Do today's employee benefit packages resemble those that colleges and universities offered in the past? Hardly. Wellness benefits have transformed into all kinds of unique offerings, ranging from on-site vegetable gardens to fitness centers. Meanwhile, traditional "do-everything-for-me" benefits have disappeared. Schools now expect employees to take action, change behaviors and make decisions that positively impact […]
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 […]
Student success is the number one goal at Columbia College Chicago. When an increasing number of students were delaying that success because of financial challenges, administrators took action. New this fall were automated payment plans that encourage students and their authorized users—usually parents—to spread out a semester's worth of tuition payments. Using plans from Nelnet […]
Institution leaders may think they understand how students feel about their college experience, but truly gaining insight into student impressions of program efficacy and quality of facilities is an intensive undertaking. When the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business at Elon University was applying for accreditation with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of […]
Educational institutions lead the way in sustainable development and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, says Paul Wessel, executive director of the Green Parking Council. And even though the U.S. Green Building Council stopped LEED-certifying parking structures in 2011, the Green Parking Council is out to prove that garages can still be environmentally friendly. Just recently, a […]
Embezzlement originating from any corner of campus can threaten any college and university. As for the losses, they can be big. Take, for example: Emory University in Atlanta. In July, a former employee received an 18-month prison term for stealing over $300,000. As an administrative assistant in the school of nursing, she misled students into […]
For decades, colleges and universities have used big data to track high-risk students and intervene as needed. Now a growing number of institutions are using data tools to track and analyze another group: successful students. It is a radically different approach that many campus administrators believe will help them understand what makes students successful—developing a […]
Numbers drive action in higher education. Whether they represent SAT scores, marketing leads, submitted applications, admitted students, tuition dollars, GPA, fundraising targets or graduating class size, numbers are used throughout your institution to make decisions and assess success. When you measure what you do, you end up doing what you measure more than anything else. […]
While digital badges may sound like overshared gimmicks from the latest trendy game or social network, they have become serious commodities in the world of college credentials. More institutions now offer digital badges as a form of micro-credential or "subdegree" to students who pass individual courses or certifications, and want to show potential employers what […]
Academia's cyber preparedness (or lack thereof) has received less media attention than that of certain retailers and financial institutions, but nonetheless the cyber risks confronting universities are pervasive and alarming. Consider recent breaches suffered by educational institutions. At the University of Maryland, an outside source gained access to a secure records database that held information […]
