What Really Works: A Review of Student Success Initiatives - Civitas Learning

The landscape in higher ed is changing. Today more than ever before, institutions are serving increasingly diverse students, each with unique needs — and doing it with less money. With limited resources and growing accountability pressures from high-level stakeholders, colleges and universities are grappling with the challenge of knowing what's working for which students.

https://go.civitaslearning.com/clarity

Colleges Face Growing International Student-Visa Issues - ALIA WONG, the Atlantic

Amid tightening immigration restrictions, higher-education institutions find themselves swamped with paperwork. After steadily climbing for more than a decade, the number of new international students enrolled at U.S. colleges has declined in recent years. According to survey data collected by the Institute of International Education during the 2016–17 school year, enrollment of these students fell by 3 percent from the previous year. Results from the institute’s 2017–18 survey, the most recent data available, show that it fell again—this time by close to 7 percent.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/09/how-harvard-and-other-colleges-grapple-student-visa-problems/597409/

We Desperately Need a Merger between Education and Work - Brandon Busteed, Scientific American

School currently focuses too exclusively on knowledge and not enough on skills.  There’s a pile of evidence about the most effective “education.” Summarized, it points to relationship-rich and work-integrated learning experiences. The most important aspects include working on long-term projects that take a semester or more to complete and having a job or internship where you can apply what you are learning in the classroom. Both experiences double the odds that graduates will be engaged and successful in their work later. And graduates who had an internship during college are twice as likely to have a good job waiting for them upon graduation, too.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/we-desperately-need-a-merger-between-education-and-work/

IBM Study: The Skills Gap is Not a Myth, But Can Be Addressed with Real Solutions - Yahoo Finance

In the next three years, as many as 120 million workers in the world's 12 largest economies may need to be retrained or reskilled as a result of AI and intelligent automation, according to a new IBM (NYSE: IBM) Institute for Business Value (IBV) study. In addition, only 41 percent of CEOs surveyed say that they have the people, skills and resources required to execute their business strategies. The study, which includes input from more than 5,670 global executives in 48 countries, points to compounding challenges that require a fundamental shift in how companies meet and manage changing workforce needs throughout all levels of the enterprise.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-study-skills-gap-not-121500889.html

Success at Scale: The growth of large-scale online programs - Stephen G. Pelletier, Unbound

In an era when many colleges and universities struggle to meet their enrollment targets, a few institutions have leapfrogged over that calculus by adding large online programs that quickly enroll hundreds—or sometimes thousands—of new students. That kind of success warrants a closer look.  [ed note: This is an especially important and under-reported movement in higher education!]
https://unbound.upcea.edu/leadership-strategy/credentialing/success-at-scale-the-growth-of-large-scale-online-programs/

The most cost-effective ways to increase college graduation rates - Lauren Bauer, Brookings

In “Policies and Payoffs to Addressing America’s College Graduation Deficit,” Christopher Avery, Jessica Howell, Matea Pender, and Bruce Sacerdote perform a timely, relevant, and illuminating cost-benefit analysis among competing proposals to increase college-going and completion. In their analysis they are clear about the question and the goal: what is the most efficient way to increase graduation rates at public four-year institutions? The short answer is: raising per-pupil instructional spending at public institutions. Relevant to current policy debates, providing free community college does not have the downstream effect of raising BA graduation rates.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/09/05/the-most-cost-effective-ways-to-increase-college-graduation-rates/

Moody Report: 'Hypercompetitive' higher ed market will limit revenue growth - Hallie Busta, Education Dive

A "hypercompetitive" market for higher education along with a continued focus on affordability will constrain tuition revenue in the coming year even as state funding stabilizes, Moody's analysts wrote in a report released this week. Low-to-negative net tuition revenue growth is likely for many regional public and private colleges, which will spur continued cost containment that pushes them to streamline programs and even merge, collaborate or close. While potential federal and state policy changes around student aid are the "greatest uncertainty" for higher ed, programs such as free college or loan forgiveness would "take several years to devise and implement," the analysts wrote.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/report-hypercompetitive-higher-ed-market-will-limit-revenue-growth/560924/

5 issues college leaders will confront this year - Hallie Busta, Education Dive

Enrollment, finances, immigration, free speech. Many of the issues expected at the top of college presidents' work lists are carryovers from last year, with a few new wrinkles. Higher ed watched this summer as one public system reacted to drastic cuts in state funding. And college leaders raised yet more flags that the current political climate is threatening the supply of international students. Meanwhile, issues around Title IX are likely to heat up again with the expected release of new regulations this fall. "It's in many ways more of the same as well as a bunch of new complications," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of government and public affairs at the American Council on Education (ACE).
https://www.educationdive.com/news/5-issues-college-leaders-will-confront-this-year/562057/

Seventeen Questions Every College Should Be Asking - Ben Sasse, US Senator/former college president, the Atlantic

Here’s the problem: Higher education is in the middle of multiple, massive disruptions—and it isn’t clear that the leaders of the sector grasp the magnitude of the waves of change breaking on their ivy-covered gates. As just one example, it is decreasingly clear what purpose a four-year degree should serve when technology is changing the nature of work. These tidal economic and cultural changes should be prompting serious soul-searching in every board and faculty meeting, but most universities are deliberating with the urgency of 1951 becoming 1952.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/17-questions-every-college-should-be-asking/597310/

7 Things You Should Know About Digital Badges - EDUCAUSE

Digital badges are validated indicators of skills or competencies, often representing the completion of a microcredential. Badges typically represent competencies not shown on a transcript, including learning from internships, volunteer work, and other co-curricular activities. Increasingly, badges conform to the Open Badges standard, and many are stackable, meaning that they can be credited toward an advanced badge, a certificate, or a degree.
https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/7/7-things-you-should-know-about-digital-badges

With badges, colleges take a hard look at teaching soft skills - Shailaja Neelakantan, Education Dive

Employer demand for new hires with skills like critical thinking and communication has pushed colleges to find ways to show that students have those abilities.  Microcredentials are a trend du jour in U.S. higher education, and while tech-related ones are still the most popular, those pertaining to so-called "soft" skills — such as initiative, oral communication, resilience, empathy and critical thinking — form a considerable share of the offerings. That's at least in part because multiple recent studies cite company executives lamenting the lack of such skills in the recent college graduates they hire. Many colleges around the country have begun to offer soft skills badges, either as new courses or by embedding them into existing curricula.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/with-badges-colleges-take-a-hard-look-at-teaching-soft-skills/559657/

Prison classrooms in Illinois open doors to graduate degrees - Edith Brady-Lunny, WGLT

The state operates of a network of more than 40 facilities, including 24 correctional centers. A collage of basic and advanced adult education programs, undergraduate and vocational training opportunities are offered. Six facilities offer post-secondary education toward a bachelor’s degree or higher. Stateville, with its four programs, has the most post-secondary offerings through its relationships with North Park, Northwestern, Northeastern and DePaul universities, according to IDOC spokesperson Naomi Puzzello.

https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-02-22/prison-classrooms-in-illinois-open-doors-to-graduate-degrees