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The Canadian Association of University Teachers this week called for colleges and universities in Canada to sever ties to Confucius Institutes, which have been set up at many Canadian (and American) campuses with support from the Chinese government. Supporters say that the institutes are a valuable way to expose more students outside China to Chinese history and culture. But critics say that the institutes present an oversimplified and positive image of China and that universities that want the house institutes may feel pressure to avoid certain topics. Read more...

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a compromise budget bill that sets federal funding levels for the rest of this fiscal year and next year. Lawmakers passed the deal on a 64-36 vote and sent it to President Obama, who supports the measure and is expected to sign it into law. Read more...

Brandeis University and Penn State University at Harrisburg are ending their institutional memberships in the American Studies Association. Their moves follow the organization's vote to back the boycott of Israeli universities. The American Studies Program at Brandeis posted this statement on its website: "It is a with deep regret that we in the American Studies Program at Brandeis University have decided to discontinue our institutional affiliation with the American Studies Association.  We view the recent vote by the membership to affirm an academic boycott of Israel as a politicization of the discipline and a rebuke to the kind of open inquiry that a scholarly association should foster. Read more...

In July, there was much chatter about a Craigslist ad from the mother of a student about to enroll at Harvard University. The ad sought a young woman to have sex with her son, a virgin whom she feared was too shy to learn about women without some secret coaching from Mom. Now there is a new Craigslist ad -- this time from someone who appears to have just been admitted to next year's class. Read more...

Universities U.K. has withdrawn controversial guidance it released last month on gender segregation at “ultra-orthodox” religious events on campus after coming under criticism from the prime minister’s office. The guidance, which was intended to help British Universities balance their legal responsibility to protect freedom of speech while also meeting the requirements of nondiscrimination law, said that in regards to a hypothetical case study in which an outside religious speaker requested seating segregated by gender, “a balance of interests is most likely to be achieved if it is possible to offer attendees both segregated and non-segregated seating areas." Read more...

The Education Department’s research arm is seeking technical expertise from higher education constituents on how to develop the Obama administration’s proposed college ratings system. In a notice published Tuesday in the Federal Register, the National Center for Education Statistics will issue a formal request for detailed input on how the administration should proceed with its proposal, which the department has dubbed the “Postsecondary Institution Ratings System” (PIRS). Read more...

By Wick Sloane. To: President Barack H. Obama 
Subject: Missing from Your College Plan: 45 Million Peanut Butter Sandwiches. Per Week. 
Forty-five million peanut butter sandwiches a week? 
This 45 million idea came to me the other day, at a sink. I was washing peanut butter from the wooden paddle hungry students use every day to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the Boston community college where I work. Bread donated via Panera and the Minute Man High School Parents Association. PB&J bought with donor funds. Why not, I thought, one peanut butter sandwich per school day for each of the nine million students (source) on a Pell Grant? Read more...

By Dan Greenstein. That college you have your eye on for your teenager? It may be going out of business. Your alma mater, too. Here’s why: we keep seeing reports that the financial model undergirding much of higher education is weak and getting weaker. The way colleges are financed is out of date with the demands of a much larger student population. Few people outside higher education are aware of this, but college and university leaders are deeply concerned. Read more...

By Stephen Burd. In the fall of 2011, Career Education Corporation (CECO) revealed that a significant number of its schools had cooked the books on the job placement rates they were disclosing to prospective students and regulators. Now investors in the giant for-profit higher education company are about to earn a nice profit for these misdeeds. A federal judge has given his preliminary approval to a $27.5 million settlement that CECO has reached with shareholders to put an end to a lawsuit they brought accusing the company of deceiving them about its record of placing graduates into jobs. Read more...

By Michael Stratford. A group of Senate Democrats announced Thursday a new push to provide student loan borrowers with more protections and hold colleges more accountable for loan defaults. In a call with reporters, Senators Richard Durbin of Illlinois, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts highlighted a package of new and existing proposals aimed at reducing the burden of student debt. Read more...