International
Professional service staff feel ‘undervalued’, study suggest | Professional support staff’s crucial role in improving student outcomes is often overlooked by senior management, a study claims.
University rankings ignore teaching | Over the past decade, the major and unhelpful intrusion into both the national and the international worlds of higher education has been the advent of university rankings.
Higher education widens the gap between rich and poor | Transforming the higher education system in China from an elite to a mass system has increased access to junior colleges and universities and produced around seven million college graduates a year in the last few years who are looking for jobs in the labour market. Graduate unemployment, a skills mismatch and unmet expectations are causing growing social concerns in the country.
Ethnic minority graduates’ employment prospects worsen – study | An analysis of graduate outcomes conducted by the Higher Education Funding Council for England found that while 69.2 per cent of students who finished their courses in 2008-09 were in so-called professional jobs three and a half years later, this had decreased to 68.9 per cent for the class of 2010-11.
Professor Jonathan Jansen’s roadmap to saving South Africa’s higher education system | The fact that politicians, and not university councils, will be making announcements on fee increases along with the fact that the Fees Commission is managed by a panel of judges, and not academics who have a vested interest in the crisis, remains a sore point for Jansen.
SA universities in financial crisis: DA | At least 16 out of 26 South African universities are facing a financial crisis, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. A reply to a DA parliamentary question has revealed the extent of the financial crisis faced by university’s across the country.
South African academics warn of universities on the brink | More than 1,200 South African academics are warning that the country’s university system is at a tipping point as a result of chronic underfunding.
U.S. National
College Selectivity and Income | Graduates of the most selective institutions earn more — even when controlling for factors that earlier made some doubt such findings — but maybe not as much more as many think.
Taking the measure of faculty diversity | Nearly a half-century after Title IX and affirmative action policies promised to transform the demographic profile of the American faculty, how far has American higher education progressed toward the goal of diversification? ((TIAA Institute, 18 pages)
The Double Standard of Black Faculty in Academia | For decades, there has been what was considered to be an impalpable barricade encrusting the halls of academia from the embrace of Black scholars.
ACT Scores Drop as More Take Test | Average ACT scores are down this year. ACT officials attribute the drop to the increasing percentage of high school seniors who have taken the test.
Decision Time | The key to graduating in four years (at least in the minds of many parents) is picking a major early and sticking with it. But a new report suggests students who change their major as late as senior year are more likely to graduate from college than students who settle on one the second they set foot on campus.
UVA Sociologist Seeks Reasons Behind Gaps in Higher Ed Outcomes | Growing up on a farm in a socialist country – the former Yugoslavia – has given University of Virginia sociologist Josipa Roksa an unusual perspective on higher education in the U.S.
U.S. States
Governor’s Radio Column: Higher Ed Funding | As another school year begins, many recent high school graduates are gearing up for their first semester of college. It’s an exciting time for our students as they explore their academic passions and lay the foundations for a promising career path.
Connecticut graduation rates show highs, lows of higher education | In Connecticut, graduation rates are high for the most part. Most major universities sport a rate over 50 percent, according to data from the Department of Education.
Adjust N.J.’s programs to help nation meet challenges of college access, affordability | After a state hearing this month on its massive student loan program, legislators are working on some improvements, such as forgiving a loan if the student borrower dies. That’s compassionate and doable.
A solution as obvious as it is rare: Making high school graduates ready for college | A few states have started intervening in high school to help students avoid remediation.
Institutional
The real crisis at U-Va. | But that goes against the aim of Thomas Jefferson: to provide Virginians with an excellent education at a public university so they can serve their communities. If there is any “existential crisis” at the University of Virginia, this is it.
Awards for Campuswide Assessment | Ten colleges earn national award for meaningful, cross-campus efforts to track student learning and use results to improve classroom practices.
Conquering the Freshman Fear of Failure | Although it’s been a long time, I vividly recall my reaction when I learned that I had been admitted to Amherst College: The admissions office must have made a terrible mistake.
What It’s Like to Be Interim President — Again | The current interim leaders of Baylor, Cornell, and Temple are all in their second go-round in that job on their campuses. Here’s a look at some of the challenges they face.
NLRB: Graduate Students at Private Universities May Unionize | Federal labor board overturns ruling that denied collective bargaining rights. On many campuses, grad students vow to organize. Many higher ed leaders and Republicans in Congress criticize ruling.
Harvey Mudd College took on gender bias and now more than half its computer-science majors are women | Harvey Mudd College, in Claremont, California, has been an outlier in producing female programmers for a decade. This year, for the first time, more women than men graduated with a degree in computer science.
Bard’s Big Cash Crunch | A ratings agency’s downgrade of Bard College has raised anew longstanding questions about the small private college’s business strategies, with the spotlight falling on cash concerns at an institution known for prioritizing idealism and expansion over conservative financial models and endowment building.