How many databases does your campus administer in the broad area of student support? American University uses more than 36 databases for different student-related administrative and learning management functions. Each data system was designed to serve the professional needs of discrete administrative units and is maintained and updated as needed. For the most part, these […]

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 […]

When leaders at Brigham Young University-Idaho searched for a student success solution in 2012, they could not find an end-to-end system that encompassed every step of the student lifecycle. In 2013, BYU-Idaho partnered with Excelsoft, a technology solutions provider, to custom-design a comprehensive product for the institution’s 44,844 students. “We had the manager from each […]

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 […]