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: […]
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 […]
In San Antonio, Texas, men's basketball teams from two higher ed institutions will soon play for a national title to conclude the "March Madness" tournament. The NCAA Division I championship will air in prime time on national television, with hundreds of media members on hand to chronicle the game. Just over a week earlier and […]
Students used to trek across campus to reach resources such as counseling, health services and study areas—or to simply pick up packages in the mail room. They had to leave campus altogether to find specialty services such as dry cleaning and dog grooming. And then, of course, there were the endless trips to the basement […]
In a year defined by on-campus and national controversy, higher ed institutions worked to become more nimble. Here, we reflect on the major events in 2017 that will continue to shape the higher ed landscape in 2018 and beyond. Federal action and guidance President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress brought change and a new […]
There's no question that recent graduates are leaving college with more student loan debt. More students are taking out loans and they're borrowing larger amounts. But apocryphal stories about students owing $100,000 or more coming out of college don't represent the reality for most borrowers. In 2015, roughly two-thirds of student loan balances were $25,000 […]
The Lumina Foundation has been pursuing the goal of recognizing and accepting for-credit microcredentials and learning experiences for several years, through their Connecting Credentials effort and the proposed framework they launched back in 2015 (http://connectingcredentials.org/). This framework seeks to define an architecture wherein competencies can be defined in structured sets that can lead to microcredentials that […]
When the finance team at Wofford College in South Carolina wanted to show it could support a slightly higher than average tuition increase, advanced financial software was on hand to make the case to the board of trustees. “We loaded historical sticker prices for Wofford and our peers into the software and then made a […]
Given the 16 years of continuous military activity following 9/11, it is not surprising that a large number of returning veterans are looking forward to the next step in their lives. As a nation, we should always remember their individual and collective sacrifice and courage. Increasingly, higher education is taking a larger role in providing […]
More than half of students at Indiana University’s seven campuses started the fall semester with at least one e-textbook loaded directly into their learning management system account—at about a quarter of the cost of a new print edition. And at the University of California, Davis, students in hundreds of courses use e-textbooks and take interactive, […]
