Clearinghouse
says enrollment is down again
College enrollment has declined by more than 1 percent for three
consecutive years, according to newly released data from the
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The drop of 1.3 percent is
slower than that of the previous two years, according to the
report, but still reflects a loss of almost 265,000 students. Most of
the decline is among adult students, many of whom have joined the workforce
as the economy rebounds.
Inside Higher Ed, Dec. 11, 2014
How ‘The
Colbert Report’ has given a ‘bump’ to academic guests
While in character as a pompous and self-aggrandizing TV host, Stephen
Colbert has invited a steady stream of academics to his show, The
Colbert Report, to scold and ridicule them. He called Leon Botstein,
an author, symphony conductor, and longtime college president, "an
intellectual" and a "smarty pants." He grilled Stephen
Prothero, a religious-studies professor, on "what’s the best
religion." And he criticized Jason Bond, a biology professor, for
naming a spider after Neil Young and not Stephen Colbert. ... In fact,
the show has become an improbable symbol of achievement for no small number
of academics, some of whom have seen a rise in book sales and influence
that the host himself calls "the Colbert bump."
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Dec. 10, 2014
Don’t let STEM
jobs in state go unfilled
Washington state is actually doing pretty well in producing family-wage
jobs in technology fields. The Boston Consulting Group, in its recent
report, “Opportunity For All: Investing in Washington State's STEM
Education Pipeline,” finds that the state has one of the highest proportions
of science, technology, engineering and math jobs in the nation, half of
which are in computer science. The difficulty, it says, comes in
filling those jobs. Under current trends, only 9 of 100 children born in
the state will end up in STEM-related jobs in the state, jobs that BCG
estimates number around 25,000 now and which could double by
2017. Jobs not won by state residents are instead filled by
out-of-state workers, or — worse yet — the jobs themselves could be sent
out of state.
Everett Herald, Dec. 10, 2014
Students praise
male professors
College students' assessments of their instructors' teaching ability is
linked to whether they think those instructors are male or
female, according to new research from North Carolina State
University. In the study, students in an online course gave
better evaluations to the instructors they thought were male,
even though the two instructors — one male and one female — had switched their
identities. The research is based on a small pilot study of one class.
Inside Higher Ed, Dec. 10, 2014
Many colleges
fail to report deals with student-aid contractors
A "significant number" of colleges aren’t notifying the Education
Department when they contract with outside servicers to administer federal
student aid, a lapse that’s made it difficult for regulators to determine
whether the contractors are following federal laws, the agency
says. Colleges pay third-party servicers millions of dollars each year
to process student-aid applications, perform needs analyses, and disburse
aid, among other functions. The institutions are required to notify the
department when they enter into a servicing contract or modify or cancel
one. It’s unclear why many colleges aren’t complying with the rules,
especially because doing so is in their best interest. If the department
knows that a college is working with a servicer, it can hold the company
jointly liable for any violations it commits.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Dec. 10, 2014
Why getting
into (and finishing) college can be harder for poorer students
When it comes to who gets into and graduates from college, you probably
shouldn’t outright disregard grades and SAT scores — but a student’s
financial situation can be a troublingly valuable indicator of their
chances. While more than 80 percent of high-income students enrolled
in college in 2012, only about half of low-income students did the same, according
to the National Center for Education Statistics. And among those that did
make it on campus, more than half of the wealthier students graduated,
dwarfing the nine percent of low-income ones who managed to do the same,
economists Martha Bailey and Susan Dynarski of the University of Michigan
found.
The Atlantic, Dec. 10, 2014
|
|