The U.S. Department of Education announced Joseph A. Smith has been appointed as special master to help the department and student borrowers through the debt relief process in the wake of the Corinthian Colleges shutdown. Smith's appointment is a part of the Obama administration's debt relief plan that is expected to help federal borrowers who can prove they were defrauded by their college. Read more...

The report found 52 percent of ACT-tested first-generation college students in the 2014 high school graduating class failed to meet the four college readiness benchmarks set by the nonprofit testing organization. Read more...

This has been a rough week for higher education accreditors. Days after a Wall Street Journal article raised questions about whether the agencies are doing enough to improve (or, alternatively, shut down) institutions that struggle to retain and graduate students, the committee that advises the U.S. education secretary on accreditation took up much the same theme Thursday at its semiannual session to review some accrediting bodies. Read more...

U.S. District Court Judge John Bates upheld the department's gainful employment regulations, including the debt-to-earnings test and disclosure, reporting and certification requirements that had been challenged in a lawsuit by the Association of Private Sector Colleges & Universities (APSCU), which is the for-profit sector's trade group. Read more...

The former student loan ombudsman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- who is still taking on for-profit colleges from his new perch -- sent a letter to ITT Educational Services investors Wednesday asking them to reform the for-profit institution. Read more...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Monday wrote to three web search engines -- Google, Bing and Yahoo -- to ask the companies to work with federal and state authorities to prevent "student debt relief scammers" from targeting distressed borrowers. Read more...

Columbia University's board voted Monday to divest its endowment from private prison companies, CNN reported. Columbia may be the first American college or university to adopt such a policy. Student and faculty groups have been urging the shift. Read more...

Up to 35 million Americans have enrolled in college at some point but failed to earn a degree or certificate. A new report from Higher Ed Insight, a research firm, tracks the challenges adult students face when they return to college. Read more...

The official who has driven the U.S. Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's increasingly aggressive scrutiny of student loans and for-profit higher education is leaving the agency. Read more...

Excelencia in Education today released a report that lists the 25 colleges that graduate the most Latino students in science, technology, engineering and math. Using data from 2013, the nonprofit group found that 2 percent of all U.S. institutions graduate one-third of Latinos who earn STEM credentials. Read more...