Top Higher Education News for Thursday
Lumina

Lumina Foundation is committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025.

October 24, 2024

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TOP STORIES

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The Consultants Are Coming!

Jack Stripling, College Matters

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As colleges and universities across the country confront financial pressures and enrollment declines, heated conversations are underway about what majors and programs must be preserved—and what can be discarded. Jobs are at stake. Options for students are constricting. Even the very idea of what it means to be a university is changing.

 

But colleges aren’t navigating this fraught terrain alone. In many instances, outside consultants are helping cash-strapped colleges cut programs—and taking the heat for it, too.

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Latino Students Face Major Barriers to Higher Ed Access

Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed

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A new survey reveals that Latino students have positive views of higher education and that their top motivations for pursuing college include getting well-paying jobs, working toward more fulfilling careers, and providing better lives for their families.

 

But once these students actually reach college, they face a host of obstacles, including rampant food insecurity.

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It Could Be Well Into Next Year Before Some Student Loan Borrowers Make a Payment

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, The Washington Post

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After court rulings upended several student loan repayment plans and debt forgiveness, the U.S. Department of Education announced earlier this week that payments could be paused for at least six months for millions of borrowers.

 

The department is scrambling to adjust to an injunction, in a lawsuit brought by Republican-led states, that bars the Biden administration from moving forward with the Saving on a Valuable Education program. More than eight million people have enrolled in the program since its launch last fall, and 400,000 have already had their debts wiped away.

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Report: HBCU Humanities Programs Show Resilience Amid National Decline

Angela Dennis, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

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While the number of students earning humanities degrees has steadily dropped nationwide, a new report presents a more hopeful picture for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

 

Humanities degree completions at HBCUs have also declined, but the drop has been more gradual, and numbers have largely stabilized in recent years. The study credits the success of HBCUs in part to their ability to link humanities education to larger societal issues.

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Why Education Is Becoming a Bigger Divide in Politics

Ari Shapiro, Boise State Public Radio

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In the last few election cycles, voters have split along a fault line that didn't used to be a big deal in American politics. It's a new divide that's growing, and we'll find out just how quickly in a couple of weeks when election results come in. 

 

Political reporter Domenico Montanaro explains this new realignment and what it could mean for the 2024 presidential race in this interview. 

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What Community Colleges Can Learn About Starting Their Own Guaranteed Interview Program

Tiffany Thai, New America

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In today’s competitive job market, bridging the gap between education and employment is a challenge many community colleges face. One innovative initiative working to bridge this gap is Northern Virginia Community College’s Guaranteed Interview Program, which connects students directly with regional employers.

 

Launched in November 2020, the effort allows employers to conduct initial screening interviews with current students and alums in specific applied degree and non-credit programs throughout the year.

HUMAN WORK AND LEARNING

Curating Actionable Knowledge Amid Uncertainty in Higher Ed

Holly Zanville, The EvoLLLution

New Survey Says U.S. Teachers Colleges Lag on AI Training. Here Are Four Takeaways

Greg Toppo, The 74

Employers Say They Can’t Find Workers. Maybe They Aren’t Looking in the Right Place.

Yigal Kerszenbaum, RealClearEducation

City of Corpus Christi Supports Del Mar College Workforce Training Programs

Olivia Garrett, Corpus Christi Caller Times

AI Isn’t Likely to Replace Humans at Work, Says Report—But Five Occupations May Soon Feel Its Impact More

Alex Koller, CNBC

Green Colleges: Who’s No. 1 Nine Years in a Row?

Matt Zalaznick, University Business

STUDENT SUPPORTS

Americans Broadly Favor the Support Services That Help Students Succeed

Olivia Cheche, New America

Billings Public Charter School Partners With Minnesota College to Make College Easier

Darrell Ehrlick, North Dakota Monitor

Cayuga Community College Celebrates Success of New Student Support Program

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Encouraging Students to Talk Mental Health

Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed

The Ability of College Students to Cope With Election Stress

Eric Wood, Forbes

Blog: Poverty Gap Impacts College Success

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center

COLLEGE ENROLLMENTS

For the First Time Since the Pandemic, Student Enrollment Increases in State College System

Carrie Jung, WBUR (Massachusetts)

Maine Community College System Sees Record Number of Students

WGME

Is Foreign-Language Study Facing an Enrollment Cliff?

Karin Fischer, Latitudes

Undergraduate Enrollment Is Up This Fall, But the Number of Freshmen Fell Sharply

Eric Hoover, The Chronicle of Higher Education

‘You Have a Place at CUNY’: Schools Chancellor Aviles-Ramos Makes a Plug to NYC High School Seniors

Michael Elsen-Rooney, Chalkbeat New York

Most U.S. Colleges Don't Require an ACT/SAT Score. Which Ohio Schools Are Test-Optional?

Sheridan Hendrix, The Columbus Dispatch

AFFORDABILITY

New Jersey Will Cancel Up to $150K in Student Loans for These Nine jobs

Tina Kelley, NJ Advance Media

How Much Student Loan Debt Does the Average College Graduate Have?

Sarah Wood, U.S. News & World Report

Major Student Loan Company Failed to Process Hundreds of Thousands of Applications

Lasherica Thornton, EdSource

NEW REPORTS AND EVENTS

Tracking the Health of the Humanities at HBCUs

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Webinar: Is There Common Ground in Education Today?

American Enterprise Institute

Equity at the Center: How Federal Policymakers Can Support Diverse Student Populations in CTE Pathways
Through High-Quality Data

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

Virtual Forum: Clear Pathways: From College to Career

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Estimating Peer Effects Among College Students: Evidence From a Field Experiment of One-to-One Pairings in STEM

National Bureau of Economic Research

AI Is Evolving, But Teacher Prep Is Lagging: A First Look at Teacher Preparation Program Responses to AI

Center on Reinventing Public Education

luminafoundation.org
Daily Lumina News is edited by Patricia Brennan.

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