NEBHE's 2019 in Review! | New England Board of Higher Education

2019 was a great year for NEBHE! As we look back over the past year, here are some of the highlights.

UPSKILLING NEW ENGLAND

We launched an upskilling initiative, with support from Strada Education Network, to build collaboration and alignment between New England’s educators and employers

As part of this project, we hosted nearly 40 employers, education providers and policymakers for a thinkers’ meeting on strategies to increase access to and completion of upskilling opportunities.

We may have made up the word “upskilling,” but we can’t make up how important it is to make education and training opportunities available to workers!

HIGH VALUE CREDENTIALS FOR NEW ENGLAND

We made great strides in our High Value Credentials for New England initiative.

The public two- and four-year systems in Maine and New Hampshire published their credentials to the Credential Registry. We can’t wait to add more (hint, hint)!

Check out the New England widget with the region’s credentials at the link below.

TRANSFER GUARANTEE

We received a 3-year implementation grant co-funded by the Teagle Foundation and the Davis Educational Foundation to develop systematic transfer pathways between community colleges and four-year independent colleges in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with a focus on the liberal arts.

Stafford Peat and Emily Decatur, NEBHE‘s fearless leaders of this project, have worked tirelessly to improve the transfer pipeline in New England. They are constantly firing ideas back and forth, connecting with partners across the region, and hogging the conference room with day-long strategy sessions. If you are an institution leader and have not yet spoken to Stafford and Emily, please do so – solidifying partnerships between independent and community colleges will truly help to serve students, but also we really need our conference room back. We can’t keep hosting meetings in the supply closet.

ADULT LEARNERS & OER

Our Legislative Advisory Committee (LAC) and Board met at Woodstock, VT for our annual meeting.

The LAC convened national experts to explore effective strategies for (re-)engaging adult learners across the region.

The Board heard from national experts about the cost-savings associated with open educational resources.

2/3 of our policy team escaped to a nearby dairy farm and now spend their free time figuring out whether they can legally and spatially keep cows in their apartments (Editor’s note: It turns out this is nearly impossible, so if anyone is looking to hire aspiring dairy farmers, please reach out to policy@nebhe.org. Michael is fine with this, we checked.

SARA + CT OHE

NEBHE collaborated with the Connecticut Office of Higher Education to deliver the State’s first Distance Education Forum in October. The event brought together 20+ Connecticut institutions to discuss out-of-state compliance fundamentals, the federal regulation landscape, and requirements for participation in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA).

Tuition Break

More than 1,200 degree and certificate programs were approved for the 2020-21 academic year – a new record! New specialized programs include the University of Rhode Island’s Music Therapy bachelor’s program and Central Maine Community College’s Esports Management associate program – the first of their kind programs to be offered by any New England public college or university.

REPORTS & ANALYSIS

We released reports on:

The Value of Higher Education in New England
2018-19 In-State and Out-of-State Tuition and Fee Reports, along with an interactive data platform!
FAFSA Completion Among Low-Income Students

Did you read them? Did you love them? We knew you would. Now, tweet about it (@nebhe) and spread the word! #PleaseReadThem #Please #Seriously #NewEnglandRules #NewEngland4ever #TomBrady

BRIEFINGS & MEETINGS

Rep. Pat Haddad hosted our policy team at the Massachusetts State House for our first ever legislative briefing. We talked regional trends in postsecondary education access, affordability and equity.

Our team also went on a regional tour to meet with Governors Janet Mills (ME), Phil Scott (VT), and Ned Lamont (CT) to discuss postsecondary education and workforce development.

Featured on our next regional tour will be: more engaging conversations around improving higher education, witty banter, fun anecdotes, lunch, and a 45-minute slideshow of one our policy analyst’s recent trip to Hawaii!