Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Rachel Fishman, Ben Miller. This blog post is the third part in a series that takes a look at recent changes to the credit criteria for Parent PLUS loans and the subsequent effect on colleges and universities. You can find the introductory post here and the second post here.
For nearly a year the Department of Education has been under a firestorm of criticism from the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) community
and its advocates over changes to the PLUS loan program that they say reduced revenue and enrollment at these institutions. According to an article yesterday in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Education Department finally relented and made further accommodations to help more applicants get approved, while promising to rethink the criteria as part of a rulemaking session next spring. But did loosening criteria really solve a national policy problem? Or was it a set of changes to benefit a small subset of institutions, the result of which will mean greater amounts of worse debt for families?
The Department’s changes were outlined in a letter to Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. In it Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote that, the Department would more than double the size of debt it considers to be “de minimis,” allowing rejected borrowers with larger debts of any type to be approved through an appeals process. "We believe this may help families who have relatively small adverse credit events that negatively impact their credit histories, such as unpaid medical debt, parking tickets, or cell phone bills of greater than 90 days duration,” the letter says. More...

Justin Pope de Bloomberg Businessweek tomo y terminó un curso MOOC de MIT, en este artículo nos resume su experiencia, ventajas y posibilidades de mejora del modelo actual que define estos cursos. Resalta ventajas en velocidad, contenido, y acceso masivo, mientras levanta advertencias sobre la falta de flexibilidad en tiempo.
Por Justin Pope, escrito para Bloomberg Businessweek Agosto 3 2013
Esther Duflo, uno de los dos economistas estrella de MIT que dictan el curso MOOC (cursos abiertos masivos en línea por sus siglas en inglés) que estoy tomando sobre pobreza mundial, es una mujer de habla rápida, a quien difícilmente se puede seguir el paso, especialmente cuando el tema es matemática.
Su compañera dictando el curso es Abhijit Banerjee hablaba tan despacio que era casi imposible no dedicarse a revisar facebook en sus pausas.
No se asusten: Una de las innovaciones tecnológicas más sofisticadas de estos cursos gratuitos ofrecidos por universidades de élite es también una de las más útiles: Puedes acelerar las clases hasta un factor de 1,5x, des acelerarlas hasta un 0,75x o escucharlas a velocidad natural. Més...

A record number of students have already been accepted on to university courses, official figures show. As of midnight on Wednesday, 385,910 applicants had been accepted by UK universities and colleges - 31,600 more than at the same point last year, a rise of 9%.
The admissions service Ucas said it is the highest number of acceptances ever recorded on A-level results day. The figures come as students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their results, with many also due to learn whether they have won a coveted place at university. More...

Source. France's official council promoting integration has struck a raw nerve by proposing that Muslim headscarves, already banned in the civil service and state-run schools, also be outlawed at the country's universities.
The High Council for Integration, in a confidential report leaked to Le Monde newspaper, said this was needed to counter problems caused by students wearing religious garb and demanding prayer space and special menus at universities.
France's 2004 ban on headscarves in schools and 2010 ban on full face veils in public have alienated many of its five million Muslims. Rioting broke out in a Paris suburb last month after police checked identity papers of a fully veiled woman. More...

By Nicholas Jones Email Nicholas. Up to $3000 on offer for high achievers but getting the message to students can be a struggle, official says. School leavers are being urged to take advantage of competition between universities as one offers up to $3000 cash for those with high marks in NCEA. Applications for many scholarships close as early as this week, and universities say it can be difficult to make students aware of the chance. More...

By Katherine Donnelly. UNIVERSITIES and other third-level colleges face the prospect of having up to 10pc of their state funding withheld if they fail to reach new performance targets. It is part of a revolutionary change to how higher education is funded, which will – for the first time – link how much colleges receive in state grants to how well they perform. The new "stick and carrot" approach will rate colleges under a number of different headings, such as student retention, research and matching graduates to the needs of industry. More...

By Ray Clancy. Australia is the most expensive country for overseas students, with a combined average cost of university fees and living costs totalling more than US$38,000 per year. Despite this, Australia has remained one of the most popular destinations for international students with numbers likely to be further boosted by the continuing fall in the Australian dollar and improved visa processing.
The research by HSBC, which reviewed data on higher education in 13 countries, puts the United States as the second most costly country with average annual costs over US$35,000 and the UK third with $30,000. Graham Heunis, head of retail banking and wealth management for HSBC in Australia, said the strength of the Australian economy and the Australian currency has kept the cost of studying in Australia high relative to other markets. ‘While Australia has continued to enjoy higher economic growth than other western markets over the past five years, this has also led to a higher Australian dollar which has placed a strain on the price competitiveness of our export sectors, including education,’ he explained. More...

By David Evans. My first chair position was in a six-person department at another small college here in Iowa. We had a fairly regular rotating-chair system, and my term came early: I’d been there almost six years and had just been approved for tenure and promotion when the incumbent chair, who was finishing her first year of a three-year term, took another job and departed. I was next in line but had expected to wait another couple of years; I was very young, and had not yet really become a “player” on campus in the areas where real power and influence were exerted. More...

By Ben Yagoda. Each year at around this time, the folks at Beloit College put out the “Mindset List,” a half-serious, half-facetious accounting of what incoming first-year students do and do not know. It is ostensibly designed for professors, but it’s always picked up by news media and Web sites, not only because it’s often funny and eye-opening, but because August is usually a very slow news month. More...

By Jeff Selingo. Most American college students haven’t completed a cross-country road trip, let alone a transcontinental train trek. Such journeys give us not only a greater appreciation for the vast nation we tend to fly over, but also the time to reflect on what we see and experience away from the frenzy of daily life.
Last week, two dozen young entrepreneurs did just that, crossing the United States on a train for 10 days, to discover the country and themselves. Aboard the Millennial Trains Project, each of the twenty-somethings (average age 25) devised a project to benefit others. At stops in Salt Lake City, Omaha, and Chicago, among other places, they spent their days working on the projects and also met with local entrepreneurs and leaders. More...