Helen Drinan is nothing if not outspoken. The eighth president of Simmons College (Mass.) is a strong advocate of women's rights, diversity and equal opportunity. Coming from a corporate background where she often had to stand up for herself in a male-dominated environment, Drinan pulls no punches when pointing out higher education's shortcomings in these […]
From cashing in on beer sales at football games to providing community members with a safe way to trash old electronics for a fee, administrators are looking beyond tuition and endowments to make up for budget shortfalls. Typically, there have been three types of alternative revenue sources, says Shandy Husmann, managing director of Huron Consulting […]
Thom Chesney, president of Brookhaven College, often meets donors who have never taken a course at his community college in northern Dallas, nor had children who attended the school. Instead, they have a different type of connection to the college: They simply enjoy walking along the trails crisscrossing the campus. "They give a gift to […]
When Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa published Academically Adrift in 2011, it exposed the shortcomings of undergraduate learning. In their new book, Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates, Arum, a sociology professor at NYU, and Roksa, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, find many recent graduates are ill-prepared to land decent […]
While educators continue debating the use of mobile devices in the classroom, the tide seems to be shifting in favor of a new mobile paradigm as a way to ease students’ transition into the workplace. According to a Marketing Charts study, today’s college student owns an average of seven mobile devices and spends nearly four […]
There exist an endless number of articles, books, blogs, and interviews on the state of higher education (HE) in America. The themes are consistent – fewer resources, fewer students, bloated administrative staff, less affordability, unsustainable student debt, poor graduation rates, unimpressive employability skills and what the heck is a MOOC and why should I care. […]
Colleges and universities are ramping up services for international freshmen and sophomores as administrators increasingly look abroad to further diversify their campuses and to expand enrollment with students who pay full tuition. International students face adjustments in and outside of the classroom—from unanticipated language barriers to stricter standards of academic integrity to joining the campus […]
If you build it, they will come. Your alumni are already Facebooking, tweeting and linking in, in ever-increasing numbers. Colleges and universities are taking advantage of this activity to launch and grow robust social networks of graduates that strengthen alumni engagement, boost volunteerism and stimulate giving. “Over the years we’ve spent so much time and […]
At a time when the gulf between liberals and conservatives seems to be wider than ever, there is one topic about which they agree: the reasons for the rising cost of a college education. Why do colleges and universities keep raising tuition, asks Timothy Noah in The New Republic? Because they can. And Allysia Finley […]
There’s a standard practice in academia that’s highly valued; yet, at many colleges and universities, the policies and procedures surrounding it haven’t changed in decades. Until now. The faculty sabbatical has been around since Harvard University first offered it to its teaching staff in 1880. Since then, sabbaticals have become a rite of passage for […]
