Last week, NEBHE convened 300 or so educators and policy leaders for a gathering in Boston on “Learner-Centered Institutions: The Future of Higher Education.”
One key question … what is a “learner-centered institution” anyway? The latest in a torrent of meaningless eduspeak? Or as the conference subtitle suggested, a true paradigm shift in the way we teach and learn?
The definition...
Observations of a retired college president ...
I am sure you've heard colleagues when they return from sabbatical surprised by how much their institutions changed while they were on leave. The apparent change is even more profound for someone who left the arena seven years ago, as I did.
Here are five issues that, in the past few years, have caught my attention either by reading about the...
NEEP delivers latest forecast ... this time with a special focus on infrastructure …
Is it because the economy is not in crash mode (we don’t think) that the crowd at the New England Economic Partnership (NEEP) fall 2015 outlook conference was decidedly smaller than in NEEP’s heydey? Or is it because it’s hard to get people to pay attention to regional issues? Especially infrastructure...
Compare the typical college campus today with one 30 years ago, and some stark differences become apparent. More students than ever are enrolling in college; however, graduation rates have remained fairly consistent over the past 30 years, according to the College Board. College campuses are much more diverse than before, increasing from roughly a 20% minority student population in 1990, to 42% in...
NEBHE’s annual fall meetings explored the federal Higher Education Act and aligning state policy with higher ed …
The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) held its annual fall board meeting last month in Mystic, Conn.
In a session on reauthorization of the federal Higher Education Act (HEA), Sarah H. Flanagan, vice president for government relations and policy development...
Last week, I was at Providence’s Trinity Rep covering BIF2015, the Business Innovation Factory's summit of innovators.
It was BIF’s 11th summit, my fifth as a guest. I was attending under a quasi-media category called RCUS, standing for the BIF mantra of “Random Collisions of Unusual Suspects.”
BIF founder and "chief catalyst" Saul Kaplan opened the talks by noting that earlier in th...
What if schools in the U.S. treated their innovation and emerging technologies with as much glamour as they give to athletics? At the New England Board of Higher Education’s recent Advanced Manufacturing Problem Based Learning (AM PBL) Showcase, industry representatives addressed this question and discussed ways to improve the branding and appeal for STEM (science, technology, engineering and ma...
An increasing number of institutions are freeing up shelf space in their libraries and moving in student services as well as a coffee shop and other lures such as flexible seating arrangements. Librarians are taking down the silence signs in all but the quiet study room and urging members of the academic community to meet, talk, research and incubate new ideas collaboratively as well as to engage ...
Not too many years ago, a school’s brand just was. Few people used the “b” word. A college or university went about its business, became known for particular strengths and weaknesses, accrued what we would now call brand attributes over time (party school, really hard to get in to, innovative curriculum), and, through word of mouth and its alumni, earned its reputation in the higher ed lands...
“Without having to miss out on fun, just outsource your test to us, an expert will take it and you will get the awesome grade that you deserve. All at prices you will not believe. How does that sound?”—Excerpt from one of many results of googling “take my test”
This pitch is more than incredibly crass. It is really just outright pimping of hired poseurs to ...
Last week, NEBHE convened 300 or so educators and policy leaders for a gathering in Boston on “Learner-Centered Institutions: The Future of Higher Education.”
One key question … what is a “learner-centered institution” anyway? The latest in a torrent of meaningless eduspeak? Or as the conference subtitle suggested, a true paradigm shift in the way we teach and learn?
The definition... 
Observations of a retired college president ...
I am sure you've heard colleagues when they return from sabbatical surprised by how much their institutions changed while they were on leave. The apparent change is even more profound for someone who left the arena seven years ago, as I did.
Here are five issues that, in the past few years, have caught my attention either by reading about the... 
NEEP delivers latest forecast ... this time with a special focus on infrastructure …
Is it because the economy is not in crash mode (we don’t think) that the crowd at the New England Economic Partnership (NEEP) fall 2015 outlook conference was decidedly smaller than in NEEP’s heydey? Or is it because it’s hard to get people to pay attention to regional issues? Especially infrastructure... 
Compare the typical college campus today with one 30 years ago, and some stark differences become apparent. More students than ever are enrolling in college; however, graduation rates have remained fairly consistent over the past 30 years, according to the College Board. College campuses are much more diverse than before, increasing from roughly a 20% minority student population in 1990, to 42% in... 
NEBHE’s annual fall meetings explored the federal Higher Education Act and aligning state policy with higher ed …
The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) held its annual fall board meeting last month in Mystic, Conn.
In a session on reauthorization of the federal Higher Education Act (HEA), Sarah H. Flanagan, vice president for government relations and policy development... 
Last week, I was at Providence’s Trinity Rep covering BIF2015, the Business Innovation Factory's summit of innovators.
It was BIF’s 11th summit, my fifth as a guest. I was attending under a quasi-media category called RCUS, standing for the BIF mantra of “Random Collisions of Unusual Suspects.”
BIF founder and "chief catalyst" Saul Kaplan opened the talks by noting that earlier in th... 
What if schools in the U.S. treated their innovation and emerging technologies with as much glamour as they give to athletics? At the New England Board of Higher Education’s recent Advanced Manufacturing Problem Based Learning (AM PBL) Showcase, industry representatives addressed this question and discussed ways to improve the branding and appeal for STEM (science, technology, engineering and ma... 
An increasing number of institutions are freeing up shelf space in their libraries and moving in student services as well as a coffee shop and other lures such as flexible seating arrangements. Librarians are taking down the silence signs in all but the quiet study room and urging members of the academic community to meet, talk, research and incubate new ideas collaboratively as well as to engage ... 
Not too many years ago, a school’s brand just was. Few people used the “b” word. A college or university went about its business, became known for particular strengths and weaknesses, accrued what we would now call brand attributes over time (party school, really hard to get in to, innovative curriculum), and, through word of mouth and its alumni, earned its reputation in the higher ed lands... 
“Without having to miss out on fun, just outsource your test to us, an expert will take it and you will get the awesome grade that you deserve. All at prices you will not believe. How does that sound?”—Excerpt from one of many results of googling “take my test”
This pitch is more than incredibly crass. It is really just outright pimping of hired poseurs to ...