The time of unprecedented growth for the federal Pell Grant program couldn’t have come at a worse time for Congress. As lawmakers were looking to cut federal spending to address the growing national deficit, record college enrollments, the economic downturn, and expanded Pell Grant awards and eligibility criteria combined to triple the cost of the program over five years.
Articles: Enrollment & Retention
1/25/2012
Once a school like Penn State or Syracuse has gone through the ethical and public relations disaster of a child sexual abuse scandal ... what comes next? How do you fix what’s broken? Can you even think about rebuilding the brand?
Yes ... but it’s tough. It takes character, both for the organization and on a personal level.
1/3/2012
Last November, Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg paid a visit to Harvard for the first time since dropping out of sight in 2004. In his address to students, the social media guru proclaimed that Facebook “is just getting started.” Remarkably, social networking has, in the past five years, forever changed the higher learning landscape. It will profoundly shape the higher ed marketplace in the next decade.
12/23/2011
Public institutions may have lower graduation rates, but in moving students toward graduation, it appears they’re more successful than private institutions, according to a report assessing graduation rates from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. It introduces a new method for predicting an institution’s graduation rate, based on social, economic, and psychological characteristics of incoming students.
12/23/2011
After dropping early admissions programs four years ago, Harvard and Princeton reinstated them this year. They received a large number of applicants, which comes as no surprise, but institutions that never ended their early action programs are experiencing increased numbers, as well.
12/23/2011
The Occupy movement that has swept the nation—and the world—also has a home at many colleges and universities. Long associated with protests, and historically touted as the home of open discourse, American colleges and universities have had a difficult balancing act on their hands: how to promote free speech while maintaining safety on campus.
12/22/2011
Given federal and state regulations, especially now, there are many policies and procedures related to applying for, awarding, and disbursing aid that can’t be avoided. Still, in our travels, we often see aid offices making unnecessary extra work for themselves or students by clinging to outdated procedures or implementing policies for the entire student body because of concerns that impact only a select few.
11/29/2011
Growing numbers of students came to campus this fall, as they have for over half a century. The beginning of school year ritual seems to go on forever, but for the first time, there are signs that, in its present form, it won’t. And it is the oft-ignored college town outside the campus that will be most affected.
11/29/2011
With Latinos now representing one in six U.S. residents, the international competitiveness of the nation will depend on the academic success of Latino students, notes the opening of a recent College Board report on Latino college completion. Although the national average of 25- to 34-year-olds in 2009 who had attained an associate degree or higher was 41 percent, just 19 percent of Latinos had done so.
11/29/2011
Move over LEED, there’s a new certification in town. It’s not just buildings getting a green stamp of approval these days—events are, too. Colleges and universities across the country have begun implementing “certified green events programs” to limit the impact campus events have on the environment.
11/29/2011
A Prospective student attending an open house or career fair, who has just finished the LSAT, or even who has some time on a train commute can apply to Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School on the spot—via smartphone or tablet. Officials there say it’s the first law school in the country facilitating the application process through the use of portable devices.
11/29/2011
Student loan debt has been steadily rising for a number of years and has recently passed the $1 trillion mark, making it more than credit card debt. The issue has had attention all along, but there is more of a focus on it as recent graduates are having a hard time finding jobs that would enable them to repay those loans.
11/29/2011
How many 140-character messages were tweeted today? How many posts have been published in the past 24 hours? How many photos have been posted, and liked, on Facebook since yesterday? Hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
11/29/2011
It’s a simple idea for community colleges that sounds almost archaic: Check the help wanted ads and shape programs around available jobs. In practice, the idea involves new, sophisticated “spidering” and artificial intelligence technologies that can aggregate and analyze online job ads, providing a comprehensive source of information.
11/29/2011
The regional demand for quality nursing professionals was the impetus behind a new partnership between Blinn College (Texas) and the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Nursing. Blinn’s associate’s degree in nursing program is undergoing a curriculum revision to clarify mutually accepted courses, which will allow a smoother transition to the TAMHSC baccalaureate program.
