Posts Categorized: Demography

NEBHE Teams Up With RI Gov. Raimondo for Regional Commission to Improve Employability of New England College Grads

Rhode Island Gov. Gina M. Raimondo joined the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) to announce the creation of a new regional Commission on Higher Education & Employability, designed to work with the private sector to improve the career readiness of New England college and university graduates. Raimondo will serve as the Commission’s chair. “When the private and public s...

An Interstate Transfer Passport: Its Time Has Come

Students in New England take increasingly varied pathways to a degree. They are highly mobile and move among two-year colleges and four-year public and private higher education institutions (HEIs), among four-year and two-year colleges and back, and transfer in-state and out-of state. Four in 10 students who begin college at a New England institution transfer from one institution to another at lea...

Overcoming Obstacles in Teaching STEM

Learning the intricacies of STEM subjects can be a challenge. But teaching these complex subjects presents its own unique set of obstacles. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 48% of undergraduate students who entered STEM degree programs between 2003 and 2009 left them by spring 2009. Considering the rising demand for educated STEM professionals, students’ dissatisfact...

In the College Classroom: Students with ASD

Colleges and Universities have experienced a noticeable increase of students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) who are pursuing a postsecondary degree. This may be a victory for the population with ASD in terms of their general acceptance into institutions of higher education, but it also poses some real challenges for the faculty working with them in the classroom. Although this popu...

Equipped for Workplace Success?

Most employers hiring college graduates take it for granted that these candidates are more qualified than other potential employees who don't have a degree. Many job postings emphasize a college degree as a requirement for a position. And there is longstanding evidence that people with college degrees make more money over their lifetime than those without a degree. Employers make a lot of assu...

Higher Education Affordability: Two Approaches

There are two initiatives that can dramatically change the way college pricing and student debt are being handled under the current system. Both are commonsense solutions that would, if accepted, dramatically help students, graduates and families burdened by the cost of tuition and the loans they take to earn their degrees. First, income-based loan repayment (IBR) should be the default mechanis...

“Dreamers” Are at the Heart of the American Dream

The recent controversy surrounding a proposed ban on immigration from seven Middle East countries recalls similar times in our history. More than 130 years ago, Chinese immigration was restricted. In 1924, Japanese immigrants were effectively barred from entering the U.S., and Mexicans living here during the Depression were the subject of repatriation, even those who were U.S. citizens. Other rest...

Collaborating to Cut Costs in Higher Education

Tuition prices at colleges and universities are high. On that, pretty much everyone—from parents to students to college administrators—can agree. It’s also true that salaries and benefits are the single biggest chunk of every higher education institution’s (HEI) budget. And one of the largest and most difficult costs to contain is group employee health insurance. In fact, health insurance ...

Four Dimensions of Brand-Focused Research

Not long ago, “brand” was an unmentionable word in the higher education landscape—one that came with suspicious connotations of consumer packaged goods and retail. Today, however, there’s increasingly broad acceptance that a higher education institution’s (HEI’s) brand is critical to attracting and retaining the best students and faculty, as well as engaging alumni in meaningful ways. ...

Increase Student Motivation with More Choices

It took me 15 years to figure out, but I finally did: When students are offered choices within assignments it increases buy-in and therefore motivation toward the task—and ultimately for the class itself. Back when I was parenting, we called it “choices within limits” (“you can have peas or carrots as your vegetable”), and it worked then too. Simply having the opportunity to make the cho...