Each year, the market for tenure-eligible faculty positions becomes more and more competitive, and a greater number of newly minted Ph.D. graduates struggle to find a job. The U.S. annually produces about 70,000 new doctoral graduates, representing a significant investment of time and money by both the students and their universities. Considering that cost, and […]
Experts in higher education administration and management predict that 2015 will bring intense and sometimes surprising governance, financial and legal challenges to the sea of potential worries for university leaders. A few critical issues that will bubble to the surface involve financial health, academic performance, student wellness and continuity in leadership. Creating financial sustainability Answering […]
What college students are learning—and how—has become a mainstream talking point across the political spectrum. Much of this talk concerns dollars and cents—namely, cost and payoff. As a result, 2015 may be a year in which many institutions do a gut-check of their own value propositions, as pressure to increase affordability—and return on investment—pervades all […]
More transfer students will now have the chance to obtain an associate degree—with-out extra administrative burden—thanks to a Lumina Foundation grant that National Student Clearinghouse received to provide an automated solution for exchanging reverse transfer student data. With this technology (currently in phase-one development in Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin), four-year schools will send academic data […]
Helen Drinan is nothing if not outspoken. The eighth president of Simmons College (Mass.) is a strong advocate of women's rights, diversity and equal opportunity. Coming from a corporate background where she often had to stand up for herself in a male-dominated environment, Drinan pulls no punches when pointing out higher education's shortcomings in these […]
From cashing in on beer sales at football games to providing community members with a safe way to trash old electronics for a fee, administrators are looking beyond tuition and endowments to make up for budget shortfalls. Typically, there have been three types of alternative revenue sources, says Shandy Husmann, managing director of Huron Consulting […]
There exist an endless number of articles, books, blogs, and interviews on the state of higher education (HE) in America. The themes are consistent – fewer resources, fewer students, bloated administrative staff, less affordability, unsustainable student debt, poor graduation rates, unimpressive employability skills and what the heck is a MOOC and why should I care. […]
There’s a standard practice in academia that’s highly valued; yet, at many colleges and universities, the policies and procedures surrounding it haven’t changed in decades. Until now. The faculty sabbatical has been around since Harvard University first offered it to its teaching staff in 1880. Since then, sabbaticals have become a rite of passage for […]
Georgetown University officials had a bit of an epiphany recently about the impact of their noncredit courses. While the offerings had been around since the 1990s, administrators hadn’t realized the big benefits they could bring to the institution. “What started as fairly standard, adult-education, personal-interest type of courses has evolved into a major part of […]
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 […]
