State Capital Notes ...
The midterm elections brought New England two new governors. Rhode Island elected its first woman governor, Democrat Gina Raimondo. Massachusetts elected Republican Charlie Baker, a former Harvard Pilgrim CEO and official in the Weld and Cellucci administrations, including a time as secretary of administration and finance. The other four New England states reelected incumb...
At NEBHE's recent board meeting in Stowe, Vt., University of Vermont President Tom Sullivan gave a brief lesson on higher education cost drivers.
The top cost drivers, Sullivan said, at least at bricks-and-mortar institutions like his, are:
1) compensation of faculty and staff, including employee benefits;
2) student financial aid;
3) facilities of quality to attract students, includin...
NEBHE published the fourth edition of Advanced Manufacturing Problem Based Learning (AM PBL) News.
NEBHE in September 2012 was awarded a three-year $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a New England-wide project titled Problem Based Learning (PBL) in Advanced Manufacturing: Transforming 21st Century Technician Education. Funding is provided through the NSF’s Advance...
New England Council President James T. Brett will be among luminaries recognized by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) in March 2015 at the regional organization's 13th annual New England Higher Education Excellence Awards.
Each year, NEBHE presents Regional Excellence Awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and th...
Mike Winders and Richard Bisk raise many important points in their recent article for the NEBHE Journal, but curiously choose to ignore the substance of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education’s (BHE) policy on developmental math that followed a careful review of task force recommendations. Their characterization of the BHE policy is simply misleading. I believe we would agree, however, ...
The influential Northeastern University think tank that authored several NEJHE articles in recent decades ended it operations this month.
The closing of the Center for Labor Market Studies follows the retirement last summer of its director Andrew Sum, who had launched the center in 1979 with a U.S. Department of Labor grant. In 2011, Paul Harrington, who co-directed the center from 1980 to 2010, ...
State Capital Notes ...
In 2013, Gov. Deval Patrick was often at loggerheads with legislators on big-ticket items, including education funding and transportation. In 2014, the atmosphere was more cordial. Just prior to the close of the 2013-14 legislative session, lawmakers sent a $36.5 billion FY 2015 budget to the governor.
The governor and legislators agreed on a spending plan with no new ta...
State Capital Notes …
Gov. Lincoln Chafee and state legislators closed out the six-month legislative session by approving an $8.7 billion budget for fiscal year 2015, taking steps they believe will turn the state’s economy around and put people back to work. Rhode Island has the highest unemployment rate in the U.S. at 8.3%. The budget plan fills a $67 million gap, which includes $24...
State Capital Notes …
In the 2014 session, the second year of the biennium, not a budget-writing year, two issues that were holdovers from the first session, commanded the attention of the governor, lawmakers, attorney general, state healthcare agencies, hospitals and other healthcare providers.
Gov. Maggie Hassan and state lawmakers reached agreement on the Health Care Protection Program...
Much of NEBHE's Higher Education Innovation Challenge is based on fears that economic and demographic pressures will make the current number of degree-granting institutions (about 250 in New England and 4,600 nationally) unsustainable—especially for those that rely heavily on tuition, have low endowments and are not well-differentiated.
This fear has lurked in various guises for decades. In 1...
At NEBHE's recent board meeting in Stowe, Vt., University of Vermont President Tom Sullivan gave a brief lesson on higher education cost drivers.
The top cost drivers, Sullivan said, at least at bricks-and-mortar institutions like his, are:
1) compensation of faculty and staff, including employee benefits;
2) student financial aid;
3) facilities of quality to attract students, includin... 
NEBHE published the fourth edition of Advanced Manufacturing Problem Based Learning (AM PBL) News.
NEBHE in September 2012 was awarded a three-year $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a New England-wide project titled Problem Based Learning (PBL) in Advanced Manufacturing: Transforming 21st Century Technician Education. Funding is provided through the NSF’s Advance... 
New England Council President James T. Brett will be among luminaries recognized by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) in March 2015 at the regional organization's 13th annual New England Higher Education Excellence Awards.
Each year, NEBHE presents Regional Excellence Awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and th... 
State Capital Notes ...
In 2013, Gov. Deval Patrick was often at loggerheads with legislators on big-ticket items, including education funding and transportation. In 2014, the atmosphere was more cordial. Just prior to the close of the 2013-14 legislative session, lawmakers sent a $36.5 billion FY 2015 budget to the governor.
The governor and legislators agreed on a spending plan with no new ta...