Posts Categorized: Student Aid

On Affordability: Public Higher Education in New England

As the lowest-priced higher education institutions serving the greatest share of students in New England, public institutions are a crucial access point for the region’s students who may not have other opportunities to enroll in college. Maintaining the cost of attending a public institution in New England is imperative for students, families, communities, states and the region. Yet, the pri...

New Directions for Higher Education: Q&A with Deborah Floyd on Community Colleges Offering Bachelor’s Degrees

In this installment of NEJHE's New Directions for Higher Education series, Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing & Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviews Deborah Floyd, professor of educational leadership at Florida Atlantic University, editor in chief of the Community College Journal of Research and Practice and author of the book, The Community...

How Obama’s Tuition-Free Community College Plan Would Affect One State

President Obama started off the year with a proposal to make a community college education as “universal” as high school by making the associate degree or first two years of a bachelor’s degree tuition-free. The details of how this would be funded are still emerging. Should the proposal successfully move through Congress, Massachusetts, for one, stands to gain much from it. Here’s why: ...

New England Takes Stock of Midterm Elections

The recent midterm elections brought New England two new governors. Rhode Island elected its first woman chief exec in Gina Raimondo (D). Massachusetts elected Charlie Baker (R), a former Harvard Pilgrim CEO and official in the Weld and Cellucci administrations. Otherwise, the New England corner offices cautiously welcomed back incumbents: Democrats Dannel Malloy in Connecticut, Maggie Hassan in N...

New Directions for Higher Education: Q&A with Trachtenberg on Three-Year Degrees

In this installment of NEJHE's New Directions for Higher Education series, Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing & Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, interviews Stephen Trachtenberg, president emeritus & University Professor of Public Service at George Washington University. NEJHE launched the series in 2013 to examine emerging issues, trends a...

Why a Focus on Adult Women Is Critical to the Higher Education System and Our Country

As the president of a university focused on educating women, I ask myself daily how we can make an impact on the millions of women who have not yet earned a college degree. The number of educationally underserved women in this country is truly staggering. According to U.S. Census figures, 76 million adult women do not have a bachelor’s degree. It is incumbent upon us to help each one of these wo...

A Learning Commons on a Budget

Lyndon State College (LSC), a public liberal arts college with a focus on rural and first-generation students, in 2013 initiated an incremental approach toward the creation of a Lyndon Learning Commons. The Commons model emphasizes the integration of a variety of academic support services, increasing both their proximity to one another and cross-unit collaboration, in order to make these services ...

Baby Talk: Children’s Savings Accounts Mark New Frontier in Paying for College

There is a growing national conversation about the role of Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) in building assets and creating opportunities for the next generation of students—and New England is right in the middle of it. In many respects, New England is leading the way. Through the support of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Regional & Community Outreach Department and the experi...

To Close Middle-Skills Gap, Improve Community College Outcomes

Over the past four years, there has been intense talk about the middle-skills gap in New England. In Massachusetts—from the governor, often flanked by business leaders, to the commissioner of higher education, to President Obama speaking at a high school in Worcester this past spring—it appears that everyone is concerned with the middle-skills gap. And Massachusetts is not alone. For southe...

Math Task Force’s Bad Calculation

The number of incoming college students who require development mathematics coursework is a national problem. As reported by the National Center for Educational Statistics, 42% of students entering college for the first time in fall 2003 took a developmental math course. At our institution, Worcester State University, 54% of students entering in fall 2004 placed into developmental math. This is an...