Maintaining frequent contact with student loan borrowers is a challenge at any institution, regardless of size. At the 725-student Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, Okla., the three-year cohort default rate was commonly between 25 and 27 percent. “Our rate was so high because we had no easy way to communicate electronically with […]
Technology continues to change the way learning and assessment are conducted in higher education. As the methods of learning are digitized, assessment must follow—but, not surprisingly, faculty using new testing methods are experiencing obstacles that don’t exist in the physical classroom. To preview the upcoming UBTech Conference session, “Prove yourself: Academic integrity in MOOCs and […]
By now, big data and learning analytics are familiar buzz words for anyone working in higher education. Thanks to student information systems (SIS) like Banner and Blackboard, universities collect an ever increasing volume of data about campus life and student performance. But knowing what data to collect and leveraging it for better outcomes is not […]
As violent crime has steadily increased on college campuses in the last three decades, institutional leaders have reacted by creating more stringent policies to restrict visitors from entering their academic, administrative and residential buildings. Along with technology—including surveillance cameras, building access systems and even ID badges with proximity chips that could allow officials to track […]
Around 4,000 boxes of paper records fill the shelves in Central New Mexico Community College’s storage area. And many of these boxes—those containing employee personnel files, for example—must remain in storage for up to 55 years before they can be destroyed. It’s a big reason why CNMCC has embraced electronic records management, says Rebecca Turner, […]
President Obama recently established a task force to protect students from sexual assault. According to a White House Memorandum of January 22, 2014, one in five female students is a survivor of attempted or actual sexual assault that occurred while in college. The unfortunate and heartbreaking situation with University of Missouri swimmer, Sasha Menu Courey, […]
Fewer and fewer institutions are meeting students’ financial need. Per The College Board’s “Trends in College Pricing 2013,” the average net tuition and fee price for students attending four-year public institutions increased by an estimated $1,180 (in 2013 dollars) between 2009-10 and 2013-14. At private four-year institutions, average net tuition and fee price increased between […]
When it became clear that the scientific equipment in hundreds of labs across the University of Pittsburgh campus was not being maintained effectively, professionals in the university procurement department began looking for a new provider to do the job. The university had long relied on a purchasing cooperative to secure favorable contracts with vendors for […]
College of DuPage, located just west of Chicago, is one of the largest community colleges in the United States, and it is the largest community college in the Midwest. The institution serves more than 30,000 students and offers a variety of courses, with more than 80 percent of its classes delivered face-to-face. COD also employs […]
A pervasive "because we have to" approach to higher education accreditation is contributing to the growing crisis of confidence in the value of college and the degrees it bestows. When faculty and higher education leaders declare "we complied," it's probably not good enough. This is evident in a new Gallup/Lumina Foundation poll, which reveals a […]
