Loan default rates and an expanding focus on student success have made strong student financial literacy efforts a higher ed norm. But as students and their parents continue to grapple with paying for school, money management lessons from colleges are becoming a family affair. "Encouraging students and their families to communicate about financial responsibilities and […]
Who watches online videos today? Maybe a better question is, who doesn't? According to surveys from the Pew Research Center, 63 percent of adults watch videos while 75 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds do it on their smartphone. Video is an engaging, emotional and effective way to communicate and influence. So it was just a […]
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 definition of student success continues to expand beyond retention and graduation rates, its physical presence on many campuses is also beginning to sprawl. Student success centers have been emerging for years, and the trend is expected to continue. For each school considering one, decisions involve how to structure and design the space, as […]
When a school hears from the FBI, the news is not likely to be good. Two years ago, FBI agents informed Maricopa County Community College District administrators that data from the 10-college system in Arizona had been posted on the internet. With a possible data breach underway, the system's website was shut down immediately and […]
Commencement speakers have become another point of financial scrutiny in higher ed, with an annual flurry of students crying foul on both the person selected and fees incurred. Some colleges avoid charges by tapping their own faculty for the task (as University of Chicago has done since 1970). Others pursue prominent speakers willing to donate […]
A predictive analytics system is being used at Georgia State University to identify students who are at risk for dropping out. This robust system tracks every student on 700 triggers, and alerts administrators when a student is in need of one-on-one intervention. "We wanted to get rid of gaps in races, ethnicities and income levels […]
The growing view of higher education as a global commodity has driven many ambitious institutions to deepen their international presence by setting up shop overseas. While still far from common practice, international branch campuses have risen from a worldwide total of 15 in 1995 to 231 in 2015, according to the Cross-Border Education Research Team […]
A pair of draft horses often plows the campus farm at Sterling College. Sterling does have tractors—its agriculture students have to learn how to use all varieties of equipment—but the energy-saving horses are just one step in the Vermont school's extensive and award-winning sustainable dining program. The farm produces about 20 percent of the food […]
Snow College's latest travel policy included new, logical restrictions. For example: Employees would be reimbursed only for for hotel stays on days that matched an event's agenda, and they could no longer expense a first-class airline seat. The Utah college got lots of comments—about three-quarters of them negative—when the regulations were posted for a 30-day […]
