By Chris Havergal for Times Higher Education. Opening branch campuses is now the lowest internationalization priority for European universities, according to a major study, prompting suggestions that a market dominated by British institutions is now past its peak. Read more...
Funding Woes
By Kellie Woodhouse. As Illinois, Louisiana and Wisconsin threatened nine-figure reductions in higher education funding, public colleges and universities in those states made their own threats in return. System leaders warned -- often and loudly -- that layoffs, program cuts and the general welfare of the states' college students were on the line if legislators went forward with the proposed cuts. Read more...
Early Adapters
By Paul Fain. Professors have good reason to be wary of adaptive learning software, which automates parts of the teaching process. Adaptive courses could mean a different role for faculty members, some fear, or no role at all. Read more...
Addressing the Inequity Gap
By Ashley A. Smith. Community colleges tend to receive the least amount of public financial support compared to other institutions, yet they are asked to push high numbers of low-income students into the middle class with few resources. A report released by the Century Foundation today -- "How Higher Education Funding Shortchanges Community Colleges" -- calls on states to reform funding models to better help two-year institutions jump-start social mobility. Read more...
Diversifying Study Abroad
By Elizabeth Redden. Sometimes, solutions come easily. After the University of Texas at Austin started holding study abroad-focused receptions for sophomores receiving Pell Grants, the number of students receiving federally funded Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships -- which are only available to students on Pell Grants -- "shot up," said Heather Barclay Hamir, the former director of study abroad at UT Austin and now the president-elect at the Institute for Study Abroad, Butler University. Read more...
A New College for Old Credits
By Jacqueline Thomsen. A program aimed at helping adults finish incomplete degrees will be Rhode Island’s newest college.
College Unbound, a degree-completion program and now a private nonprofit college, will be allowed to award undergraduate degrees in Rhode Island, the state's Council on Postsecondary Education ruled unanimously Wednesday. Read more...
Unfair Admissions Criteria?
By Scott Jaschik. Most colleges are considering applicants' high school disciplinary records, even without formal policies on what role these records should play in admissions decisions, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Community Alternatives. Read more...
'Pedigree'
By Jake New. Despite merit-based college admissions, equal opportunity employment regulations and the long-held idea that in America, hard work is the key to social mobility, affluent graduates from elite institutions are still often the ones who find the highest-paying entry-level jobs. In her new book, Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs (Princeton University Press),Lauren Rivera, an associate professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, aims to find out why. Read more...
Loan Servicers Cleared
By Michael Stratford. The U.S. Department of Education said Tuesday that its four main federal student loan servicers, including Navient, have mostly followed the law in granting special interest-rate benefits to members of the military. Read more...
Cable History
By Colleen Flaherty. The University of Oklahoma raised some eyebrows last year when it announced it was partnering with the History Channel to offer a new U.S. history survey course. The thrust of the initial interest was the university’s decision to pair up with a relatively old-school medium -- cable television -- to offer distance learning in the midst of a digital platform boom. Read more...