Donald Trump's pick for secretary of education, billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist Elisabeth "Betsy" DeVos, is more of a household name in K12 than higher ed circles. DeVos has worked to promote school choice and voucher programs, including creation of Detroit's charter school system. She sits on the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, whose […]
A greater level of accountability around access and outcomes looms on the horizon for higher ed administrators in 2017 and beyond. Experts across the ideological spectrum predict the federal government and the general public to demand more transparency in the data released about how graduates of specific campus programs fare in the job market. This push could […]
AV has been absorbed by the IT department on many college campuses. But is the situation more like a friendly merger or hostile takeover? The trend started in the mid-2000s, when AV equipment joined the network and control moved to remote software suites. The transition put AV departments in constant communication with the IT teams […]
Open educational resources have grown over the last few years from one-off oddities in single courses to the basis of entire degree programs. Cutting out textbook costs for students tops the list of reasons administrators encourage faculty to develop and adopt these free—or very inexpensive—resources, also known as OER. Other enticements include immediate access for […]
Considering that textbooks can account for 25 percent of a community college student’s degree, some institutions have banded together to develop more open educational resources. A coalition of institutions in Washington recently launched a competency-based online business degree that doesn’t require textbooks. When students pay for the course, they also pay for all of the […]
Over the last several decades, programs in Health Coaching, Health Advocacy, and Nutrition have gone from rare to a significant number of undergraduate and graduate programs of varying lengths, prerequisites, and professional focus. Duke University’s Integrative Medicine offers an Integrative Health Coach Professional Training Program, which features a Foundation Course, focusing on core competencies […]
As a conservative political strategy, "starving the beast" means to deprive an entity of funding to force it to reduce spending. Steve Mims' new film, "Starving the Beast," documents a political and philosophical shift that seeks to reframe public higher education—not as a public good for society, but as a "value proposition" to be borne by […]
A retired nursing professor traveled to India to compile a how-to book for the country’s nurses. A one-time professor of religion took up digital photography. A former drama school dean helped a local theater company stay afloat. Janette Brown, assistant vice provost at the University of Southern California, has seen the phenomenon often: faculty members finding […]
It may be time to rethink some of our established models of higher education. Let’s consider two classic paradigms. By most definitions, liberal arts education refers to those college studies related to areas such as literature, languages, philosophy, humanities, history, mathematics, psychology and science. These instructional elements are among the most time-honored part of a […]
From construction workers and machinists to occupational therapists and fire fighters, skilled laborers are in high demand. And shortages of employees like these are making it difficult for companies to fill jobs. In a July 2016 survey, the National Association for Business Economics found that 31 percent of its members experienced labor shortages; and the […]
