik. More than 60 Asian-American organizations on Friday filed a complaint with the U.S. Education Department charging that Harvard University discriminates against Asian-American applicants. By considering race and ethnicity in admissions, the complaint says, Harvard holds Asian-American applicants to a higher standard than it does other applicants and engages in illegal discrimination. Read more...

By Scott Jaschik. Seven students, making up the entire first-year class in the visual arts master of fine arts program at the University of Southern California, issued an open letter saying that they were quitting. Read more...

By Scott Jaschik. Many scientists today take it for granted that the research papers they want to read are available in English. But the dominance of English in scientific communication wasn't always so certain. Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done Before and After Global English (University of Chicago Press) explores the evolution of science and language. Read more...

By Carl Straumsheim. Academic, library and technology organizations are denouncing a new sharing and hosting policy adopted last month by publisher Elsevier, saying it undermines open-access policies at colleges and universities and prevents authors from sharing their work. Read more...