Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Daan Braveman. As students begin the process of applying for college entrance for next fall, there is continued public discussion about the cost of higher education. A recent article in the New York Times cites a study that found that despite the rise in tuition sticker prices, the amount students actually pay has remained stable over the past decade. That fact, however, is too often missed and the pressure remains to contain costs in order to ensure that a college education is affordable and accessible. More...

By Kelli Reeder. America’s priorities are out of order. It seems that every year, government officials voice the need for a better education system. This cannot be ignored, and every year it seems to be pushed down on the list of priorities. A lot of people point to low teacher wages, poor quality elementary and high school classes or facilities as the biggest issues with education, but the issue with the biggest effect on America as a whole is the growing price of college tuition.
Paying for college is nearly the only thing that I’m working toward right now, other than trying to keep up in my classes.
Paying for college doesn’t always seem like a huge problem, but then I realize the true costs and trade-offs that come with it. Working is very important to me because that’s how I pay for school, but it’s funny how going to school and working plays out — I want to work as much as possible so I can pay for school, but I also want to have time to actually attend class, do well and succeed. By giving up hours of work, I get better grades, but I also can’t afford to pay for my next semester.

By Michael Cohn. A pair of lawmakers have introduced legislation to simplify the Tax Code to enable families to more easily afford the cost of higher education. Reps. Diane Black, R-Tenn., and Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., introduced the Student and Family Tax Simplification Act on Wednesday. The legislation is designed to make it easier and simpler for families to afford the costs of higher education by consolidating four separate tax provisions into a single education tax benefit. 
The proposed legislation would consolidate the Hope Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, the Lifetime Learning Credit, and the tuition deduction into a single, but more robust American Opportunity Tax Credit.  The new AOTC would be permanent and partially refundable and would provide a 100-percent tax credit for the first $2,000 of eligible higher education expenses and a 25-percent tax credit for the next $2,000 of such expenses, for a maximum credit of $2,500. More...

In response to calls for affordable higher education from President Obama on down, Blackburn College has created a free tuition program for students with the greatest need.
Blackburn President John Comerford announced the program Saturday at his on-campus inauguration as the school’s 16th president.
“Higher education faces a continual call for greater accessibility and affordability for students seeking college degrees,” he said. “This call for action has been heard from President Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and our own elected state officials.” Read more...

By James Goodman and Sean Lahman. As the cost of attending college in the Rochester area has climbed, the amount of financial aid schools give to students has grown at an even faster rate — by tens of millions of dollars in recent years.
But for students such as Jerome Nathaniel, it isn't enough.
Nathaniel got more than $20,000 in financial aid from the University of Rochester in three out of his four years as a student. Now, the student from Brooklyn has a degree, a job and about $45,000 of student loan debt.
Colleges play an important role in making their often hefty price tags more affordable for students by offering financial assistance to those struggling to pay. This assistance is especially important for students at private colleges, such as UR and Rochester Institute of Technology, where tuition can be a particularly difficult reach for students of modest means. More...

In the Indiana higher education community, a world meant to promote free thinking and debate, a seemingly lower-level question of how university officials weigh in on hot-button issues is being pondered.
Indiana University President Michael McRobbie took the unusual step last week of throwing IU's official support behind an effort to keep the state's ban on gay marriage out of the constitution.
On Monday, the leaders of DePauw University in Greencastle and Wabash College in Crawfordsville made the same decision to join Freedom Indiana, a newly formed organization opposed to the proposed same-sex marriage amendment.
"Equality, compassion and respect for individuals have long been the bedrock of Indiana University's educational mission, and the lack of tolerance implicit in HJR 6 (the amendment) runs counters to IU's deeply held values," McRobbie said in a statement announcing the university's stance. More...

By Roger Benjamin. Measuring critical thinking skills for success in the workplace. Because today’s bachelor’s degree no longer conveys sufficient information about the skills graduating seniors possess, there is a market failure that affects employers, students, and colleges. Too many deserving students do not get an interview with potential employers because employers don’t have the appropriate data to find the prospects they need.
Colleges don’t know which students to promote for which kinds of jobs, nor do they understand what kinds of specific skills employers are looking for. In reality, we do not have an effective or efficient market to better serve employers, students, and colleges.
To correct this market failure, we need to level the playing field for all participants. More...

By Nitya Rajan. Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai has signed two agreements with the British Council to ensure training for 16,500 of the country’s estimated 45,000 English teachers and to support the Ministry of Higher Education’s goal to move Kabul’s public universities towards an English curriculum.
As foreign troops begin their mass exodus in 2014, Afghanistan is focusing on education including English language teaching as one of the the cornerstones that will ensure the country’s development. More...