Education for All? 2-Year Colleges Struggle to Preserve Their Mission

Education for All? 2-Year Colleges Struggle to Preserve Their Mission | Jennifer Gonzalez |
Chronicle of Higher Education | 27 April, 2012

The article examines how U.S. higher education policies focused on increasing the number of students who complete college degree programs and graduate are having an impact on the aims and missions of the community college system. Particular focus is given to the potential for such policies to reduce the amount of remedial courses offered and to limit the enrollment of low-income and minority students.

Unlocking Student Data Could Lead to ‘App Economy’ for Colleges

Unlocking Student Data Could Lead to ‘App Economy’ for Colleges | Nick DeSantis | The Chronicle of Higher Education | April 15, 2012

College campuses are hothouses of data, including course schedules, degree requirements, and grades. But much of the information remains spread out across software systems or locked on university servers. Now a crowd of start-ups has emerged with hopes of prying out those rich data sets to build an app economy for universities—a world of new personalized services that could transform the student experience.

Price of avoiding the market: your freedom

Price of avoiding the market: your freedom | David Matthews | Times Higher Education | 19 April 2012

Devolved governments are constricting autonomy of universities, Hepi says. Universities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland risk having their autonomy reduced to that of further education colleges because the rejection of England’s market approach has come at the cost of increasing government intervention, a report on the impact of devolution on higher education has said.

Go8 tops league tables in site visits

Go8 tops league tables in site visits | Andrew Trounson and Julie Hare |  The Australian Higher Educaton | 18 April, 2012

THE government has produced its own popularity league table from the new My University website in which the top spots are so far dominated by high-status Group of Eight universities in the most populous states.The data, exclusively released to the HES, shows which universities scored the most hits from the 73,000 visitors since the site’s launch on April 3, amounting to 565,00 page views.

College’s Cost Isn’t Due to Jumps in Pay, AAUP Says

College’s Cost Isn’t Due to Jumps in Pay, AAUP Says | Audrey Williams June | Chronicle of Higher Education | 08 April, 2o12

The article discusses a report entitled “A Very Slow Recovery,” by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) that seeks to show that professors’ salaries are not the reason behind increasing costs of college. It examines the idea that professors are overpaid, considering full-time and adjunct professors’ salaries.

Want to know who may not stay the course?

Want to know who may not stay the course? | David Matthews | Times Higher Education | 12 April 2012

Service outlining prospective students’ likelihood of dropping out worries some while Deloitte argues that flagging up students most at risk of quitting will help institutions improve retention strategies A Big Four audit firm is offering universities the chance to profile students by age, social background and nationality to judge how likely they are to drop out of study.

Local pay rates up with the best

Local pay rates up with the best | Julie Hare | The Australian Higher Education | 11 April, 2012

AUSTRALIA’S academics are among the best paid in the world, but they need to move to Canada if they want to maximise their pay packet. Australia is eighth on a list of 28 countries studied for a comparison of academic remuneration and contracts by US higher education expert Philip Altbach and colleagues. His findings are contained in a book Paying the Professoriate published last week.

Scholarly Groups’ Choices Yield Diverging Fortunes

Scholarly Groups’ Choices Yield Diverging Fortunes | Dan Berrett | Chronicle of Higher Education | 1 April, 2012

Will disciplinary societies become the bowling leagues of academe?

Declining participation in those leagues symbolized the larger generational decline of social participation in Bowling Alone, the 2000 best seller by Robert D. Putnam, a Harvard political scientist. Similarly, scholarly groups have long served as hubs of academic life and the embodiments of their disciplines, but they face uncertain and divergent futures.

Some disciplinary associations are struggling

via Scholarly Groups’ Choices Yield Diverging Fortunes – Faculty – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Sector shuts out external consultants in era of austerity

Sector shuts out external consultants in era of austerity | David Matthews | Times Higher Education  | 05 April 2012

Universities have cut back their spending on external consultants and are planning to slash the amount they spend next year by nearly a third, according to analysis by Times Higher Education. But cutbacks at a minority of institutions may mask overall spending increase.

Grads struggle for jobs in science

Grads struggle for jobs in science | Julie Hare & Jill Rowbotham | The Australian Higher Education | 04 April, 2012

JOB prospects for science graduates are among the poorest. Along with creative arts graduates, scientists are least likely to find work in their field of study, a report into graduate outcomes has found. As such, science graduates return to study at a greater rate than any other discipline, both in enrolling in a second undergraduate degree or postgraduate qualification.