3 reforms for higher education accessibility

Former governors recommend policy changes to keep higher education accessible, affordable.

education-accessibilityChanges to the federal student loan program to ensure better information for students, a broader definition of higher education, and more accountability for universities, can increase competition, transparency and innovation in higher education, according to new recommendations released by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Governors’ Council.

The council consists of former governors Mike Beebe (D-AR), Jim Douglas (R-VT), Christine Gregoire (D-WA), Linda Lingle (R-HI) and Sonny Perdue (R-GA).

Their recommendations seek to ensure that higher education remains accessible and affordable while preparing young people for jobs in an ever-changing marketplace.…Read More

Obama trying to boost free community college plan

Using a local approach, Obama attempts to drum up support for his plan to offer free community college to students meeting certain criteria.

community-collegeWith his plan for two years of free community college stalled in Congress, President Barack Obama is trying to put more oomph behind state and local programs that provide what he’s been unable to offer nationally.

Obama was teaming up with Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president and a community college teacher, to visit Macomb County Community College in Warren, Michigan, on Wednesday. They planned to announce an independent College Promise Advisory Board, led by Biden, that will highlight existing programs providing free community college. The board also will try to recruit more states and communities to do likewise.

It will be a return visit to the community college for Obama, who went there in 2009 to announce a series of administration efforts to bolster community colleges. He followed that up earlier this year with a $60 billion proposal in his State of the Union address to make two years of community college free.…Read More

College affordability gets the 2016 campaign spotlight

Democratic, Republican candidates plan for college affordability, but views for reform are scattered.

college-affordabilityWith college tuition rising, student loan debt increasing, and more students than ever applying for financial aid, 2016 presidential candidates both Democratic and Republican are taking college affordability to the campaign trail.

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) has tracked the candidates’ stances on higher education issues over the last several months, as they have proposed their own plans to increase college access and affordability, while voters pepper town hall meetings and campaign events with questions about higher education. But the higher education platforms are varied among White House hopefuls, from promises to make college debt- or tuition-free, to calls for more innovation and partnerships with the private sector.

“We are pleased to see candidates taking notice of the importance of ensuring all students have access to a quality, affordable higher education,” said Justin Draeger, president and CEO of NASFAA.…Read More

Sen. Alexander promotes college aid accessibility in Tennessee

Overly-complicated forms make it harder for college students to participate in Tennessee Promise, he said

college-affordabilitySenate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) hosted a roundtable at Motlow State Community College in Tullahoma, Tenn., with area college presidents, students, student affairs and financial aid advisors, and high school guidance counselors to discuss his plan to simplify the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, that 430,000 Tennessee families fill out each year.

The first class of Tennessee Promise students began classes recently—with as many as 18,000 students taking advantage of the free tuition program. Governor Haslam has said that many prospective students are discouraged from the program by the FAFSA form. There still may be as many as 40,000 Tennessee families who are eligible for federal aid who are not filing the form.

“One of my top priorities in reauthorizing the Higher Education Act is eliminating unnecessary Washington red tape to make it easier to go to college,” Alexander said. “And that includes removing the chief obstacle for Tennessee high school seniors who want to take advantage of tuition-free community college by simplifying the dreaded FAFSA form, which 3,530 families of high school seniors in Bedford, Coffee, Franklin, Lincoln, Moore, and Rutherford counties filled out this year to receive financial aid.”…Read More

Higher education funding needs an innovation makeover–here’s how

How can states and institutions redesign funding models to better support student outcomes and new innovations in practice and services?

funding-innovation-campusFrom new student learning pathways to questioning the merit of the credit hour, and from the move to enterprise cloud solutions to online learning models, colleges and universities are in innovation warp drive. Unfortunately, most funding models are stagnating under antiquated institutional and state-based policies.

How can institutions restructure financial policies and models to support the innovation required of them?

From an in-the-trenches perspective, Paige Francis of Fairfield University argues that nowhere is innovation most prevalent, or critical, than in IT, and that only when institutional budgeting transitions from capital expenditures to operational dollars will funding be “as nimble as the technology it supports,” and able to support innovation:…Read More

A focus on learning can expand access for students

New report urges policymakers to serve nontraditional students.

students-accessIn the last several years, colleges and universities across the nation have seen an influx of nontraditional students, due in part to the economic recession that began in 2008 and forced many workers to reevaluate career goals and seek training.

These students are typically 25+ years old and often face unique challenges related to childcare, competing responsibilities, or full- or part-time jobs that make it difficult for them to excel in a traditional postsecondary learning environment.

As a result, the national conversation has shifted to focus on providing these students with better pathways to obtain the postsecondary degrees that are so imperative to thrive in the 21st century.…Read More

6 trends on the horizon for academic libraries

NMC’s Horizon Report details trends, challenges, and technologies that are impacting—and will impact—academic and research libraries.

horizon-libraries-trendsMachine learning, rethinking the library space, and managing knowledge obsolescence are just some of the changes heading toward academic and research libraries in the next five years. But what are the challenges libraries face now? And can specific technologies available today transform the library for tomorrow?

According to the New Media Consortium’s (NMC) 2015 Library Edition of their Horizon Report (an effort established in 2002 by the NMC that identifies and describes important developments in technology likely to have a large impact over the coming five years in education around the globe), there are 18 topics critical for academic and research library consideration as selected by the 2015 NMC Horizon Project Library Expert Panel—a panel composed of 53 education and technology experts from 15 countries on 5 continents.

Following a review of literature, the expert panel took into consideration four research questions to help list interesting technologies, challenges, and trends: 1) What trends do you expect to accelerate emerging technology uptake in academic and research libraries worldwide within the next five years? 2) What do you see as the significant challenges impeding emerging technology uptake that academic and research libraries worldwide will face over the next five years? 3) Which of the important developments in technology catalogues in the NMC Horizon Project Listing will be most important to academic and research libraries worldwide within the next five years? 4) What important developments in technology are missing from the list?…Read More

How should quality assurance for competency-based ed work?

If the federal government will fund competency-based programs through Title IV dollars, how should it think about regulating these programs?

competency-based-educationWhenever a disruptive innovation emerges—and online, competency-based learning deployed in the right business model is a disruptive innovation—it doesn’t look as good as existing services according to the old metrics of performance.

Disruptions tend to be simpler than existing services; they start by solving undemanding problems. As a result, the sector’s leading organizations often dismiss them because they don’t look terribly good in comparison to the way people have traditionally thought of quality. But they also redefine the notion of what is quality and performance.

As such, they don’t fit neatly into existing regulatory structures and often create new ones over time. Judging them by the old regulations can also limit their innovative potential by trapping and confining them to replicate parts of the existing value propositions of the old system rather than deliver on their new value proposition.…Read More

8 state models linking higher ed to careers

Best practices from 8 states offering new, scalable pathways to a career-specific degree.

path-road-modelsEight states have released innovative best practices for other states and local areas interested in helping students land careers after postsecondary education. The Network of states’ practices are unique in that they offer a standard model of how to create this increasingly needed pipeline.

The Pathways to Prosperity Network, an initiative of Jobs for the Future (JFF) and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, began three years ago in an effort to help more students enter not only postsecondary education, but full-time jobs that directly help companies fill critical positions.

According to the report, only one in three “young people” obtains a four-year degree by age 25—and roughly 30 percent of the job openings projected over the next decade require some education beyond high school, but not necessarily a four-year degree.…Read More

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