The growing availability of custom and commercial software applications allows colleges and universities to transform classroom laboratory experiences into virtual equivalents that offer advantages over their physical precursors. This change is gradually evolving at higher ed institutions across the nation and the globe. For example, New Mexico State University has made virtual science labs available […]
Administrators, faculty members and campus staff have been ordering all sorts of supplies from Amazon.com for years, but it was only recently that the e-tailing colossus jumped formally into the higher ed and business-to-business procurement market. And some in the procurement world see benefits ahead. “If they are bringing a new level of service and pricing […]
Watching preschoolers play on touchscreen devices makes it clear that the future college students of America are of the connected generation. Unfortunately, I fear today’s teaching methods are ill prepared to embrace this new type of learner. Higher ed must embrace game-like learning just as progressive Silicon Valley companies have, or risk bored, disengaged, unprepared […]
New research finds mental health treatment of students pays off medically and financially. With those students now pressing administrators to increase mental health services, some colleges and universities are expanding their counseling staffs and other services. Increased treatment for students at California's public institutions will be worth about $56 million in decreased dropouts and higher lifetime […]
This FutureShock is the third in a trilogy of commentaries on the for-profit (private sector) higher education industry and the implications of an increasingly complex and skeptical regulatory environment. In this piece we focus on the emergent, some say irreversible, megatrend turning private sector schools, colleges, and universities into nonprofits and vice versa. Consumer activist […]
Almost everybody ranks colleges these days—old stalwarts like U.S. News & World Report, influential upstarts like Washington Monthly and click-baiting websites that measure everything from campus sustainability to most attractive students to coolest mascots. William Destler, president of Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, even found his university named one of the "geekiest" in […]
Alumni. That’s what alumni association magazines should, to a much greater extent, be about. At least they should if we want them to do better at marketing the university. Marketing is not the only purpose of these publications, of course. But the alumni magazine can be a powerful marketing tool that doesn’t conflict with its […]
At The University of Alabama, football weekends rule. So imagine a student who’s got a big date, a tailgate spot and an electronic ticket to the Saturday football game on his campus Action Card—but then loses the card on Friday night. To save the day, the campus card office is open for business on game […]
Eight years ago administrators laying plans for Guttman Community College in New York City set a goal: This school would not be like so many other community colleges with low completion rates. Guttman would make getting students to graduation a primary mission. That approach is proliferating across the community college sector, says Melinda Mechur Karp, assistant […]
In March, North Carolina passed a law that public colleges and universities require individuals to use restrooms that match their birth gender. The controversial “Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act,” which also applies to government buildings, jeopardizes $4.5 billion in federal higher ed funds as it potentially violates Title IX statutes, and runs afoul of […]
