Standardized tests, once thought to be the best way to compare students from diverse backgrounds, are criticized as being biased and inconclusive. A small but growing number of colleges have made such testing optional for applicants. Does a test-optional policy result in a more diverse student body or improve attainment and retention rates? Measuring Success: […]
Measuring faculty effectiveness has never been a perfect science—and it has always held potential for contention among instructors and administrators. Today, tighter budgets, greater demands in terms of student outcomes and service responsibilities, and a push for hard data increase the pressure to develop fair and accurate evaluation systems. The types of information collected on […]
It’s no secret that insufficient cybersecurity is a concern on the minds of many in higher education. From IT support staff to upper-level administration, everyone wants to protect student data from the hackers who hope to pilfer it. In the March UB “On Topic Q&A,” security and risk consultant Joanne Martin indicated that students and […]
U.S. higher education was dealt a serious blow last fall. The expansion of international education that has been a critical financial stimulus for American colleges and universities has experienced an alarming setback. International education in the forms of U.S. students studying abroad and U.S. institutions enrolling students from other countries has been an important area […]
How you go to college matters more than where you go to college, says Bentley University President Gloria Cordes Larson. In her book Prepared U (2017 Jossey-Bass), Larson says institutions that focus on professional studies do a fine job preparing students for a job after college. But they often fall short on building “lifelong learning […]
From 2007 to 2016, higher ed campuses grew by more than 10 percent in building space, outpacing the 8 percent growth in enrollment during the same period, according to the most recent "State of Facilities in Higher Education" report from Sightlines. It is the fourth consecutive year of construction outpacing enrollment growth. Much of this […]
Editor's Note: This is part 2 of a 3-part series on b-school survival. Read Part 1. Applications to full-time, two-year MBA programs in the U.S. have been down since 2014, and this past fall, 64 percent of programs reported declines, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council's "Application Trends Survey Report 2017." To counter that, […]
Despite growth in the number of graduate degrees conferred, students have lacked vital information on the economic value of an advanced degree. A recent American Enterprise Institute report uses new data from Colorado, Florida and Texas to show that future earnings depend on the field of study. The highest-paid graduates earned master’s degrees in fields […]
College admissions teams now go beyond zip codes and SAT scores to micromatch students who are most likely to apply to, enroll in and succeed at their institutions. In this new era, administrators consider everything from a student's interests and non-school activities to what they like on Facebook and how long they spent on the […]
Editor’s Note: University Business welcomes the insights and opinions of educators and administrators on all topics. If you would like to contribute a guest column, please contact Tim Goral at [email protected]. Joanne Martin was a witness to and participant in the development of what we know now as the internet. As the former chief information security […]