Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Anne Curzan. It’s graduation season, a time when we celebrate the academic accomplishments of students. At this moment when we are celebrating learning, I think it is important to remember the importance of not always knowing—a message I had the opportunity to share a few years ago at a high-school commencement in Cleveland. I wanted to share part of that speech here in hopes that it might be meaningful for some of this spring’s high-school graduates and students already in college. More...

By Ilan Stavans. Fede, a Venezuelan student of mine, whenever he greets me, starts with “Epa, Ilan.”
Epa is an interjection, an expression of emotion, that is, frankly, almost impossible to translate. In English, what Fede means is a combination of hey, whoa, and howdayado, that is, a slangy form of greeting as well as a manifestation of surprise. More...

By Chronicle Staff. Report: “Access to What and for Whom? A Closer Look at Parent PLUS Loans”
Author: Awilda Rodriguez
Organization: American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Higher Education Reform
Summary: This report offers context on the hotly debated federal Parent PLUS loan program, which allows parents to borrow up to the full cost of college attendance minus other aid for dependent undergraduate students. The report uses the Title IV loan-volume report for 2012-13 to analyze colleges that have large disbursements in the program, and data from the most recent National Postsecondary Student Aid Study to analyze the demographics of borrowers. More...

By Charles Huckabee. South Carolina State University, said last week to be a month away from “financial disaster,” won a state board’s approval on Wednesday to borrow $6-million to help meet its payroll and pay other bills, according to reports by two South Carolina newspapers, The State and The Times and Democrat. More...

By Charles Huckabee. Florida is poised to join the growing list of states that allow students who were brought into the United States illegally as children to qualify for lower in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities, according to reports by The Miami Herald and The New York Times. On Thursday the State Senate approved an amended version of a bill that has previously passed the House of Representatives and that Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, supports. More...

By Beckie Supiano. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators released on Thursday updated versions of its Statement of Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct. The revised documents incorporate member feedback from draft versions released in February. The association also plans to add enforcement provisions, said Justin Draeger, its president. Those will be available in draft form for member feedback before the group’s annual meeting, in late June. More...

By Heidi Landecker. Condoleezza Rice, who served as secretary of state under President George W. Bush and is now a professor at Stanford University, has decided not to speak at the graduation ceremony at Rutgers University, following a protest by students and the faculty. The objections involved Secretary Rice’s role in the war in Iraq, waterboarding, and other controversies of the Bush administration. More...

By Nick DeSantis. Fifty-four percent of business leaders believe the American higher-education system is falling behind developing and emerging countries in preparing students for the work force, according to a poll released by Northeastern University. The survey is the third in a series by the institution. More...

By Nick DeSantis. Michelle Obama on Friday introduced a public campaign encouraging students to pursue and complete a higher education. In a speech at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she participated in a citywide “College Signing Day,” the first lady unveiled a name for her recent efforts to promote college attainment. More...

By Steve Kolowich. In a pilot program with Coursera, the New York Public Library plans to organize meet-ups at which people taking massive open online courses can gather and discuss the courses with help from “trained facilitators.”
The partnership is part the MOOC company’s effort to build an infrastructure for in-person learning around its free online courses. Research has suggested that MOOC students who receive offline help earn higher scores on their assessments. More...