Is higher-ed door too easy to open?

London’s Metropolitan University is taking legal action after losing its right to admit non-EU students, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The case has pitted efforts to tighten immigration against a lucrative international student industry. With an intake drawn from more than 150 countries at last count, London’s Metropolitan University has long been a magnet for overseas students attracted not only by the world-class reputation of Britain’s higher-education system but the prospect of going to school in one of the world’s most multicultural cities. Thousands of students now face deportation after the UK Border Agency (UKBA) found that more than a quarter of a sample of students studying at the university did not even have permission to stay in the country. Meanwhile, Metropolitan University, which enrolls 30,000 young people, including some of the UK’s poorest, has vowed to defend its reputation…

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Congress must reform immigration laws that send top STEM graduates to China

Jonas Korlach left Cornell with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, a patent on technology that effectively reads the entire human genome, and an idea that spawned a company now employing 285 people and generating more than $30 million in revenue per year, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Yet because of American immigration laws, Dr. Jonas would have been kicked out of the United States, along with his invention, the jobs he created, and the revenue his company generates, had a US Congresswoman – Rep. Anna Eshoo (D) of California – not assisted him in 2004. Thousands of immigrants earn advanced degrees from top US universities every year. They train under our best faculty (many of whom are also immigrants), conduct cutting-edge research, and leave with the skills and knowledge necessary to power our innovation economy. But with a dysfunctional immigration policy, America is now losing these creators of tomorrow’s great companies to competitors abroad…

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College students: high in self-confidence but low in basic work skills

Today’s college students have been hit hard by the recession, but they exhibit a remarkable self-confidence that may outpace their skills for coping with the road that lies ahead, the Christian Science Monitor reports. This generation has its strengths, but independence and a clear sense of what’s expected in the working world are lacking, according to the new book “Generation on a Tightrope: A Portrait of Today’s College Students,” which draws on national surveys and visits to more than 30 campuses around the United States.

“They’re trying to precariously balance between their dreams and hopes for the future and the reality of diminished prospects,” says Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and co-author with Diane Dean, an education professor at Illinois State University.

They may have trouble coping in a competitive economy because they “lack the ability to deal with adversity, or even imagine adversity,” Mr. Levine says. “Whenever they’ve gotten into trouble, their parents have been there to bail them out.”…Read More

Making college affordable: five ways that states, schools are trying to help

Student debt and skyrocketing tuition make headlines. But this week, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have sought to highlight the silver lining – examples of how states and institutions have been trying to reduce the cost of higher education, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

“Now more than ever, public higher-education institutions and state officials will need to work together to improve access and performance while spending resources wisely and cutting costs,” said Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, in a hearing Wednesday held by the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training. Here are some ideas presented in that hearing, and another Thursday morning before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

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In India, the challenge of building 50,000 colleges

Here’s a job most 27-year-olds never get: starting up a new university—from scratch, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Like an Athenian at the dawn of Greece, Dhawal Sharma is converting 25 acres of farmland outside New Delhi worked by man and ox for millenniums into the kind of marble-and-grass campus that launches odysseys of the mind. But Mr. Sharma, a recent business-school graduate, is also young enough to still be in a band. He drums in a metal-rock group that plays the songs of 1970s headbangers like Judas Priest.

“I really wonder if any other person who is doing the same job is as inexperienced as I am,” says Sharma, who is the project manager for the future Ashoka University. “I’ve been told this in a number of government offices as well – ‘you look too young.’ ”

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Obama’s lowdown on higher education and student loan debt

Barack Obama can relate to one complaint from “Occupy” protesters. He and his wife once had to pay off $120,000 in student debt, the Christian Science Monitor reports. So when the president met Monday with leaders of prominent universities at the White House, he spoke with some authority about the high cost of tuition as well as a need for better teaching by faculty to ensure American workers stay competitive. Mr. Obama’s own education paid off. Just look where he sits. But for many in college today, dropping out is all too common when money dries up. And too many graduates fail to land jobs in their chosen fields or they don’t meet the hiring standards of employers because faculty aren’t held accountable for what students actually learn…

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How colleges are easing leap from war zone to classroom

You wouldn’t think a lounge with couches, TVs, and computers would be key to a college student’s success. But if that lounge is a place where military veterans can connect and help each other out, it could mean the difference between dropping out and graduating, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Craig Jackson serves as a peer mentor in just such a lounge at the University of Maine at Augusta. A 22-year Navy veteran who retired in 2003, he’s persuaded student vets with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to seek help at a nearby veterans hospital. He’s talked with professors about how students can make up work if they’ve missed classes because of experiencing flashbacks from fighting in Iraq…

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In Penn State child sex abuse case, lessons for universities far and wide

The child sex abuse scandal that has rocked Penn State is, say college and university officials far from State College, Pa., not only a cautionary tale, but also a very big teachable moment, the Christian Science Monitor reports. In the wake of the firing of football coach Joe Paterno and the exit of several Penn State officials, including its president, college administrators elsewhere are emphasizing to their staffs the importance of reporting any sex abuse crimes–especially those involving children–to the police. Some college presidents say the tragedy is a reminder that they must go beyond the letter of the law, particularly at institutions that try to teach moral values and principles to students. Others say the lesson is about the need to foster an atmosphere on campus in which individuals are not afraid of reporting crimes, even if they are committed by famous faculty…

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For more innovation at colleges, push faculty to live near campus

Research shows that innovation and high productivity are most likely when thinkers interact in close physical spaces, swap information, and collaborate, says Justin D. Martin, Ph.D., CLAS-Honors Preceptor of Journalism at the University of Maine and a columnist for Columbia Journalism Review, for the Christian Science Monitor. This is why, even in our age of mobile screens, organizations spend billions of dollars each year promoting physical conferences in London, Phoenix, or elsewhere. It is why even digitally pioneering companies such as Apple and Google have literal “campuses,” on which employees coexist in innovation ecosystems. It is why, in an age in which online education is increasing, old-school, in-person classes are not only relevant but ideal. I’ve wondered, then, if it would be a financially sound move for universities to pay professors a bonus for living close to campus, or even on campus where possible…

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SAT cheating scandal: Are stakes getting too high for college admission?

The case of a Great Neck, N.Y., man accused of being paid to take the SAT for high school students is once again prompting questions nationwide about how much cheating goes on in the world of high-stakes testing, reports the Christian Science Monitor. It’s also renewing concerns that the pressure placed on students to score well on a single test, which plays a big role in determining the academic future for so many high-schoolers, may be encouraging them to cheat…

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