By Jack Grove for Times Higher Education. A Times Higher Education analysis of funding and enrollment levels. Statistics cover period from 2008‑09 to 2013‑14 unless stated, and are based on data from the European University Association (EUA). Read more...
Ability to Benefit, Again?
By Paul Fain. A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers wants to bring back financial aid for college students who do not hold a high school diploma or its equivalent, like a GED. The U.S. Congress eliminated aid eligibility for these so-called “ability to benefit” students in 2012. The motivation was to rein in spending on Pell Grants, and the cut was easier to make, politically, than other trims. Read more...
Student Loans and Political Ads
By Michael Stratford. As Democrats look to keep control of the U.S. Senate and hold on to House seats, they are continuing to raise student loans as an issue in this fall's election. After several Democrats last month pushed student loan refinancing on the campaign trail, some Democratic candidates in both House and Senate races are now trying to put their Republican opponents on the defensive on higher education issues. Read more...
'Dear White People'
By Jake New. The film "Dear White People," which received a limited national release on Friday, is billed as “a satire about being a black face in a white place.”
The white place is Winchester College, a fictitious Ivy League institution that finds itself on cable news after a black-themed party leads to a small riot. Read more...
Doing Themselves In?
By Colleen Flaherty. Part celebration, part intervention, a conference on the future of the liberal arts at St. John’s College last week offered high praise and harsh advice for an embattled tradition. Speakers on Friday said that while the future of the democracy depends on a broadly educated public, advocates need to return to a less politicized, more siloed vision of the liberal arts for them to survive. Read more...
Funding the Competition
By Carl Straumsheim. The University of Arkansas System in March approved the creation of a fully online institution that would spring from the system’s pool of talent and resources. Seven months later, some of the other institutions in the system are balking at the idea of footing the bill for what may become a direct competitor. Read more...
A 'Partial Win' for Publishers
By Carl Straumsheim. While academic publishers on Friday notched a rare win in the ongoing legal debate about digital access to copyrighted works, proponents of fair use said the opinion in Cambridge v. Patton recognizes that colleges and universities can legally create digital reserves of books in their collections. Read more...
Communication Jobs Are Up
By Scott Jaschik. The number of faculty job openings in communication has doubled since 2009, and rose 12 percent in 2013, according to new data from the National Communication Association.
The data and analysis from the association are much more optimistic than are reports coming out of other humanities and social sciences disciplines, many of which are seeing modest growth if any, and are struggling to get their openings back to pre-recessionary totals. Read more...
The Value of Research Funding
By Scott Jaschik. In the study (abstract available here), four economists at the University of Kansas analyzed data from 147 research universities for the period 1990 to 2009. They focused on chemistry (for which they include chemical engineering) as a field present at research universities and one that involves both basic and applied research. Read more...
Ending the Traditional MBA
By Kaitlin Mulhere. After five years of declining enrollment in its traditional M.B.A. program, Wake Forest University is shifting gears to focus on an area where it sees greater demand -- those M.B.A. seekers who want to earn a paycheck while studying. Read more...