These are very tumultuous times in higher education. Unprecedented numbers of institutions are facing closure, and quite a few are unsure how to proceed. Added to institutional pressures are issues around the ever-rising price of the college degree, and the overwhelming question as to the value of the degree, especially given the amount of debt that many students go into to finance their education...
Today, many higher education institutions are faced with declining enrollment, increasing tuitions and calls to infuse their degree tracks with more practical experiences for students, leading more directly to meaningful careers. At the same time, college students are searching for programs offering practical, academically rigorous work-related experiences that tie into their social consciousness ...
Another women’s conference?
Those three words haunted our Alumni Relations team’s discussions last summer as we considered which programs to fund for MIT alumni in the year ahead. The MIT Alumni Association had produced or sponsored a series of women’s conferences over the years. Was it the right time for another one?
Even simply by event-planning standards, things in 2017 were differe...
Over the past year, an increasing number of students have come forward to speak out against school violence. And there has been increased attention placed on helping students seeking support if an incident occurs and exercising their right to speak out against those who may perpetuate such behaviors. With high-profile cases of sexual assault, such as Brock Turner from Stanford University in 2015 a...
It’s an unpleasant reality, but also an inevitable one: Technology will cause harm.
And when it does, whom should we hold responsible? The person operating it at the time? The person who wrote the program or assembled the machine? The manager, board or CEO that decided to manufacture the machine? The marketer who presented the technology as safe and reliable? The politician who helped pass legi...
I’ve grown tired of reading the literature on innovation in higher education, much less the offers for services, consulting, webinars and infrastructure that flood the inbox daily. So many of the recommended innovations are beyond the fiscal means of even the most venturesome administrators and their institutions. To this generalization, there are happy exceptions of course; but much of the lite...
NEBHE’s Commission on Higher Education & Employability has thought hard over the past year about the increasing role of artificial intelligence and robotics in the future of life and work.
Many others are also waking up to this landscape, which not so long ago seemed like science fiction. Waltham, Mass.-based MindEdge Learning, for example, plans to devote regular blog posts to ethical ques...
Today, children of all ages experience rigorous career preparation as part of their education. School systems strive to implement mandated standards to help students excel in standardized testing and gain necessary skills for future job opportunities.
In this worthwhile pursuit, many creative school programs such as art and music are deemed unnecessary and cut from the curriculum.
What many ...
In 2004, then-University of New England President Sandra Featherman authored a piece for NEJHE (then called Connection) headlined “Emotional Rescue” and focusing on how a new generation of troubled college students was putting a strain on campus resources. Featherman, who died in April, wrote of colleges and universities scrambling to provide additional and better support services for students...
Something as mundane as a campus boiler system can help colleges meet climate goals and offer hands-on research at the intersection of environmental studies and engineering ...
For many institutions in New England, the 2020 deadline to hit objectives for the Presidents' Climate Leadership Commitments that once seemed far away are now right around the corner. These ambitious plans were entered i...
These are very tumultuous times in higher education. Unprecedented numbers of institutions are facing closure, and quite a few are unsure how to proceed. Added to institutional pressures are issues around the ever-rising price of the college degree, and the overwhelming question as to the value of the degree, especially given the amount of debt that many students go into to finance their education... 
Today, many higher education institutions are faced with declining enrollment, increasing tuitions and calls to infuse their degree tracks with more practical experiences for students, leading more directly to meaningful careers. At the same time, college students are searching for programs offering practical, academically rigorous work-related experiences that tie into their social consciousness ... 
Another women’s conference?
Those three words haunted our Alumni Relations team’s discussions last summer as we considered which programs to fund for MIT alumni in the year ahead. The MIT Alumni Association had produced or sponsored a series of women’s conferences over the years. Was it the right time for another one?
Even simply by event-planning standards, things in 2017 were differe... 
Over the past year, an increasing number of students have come forward to speak out against school violence. And there has been increased attention placed on helping students seeking support if an incident occurs and exercising their right to speak out against those who may perpetuate such behaviors. With high-profile cases of sexual assault, such as Brock Turner from Stanford University in 2015 a... 
It’s an unpleasant reality, but also an inevitable one: Technology will cause harm.
And when it does, whom should we hold responsible? The person operating it at the time? The person who wrote the program or assembled the machine? The manager, board or CEO that decided to manufacture the machine? The marketer who presented the technology as safe and reliable? The politician who helped pass legi... 
I’ve grown tired of reading the literature on innovation in higher education, much less the offers for services, consulting, webinars and infrastructure that flood the inbox daily. So many of the recommended innovations are beyond the fiscal means of even the most venturesome administrators and their institutions. To this generalization, there are happy exceptions of course; but much of the lite... 
NEBHE’s Commission on Higher Education & Employability has thought hard over the past year about the increasing role of artificial intelligence and robotics in the future of life and work.
Many others are also waking up to this landscape, which not so long ago seemed like science fiction. Waltham, Mass.-based MindEdge Learning, for example, plans to devote regular blog posts to ethical ques... 
Today, children of all ages experience rigorous career preparation as part of their education. School systems strive to implement mandated standards to help students excel in standardized testing and gain necessary skills for future job opportunities.
In this worthwhile pursuit, many creative school programs such as art and music are deemed unnecessary and cut from the curriculum.
What many ... 
In 2004, then-University of New England President Sandra Featherman authored a piece for NEJHE (then called Connection) headlined “Emotional Rescue” and focusing on how a new generation of troubled college students was putting a strain on campus resources. Featherman, who died in April, wrote of colleges and universities scrambling to provide additional and better support services for students... 
Something as mundane as a campus boiler system can help colleges meet climate goals and offer hands-on research at the intersection of environmental studies and engineering ...
For many institutions in New England, the 2020 deadline to hit objectives for the Presidents' Climate Leadership Commitments that once seemed far away are now right around the corner. These ambitious plans were entered i...