Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Allison Sherry. At more than two dozen public, private and for-profit colleges in Colorado, thousands of former students have stopped paying on their federal student loans — and at least one school faces federal sanctions because the default rate is so high. Schools blame the state's soft economy for the growing default rates among students attending all kinds of schools in Colorado. Just over 8,800 Colorado students, or 10.1 percent, failed to make an on-time repayment on a federal loan for nine consecutive months, according to 2010 data, the most recent available. The rate tops the national rate of 9.1 percent. More...

By Josh Dulaney. College is starting up again, but are local students ready for it? According to ACT, which administers one of the two major tests used by colleges to admit students, readiness for higher education remains a sore spot among the vast majority of graduating high school students. Just 39 percent of ACT-tested 2013 graduates met three or more of the four benchmarks in English, reading, math and science, according to the yearly report, The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2013, which was released Tuesday. Perhaps of more concern, 31 percent of graduates did not meet any of the benchmarks, according to the report. California students fared better, but not by much. According to the report, 33 percent met all four benchmarks, compared to just 26 percent nationwide. More...

By Jeff Amy. As they present their annual request for capital spending, leaders of Mississippi’s eight public universities say they’re pleased with the Legislature’s pledge to borrow $100 million a year to cover the schools’ needs. The College Board adopted the plan at its meeting last week. Each institution adopted 10 top priorities, an amount totaling $634.4 million across the system. Top priorities range from another $30.5 million to pay for the new medical school building at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson to $300,000 to upgrade sprinklers at the Cedar Brook Apartments at the University of Southern Mississippi. Higher Education Commissioner Hank Bounds said the board knows lawmakers won’t contribute the amount needed to cover the total request. However, he said the future map for capital spending laid out in the 2013 bond bill is enough to sustain the universities. More...

By Cathy Sandeen. In my former role as a dean at the University of California Los Angeles, I helped thousands of typical American college students gain the knowledge and skills needed to become informed, engaged citizens and progress in their chosen careers. But as the dean of UCLA Extension, these "typical" students were a diverse group of nontraditional learners searching for ways to earn postsecondary degrees and credentials, often while juggling family responsibilities and jobs that meant frequent stops and re-starts for their postsecondary experience -- very different from the first-time college students attending UCLA straight out of high school but representative of the current face of American higher education. More...

When state Sen. John Arthur Smith speaks, people listen — and that includes the rest of the Legislature and Gov. Susana Martinez. A Democrat from Deming, Smith is a respected voice on fiscal matters and serves as vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
That he has taken the trouble to write to Gov. Martinez about concerns with the financial state of Northern New Mexico College should alert its supporters. That would include students, faculty and staff, not to mention the people of Española and greater Rio Arriba County. More...

By Jack Curtin. During the period of prosperity after World War II, state coffers from tax revenues overflowed and its universities reaped the benefits. Great teaching, impressive facilities, and solid educational experiences offered an undergraduate residing within state boundaries an amazing deal.
Fast forward 40 years and you discover that tax revenues no longer kept pace with the rising costs of running state colleges. Construction, payroll, pension payouts, and technology all had big price tags. For a period of time, generous benefactors, winning football programs, and March Madness endowment investment strategies all moved things forward, but these dollars soon dried up as a powerful national recession took hold. A substantial funding gap triggered a dramatic increase in the cost of tuition for state residents to send their kids to college. More...

By Emily Deruy. President Barack Obama on Thursday called for sweeping higher-education reforms that aim to make college more affordable. The president proposed changing the way colleges get federal aid, encouraging institutions to use technology and online learning to make courses more accessible, and capping loan repayment plans depending on how much graduates earn. Rising tuition costs have far outpaced income gains in the past several decades and forced more students than ever to take out loans to pay for college. That’s delayed things like saving for retirement, and even buying a home and getting married for many young people.
“Higher education is the single best investment you can make in your future,” he told students at the University at Buffalo, during the start of a two-day bus tour on college affordability. But students today are saddled with a choice previous generations didn’t have to make, he continued, the choice between saying no to college or saying yes and accepting the burden of debt. More...

By Jonathan Rees. As you might imagine, I follow a lot of people on Twitter who have a different attitude towards MOOCs than I do. One of my favorites is the MOOC pioneer George Siemens. If you don’t know him, he’s one of those nice Canadian people who came up with the idea for MOOCs in the first place. Now though, both on his Twitter feed and on his blog, he gives the distinct impression of continually saying to himself, “What the heck have all these Americans done to our previously excellent idea?” To be honest, I still have trouble with the kinds of MOOCs that Siemens et. al. first imagined. Nevertheless, anybody whose ideas got mugged by a bunch of Clayton Christensen acolytes automatically has my sympathy.
Because I wanted to hear what MOOCs sounded like before MOOCmania began, I downloaded an old Tech Therapy podcast with Siemens on it the last time I was prepping my iPod for the gym. To summarize, Siemens saw MOOCs as 1) Experimental 2) Open 3) Intended for people who already have college degrees and 4) Not designed as a replacement for college courses. More...

By John LaBrie. To look at the data and read stories in the media, post-secondary education is in trouble. According to the Council of Graduate Schools, Enrollments dipped at U.S. graduate schools for both the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years (the last two years for which there is data). Business and law degrees—those stalwarts of higher ed—have had decreases in applications in recent years. Even undergraduate institutions—which hadn’t seen enrollment dips in two decades—are feeling the pinch. More...

Specifically, friends in academia who have finished their own degrees and, seeing my own adviser-less situation, have generously offered to read my stuff and help me out.  I resisted for MONTHS, because if reading my old entries have taught me anything, it’s that I’m stubborn and don’t always have the best decision making skills.  If I was a cartoon animal, I’d be the coyote who repeatedly runs into the side of the mountain, even though bashing my face the first time should have been a clue that the tunnel was painted on.
I was afraid to send stuff to these well-meaning friends because they are smarter than me and better writers.  Sounds perfect, right?  Who else would you want to critique your academic bullshit?  And even though these people are truly good friends and have never been judgmental in any other respect, I was convinced that they would think I was a complete moron and wonder how the hell I got into grad school in the first place. More...