The strategies edtech founders are deploying today to help them stay relevant hint at how higher education at large is changing.

A new law taking effect Jan. 1, enacted as SB 1348, creates the first official Black-Serving Institution designation in the country. The designation will be given to qualifying colleges that vow to take a more aggressive approach to address California's systemic obstacles that have kept Black students at the lowest college-going and graduation rates.

Growth in research and development spending hit a 20-year high in higher ed, according to the latest data. Here the top 10 R&D spenders.

Last October, Brown and three other Providence-based colleges and universities agreed to provide over $177 million in voluntary payments to the city over the course of 20 years. The agreement accounts for the fact that the four non-profit educational institutions do not pay property taxes to Providence.