A series of initiatives championed by Gov. Bill Haslam in Tennessee—home of the Tennessee Promise free community college initiative—promotes higher education to learners of all ages. The Reconnect + Complete initiative for degree completion aims for an elusive demographic: non-traditional students, many with families and careers, whose college experiences were cut short by illness, financial […]
Oregon’s 17 community colleges expect a jump in fall 2016 enrollment, when the first group of eligible students takes advantage of the state’s new free tuition plan created this summer. With it’s Oregon Promise program, the state joined Tennessee and the City Colleges of Chicago in a movement that some believe will spread as states […]
Community college students who take out the smallest loans default at the highest rates, and many borrowers who get into trouble make no effort to fix their problems. Those are two findings in a new report, “A Closer Look at the Trillion,” which calls for institutional and federal policy changes to help students and community […]
One of the more demanding jobs in higher ed belongs to the provost—the chief academic officer. With ever-widening fields of responsibility, the position often consists largely of on-the-job training. James Martin and James Samels, authors of UB’s online “Future Shock” column, expect their new book will help change that. The Provost’s Handbook: The Role of […]
Community colleges have achieved the goal of providing broader and cheaper access to higher education. Now, experts and administrators say, the focus must turn more aggressively toward student success and completion.
Colleges and universities are under intense pressure to maintain enrollment, increase student retention and ensure student success. Predictive analytics can play a crucial role in these efforts at institutions of any size, by providing actionable data that can drive more effective strategic decision-making. In this web seminar, originally broadcast on May 5, 2015, an executive […]
As director of the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, Thomas Bailey is the nation’s preeminent scholar of community colleges. After recognizing that myriad reform efforts directed at community colleges showed little evidence of improved outcomes, he and his CCRC colleagues, Shanna Smith Jaggars and Davis Jenkins, set out to learn why […]
A family's willingness to pay for a college education relies heavily on an institution's ability to articulate return on investment. Discounting tuition through scholarships and other financial aid is the most common approach to increasing a college's perceived value, as these strategies reduce the net cost to the family. Many efforts are being implemented to […]
Online learning, specifically MOOCs, has inspired many doomsday forecasts regarding the fate of traditional higher education—which, of course, has yet to collapse. But the predicted death of MOOCs—due to erratic completion rates, lack of formal student support and concerns about the financial returns for institutions—hasn’t come true either. In an effort to add quantifiable worth […]
As the NBA season comes to a close, we are reminded of 10 year old Lebron James Jr., son of all-star Lebron James. Junior’s basketball skills have already garnered NCAA attention which led to Lebron James Sr. declaring his son “already got some offers from colleges” and that “it should be a violation. You shouldn’t […]
