Since 2000, the net price of college has increased while real family income has stagnated. As a result, most students and their families have fewer resources but face higher out-of-pocket costs to attend college, with some making difficult trade-offs between paying for college or meeting their basic needs. Recent estimates indicate that approximately half of […]

Colleges and universities are witnessing a growing number of  transgender students—and faculty—struggling to find their way. The term describes any gender identity that does not fit the male and female binary. While some institutions promote trans-inclusive policies and practices, others have not kept pace. For example, students who transition while in college may face a […]

The number of higher ed institutions rethinking how they screen and accept new students continues to grow. In recent months, Stanford, Princeton and Brown universities announced that they would make SAT and ACT scores optional in the admissions process. Since 2005, more than 1,000 accredited colleges and universities have made the scores optional—or have ignored […]

There are times when we could all use a fresh start. Scott Cowen was given that opportunity in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as the then-president of Tulane University in New Orleans. The tragedy led to an institutional soul-searching that would result in a “rebirth” of the university with a new focus on […]

A dramatic gap in wages exists between Americans with college degrees and those without them. African-American and Latino students enroll in and graduate from college at considerably lower rates than do white and Asian students, even as they represent a larger share of the nation’s students. One strategy to address this challenge has been to […]

Once meant to supplement full-time and tenured faculty, adjunct faculty were often viewed as “the others.” But times and economics have changed and this contingent force has become the majority of faculty in American higher education. One result of this shift is a new push to unionize adjunct professors for better pay, benefits and working […]

The journey to a degree these days has many types of passengers, from full-time enrollees, to transfer students, to those who stop out for a variety of reasons only to re-enroll at a later date. More than half of bachelor’s degree recipients attend more than one post-secondary institution, and two-thirds of community college students are […]

Governors State University in Illinois opened in the 1970s as one of a handful of two-year “upper division” schools for students finishing their degrees. It quickly proved unsustainable as far as attracting students and providing a complete education experience. In Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation (2018, Stylus Publishers), the university’s president, Elaine Maimon, discusses […]