International
Skills mismatch threatens economic growth – World Bank | The East African region risks missing its long-term economic growth targets due to a widening disconnect between labour market skills needs and the graduates of higher education institutions, a World Bank report has warned.
‘World-class universities’ – The accountability gap | It is interesting to see the ‘world-class university’ wrestling with some of the tensions that exist when they try to justify themselves on anything more than their own excellence. The original model proposed by Jamil Salmi a decade ago was valued for its ability to bring prestige to the host country through its research excellence and talent attraction rather than being valued for its wider public benefits.
Which countries fund HE at a more regional level? | According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s latest Education at a Glance report, funding for tertiary education is on the whole much more centralised than for schools.
U.S. National
Tax Benefits at Risk for Colleges, Student Borrowers | Republican tax reform plan would tax large endowments and limit or kill key deductions, including one for student loan interest and another for graduate students.
U.S. States
Governor Brown cracks the whip on her education cabinet | The day Governor Kate Brown forced out the head of the Oregon Department of Education, she sent a letter to the five state education leaders calling for an aggressive campaign to improve state schools.
Outcome-based funding OK’d for Arkansas colleges | Come July, Arkansas will fund its public colleges and universities using a new method, one that focuses on students progressing and completing certificate and degree programs.
Free Community College Picks Up Steam | More young people are being exposed to the free community college movement than ever before, but some experts worry that tuition-free programs may not be sustainable or may create unintended consequences.
California’s higher education: From American dream to dilemma | From my perspective as a social historian who started high school in Southern California in 1961 and then entered graduate school at the University of California Berkeley in 1969, the story of higher education in California over the past 60 years has been a fantastic voyage – albeit with detours and delays.
Institutional
Challenges Remain for Latino College Presidents | Dr. Beatriz T. Espinoza had no idea of the challenges that awaited her shortly after she took over as president of Coastal Bend College, a community college located in a rural part of South Texas.
Understanding Why Some Colleges Create Economic Mobility | New coalition of colleges, researchers and higher ed groups aims to understand why and how some institutions excel at enrolling and graduating underprivileged students (and others don’t).
Plan to Phase Out 2 Dozen Programs Stuns Faculty at Wisconsin-Superior | Faculty members at the University of Wisconsin at Superior said they were “blindsided” by this week’s announcement that the university was suspending more than two dozen academic programs, including majors in political science, sociology, and theater.
IT Effectiveness Found Lacking | Many campus investments in information technology aren’t necessarily paying off, according to the National Survey of Computing, eLearning and Information Technology. The survey of IT leaders, conducted by the Campus Computing Project, found that many see only modest benefits from IT investments, and generally low satisfaction with many IT services on campus.
University of Nebraska to add programs to improve graduation, retention rates | The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s one-year retention rate, or the amount of first-year students who return the following fall semester, is the lowest in the Big Ten. The university’s retention rate for the 2016 freshman class was 82.8 percent, according to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.
Posted November 22, 2017.