All Articles Tagged "higher education"
Top 10 Reasons To Consider Graduate School
Higher education used to mean going to college and getting a Bachelor’s Degree. But now more than ever black students are earning graduate degrees and beyond. Some more than others. The Council of Graduate Schools reported that during the 2010-2011 academic year, 176,836 of graduate students were African-American with more than 70 percent being black women. Women get it. And for good reasons. Here’s 10 of the best:
CAREER ADVANCEMENT:
Career advancement used to come with hard work and determination. And although both play a role in promotion, an advanced degree is now required for many higher level, management level positions. In fact, many companies not only encourage their employees to go back to school, some even pay a portion if not all of the tuition costs.
Chancellor: University System Will Study Merging Colleges
(AJC) — After years of expansion, college leaders took the University System of Georgia down a different path Wednesday by discussing campus consolidations and other steps to save money. Chancellor Hank Huckaby said the system will review whether college mergers would be cost-effective and develop criteria to determine potential candidates among the 35 campuses. It’s too soon to say how many campuses would be impacted or how much money it would save, but this represents a shift in priorities for a system that opened a new school — Georgia Gwinnett College — in 2006. Huckaby also announced a systemwide study of how colleges use existing buildings to determine if, and where, new construction may be needed. He also called for the system office to collaborate more with colleges and architects on construction proposals and designs. Both steps address concerns about growing construction costs, he said.
5 Years of College, 4 Years of Tuition. Guaranteed.
(New York Times) — Each incoming freshman at Randolph-Macon College this year was eligible to take part in a brief signing ceremony. The new student, along with a parent and the college president, could sign a special agreement that is emerging at some colleges and universities: As long as the student keeps up with academic work and meets regularly with advisers, the college guarantees that earning a degree there will take no more than four years. If it fails to hold up its end of the bargain — if required classes are not available, or if advisers give poor counsel — the college promises to cover the cost of additional tuition until the degree is completed. Four-year degree guarantees, as they have become known, are being offered at a growing number of smaller private colleges. They work as a marketing tool, giving colleges a way to ease parents’ fears that their children might enjoy college enough to stick around for five or six costly years. And they help to focus attention on the task at hand: graduating in four years.
SAT Scores Slip
(Inside Higher Education) — SAT scores are down this year. And while the College Board played down that news and attributed the falling scores to growth in the test-taking population, the downward shift runs counter to recent patterns. The data also show continuation of a trend that has concerned many educators for years: growing gaps by race and ethnicity in how students perform on average on the test. The trend in recent years has been a point up in one part of the SAT, offset by a point down in another part — with minimal movement in total. But this year saw a three-point decline in critical reading, a one-point decline in mathematics, and a two-point decline in writing.
Rwanda a Tech Hub? They're Studying Up
(Wall Street Journal) — The government of Rwanda will create a new graduate engineering program in conjunction with a major U.S. university, a step toward building itself into an African technology hub 17 years after a genocidal conflict claimed nearly a million lives. Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Jared L. Cohon, president of Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University, will sign the agreement Friday in Pittsburgh to establish and operate the program from Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, where a new campus is to be built. The African Development Fund is supporting the project with $13 million in funding, according to the fund’s parent, the African Development Bank.
Georgia Professors Offer Course to Illegal Immigrants
(AJC) — As college students return to campus in Georgia, a new state policy has closed the doors of the five most competitive state schools to illegal immigrants, but a group of professors has found a way to offer those students a taste of what they’ve been denied. The five University of Georgia professors have started a program they’re calling Freedom University. They’re offering to teach a rigorous seminar course once a week meant to mirror courses taught at the most competitive schools and aimed at students who have graduated from high school but can’t go to one of those top schools because of the new policy or because of cuts to state scholarship programs.”This is not a substitute for letting these students into UGA, Georgia State or the other schools,” said Pam Voekel, a history professor at UGA and one of the program’s initiators. “It is designed for people who, right now, don’t have another option.”
More Latinos Headed to College Than Blacks
(Washington Post) — Hispanics surpassed blacks in 2010 to become the second-largest racial or ethnic group of young adults in America’s colleges, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data. The number of Hispanic college students ages 18 to 24 rose by a remarkable 24 percent in one year, to 1.8 million, according to a report released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center. The federal Current Population Survey found 7.7 million white college students in that age group, 1.7 million black students and 800,000 Asian Americans. Black students still outnumber Hispanics in the overall college population, which includes older adults.
4 Things You Should Know About Grad School
(Black Enterprise) — With the economy still in a slump, many adults—recent graduates to retirees—are continuing their education, going back to school to make themselves more marketable or simply to enhance their current skill set. But juggling school with work and family, on top of financing your education, can be daunting. However, BlackEnterprise.com has got you covered with these four easy-to-follow tips to get you started as you return to school.
Dean of Columbia College Resigns After Two Years
(New York Times) — The dean of Columbia College has abruptly resigned over what she called administrative changes that would diminish or eliminate her authority, leaving the undergraduate division of Columbia University without a leader two weeks before the start of classes. Michele M. Moody-Adams, the first female and the first black dean of the college, said in an e-mail sent Saturday to Columbia alumni and donors that she planned to stay through the academic year. But on Monday, the president of Columbia University, Lee C. Bollinger, said in a statement that it was in the best interest of the college and the university for her to step down immediately. He promised that an interim dean would be named soon.
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For Profit Schools Have Trouble Filling Seats
(Wall Street Journal) — For-profit colleges are facing a tough test: getting new students to enroll. New-student enrollments have plunged—in some cases by more than 45%—in recent months, reflecting two factors: Companies have pulled back on aggressive recruiting practices amid criticism over their high student-loan default rates. And many would-be students are questioning the potential pay-off for degrees that can cost considerably more than what’s available at local community colleges. ”People are just frozen or deferring, delaying decisions to go to school,” said DeVry Inc. Chief Executive Daniel Hamburger in a conference call earlier this month. “The average person in the U.S. has become much more risk-averse and cautious when it comes to spending or committing to anything. It’s unrealistic for us to think that education would be immune from this.”
