Today’s mass education system, which was built for the mass production economy of the 20th century, is inadequate for the demands of the new millennium. A complete paradigm shift will be required, and as higher education moves from a vertically integrated model to a horizontal model, there will be considerable disruption.
Here’s what I see as the future of higher education and some important trends going forward.
1. Disaggregation, or unbundling. This unbundling started outside the classroom, where universities have taken housing or dining and let someone else manage it. What we’re starting to see now is the same unbundling happening in the classroom, shifting instruction from a vertically integrated market where the college provides everything to a horizontal model. More...
Has academic rigor diminished in higher education?
Democrat & Chronicle. Richard Arum, professor of sociology at New York University, talked about critical thinking, colleges and careers last week at Rochester Institute of Technology. We spoke by phone about the subject and the findings in his critically acclaimed book, Academically Adrift.
Why, I asked, do many of today's college graduates lack critical thinking, complex problem solving and writing skills, which are required for business success and thoughtful civic engagement? More...
Should public colleges be free for all qualified applicants? Yes
Duluth News Tribune. State universities and community colleges should offer free tuition to all students who academically qualify for admission.
Our current, insufficient, inefficient patchwork of college aid relies increasingly on loans that saddle graduates with too much debt and too few options once they enter the work force. More...
How financial literacy programs control student debt
By Sonya Stinson. Best way to wrangle runaway loan debt is making students masters of basic money management.
A spooky cloud of crimson smoke dramatizes the dread of overwhelming student debt in “The Red,” a short movie thriller created for SALT, the American Student Assistance financial literacy program for students and alumni. Less dramatic but noteworthy still, college students logging onto the National Endowment for Financial Education’s CashCourse can take a “Financial Realities” quiz to test their knowledge. In the opening question, they’re asked what will have the worst impact on their finances: gourmet coffee drinks, borrowing money, or spending without a plan. More...
Who has a stake in student debt?
By Sonya Stinson. Parents are important stakeholders in improving the financial literacy of college students.
The interest in financial literacy has expanded beyond the financial office, which is where Lyssa Thaden, financial education content manager at American Student Assistance, used to focus her pitches.
“Now, at a stakeholder meeting, I’ll have someone from the financial aid office but also someone from admissions and enrollment management,” says Thaden, who consults with school sponsors of SALT, ASA’s financial literacy program. “The marketing folks show up, the residence life people show up, and even alumni.” More...
Data mining the MOOCs
By Ed Finkel. The massive enrollment in MOOCs is yielding a treasure-trove of information for everything from marketing to course development.
The exploding popularity of MOOCs is beginning to open up a mother lode of data about prospective students that colleges and universities can use for marketing and recruitment purposes. MOOCs are still in their infancy stages, and the concept of leveraging their reach as a data-rich marketing vehicle for the institution is even newer. But it’s beginning to gain a foothold. More...
Social media for retention: Are colleges missing opportunities?
By Ann McClure. How paying attention to what students are posting online can be used to help them stay in school. When a student starts tweeting expletives about your institution for the whole world to potentially see, it’s probably time to find out the reason for the lash out and do some damage control.
Beverly Low, dean of first-year students at Colgate University in New York, reached out to one such student and ended up having three meetings with her. “They were meaningful conversations, too,” Low says, adding that the student was more likely to come and talk in person than vent on social media in the future. Forming such connections can be the difference between a student persisting or separating. So campus leaders shouldn’t overlook the importance of keeping an eye on social media and following up on dropout situations that may be just waiting to happen. More...
Repérage Flash Emploi : 22 % d'entreprises ayant l’intention de recruter
Lancée au 2e semestre 2011, la démarche " Repérage Flash Emploi " (RFE) est une grande enquête qui vise à identifier les entreprises sensibles à la question de l'emploi et notamment celles ayant l’intention de recruter dans les 6 mois.
Principal enseignement de ce 2d bilan annuel : les besoins exprimés par les PME sont pour la moitié à pourvoir immédiatement. Télécharger la synthèse des résultats.
14 831 RFE effectués et 3 305 entreprises ayant l’intention de recruter
Près de 15 000 Repérage Flash Emploi ont été réalisés par le réseau AGEFOS PME entre le 1er juillet 2012 et le 30 juin 2013. Parmi les répondants, 63 % des entreprises relèvent de l'un des 50 secteurs professionnels adhérents AGEFOS PME et 37 % de l’interprofession. Les principaux secteurs ou branches répondants ont été l'immobilier (7 % soit 1 047 entreprises), les Experts-Comptables (7 %, soit 1 011 entreprises) et la Coiffure (7 %, soit 957 entreprises). Près de 6 entreprises sur 10 ayant participé à cette enquête sont des entreprises de moins de 10 salariés (57 %), les TPE représentant 89 % du total des entreprises clientes AGEFOS PME. Suite...
Faut-il fermer autoritairement les antennes françaises de l’université privée Fernando Pessoa ?
Par Isabelle Rey-Lefebvre. L’initiative de l’université privée portugaise Fernando-Pessoa d’ouvrir, en novembre 2012, une antenne à Toulon pour former des dentistes et des orthophonistes, a manifestement pris de court les pouvoirs publics. Le rectorat de Nice a certes porté plainte et une instruction a été ouverte pour escroquerie, mais Bruno Ravaz, le professeur de droit public qui dirige le centre toulonnais, n’a jusqu’ici été entendu que par la police, pas par la justice. Suite...
D’ici 2022, l’université va perdre la moitié de ses professeurs
Par . Le nombre d'étudiants stagne, le nombre de professeurs, aussi. Une Note d'information, que le ministère de l'enseignement supérieur a publiée il y a quelques semaines, montre que le nombre d'enseignants-chercheurs dans les universités et établissements rattachés stagne depuis presque dix ans. Justifiée par l'évolution du nombre d'étudiants, le constat paraît cependant dissonant avec le discours politique qui, depuis 2006, assure investir dans l'enseignement supérieur. Suite...