Credential inflation refers to an increase in the education credentials required for a job—for example, a job that used to be done by high school graduates but now requires new hires to have a college degree. Credential inflation has been going on for decades. One of the earliest mentions of it is in professor Randall … Continue reading “Credential Inflation: What’s Causing It and What Can We Do About It?”
Since COVID-19 hit, students have taken notice and altered their college plans. Some high school seniors are delaying enrollment until the pandemic has subsided, leaving universities with more openings. This year, according to data collected by Sean Mulholland, an economics professor at Western Carolina University, from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), 10 … Continue reading “Did You Know? More Open Seats at NC Colleges This Fall”
College admissions is a different field than it was 20 or even 10 years ago. High school guidance counselors still help hundreds of students make a plan for after graduation. Students still try to get into the best college they can. But they are now more cost-conscious, their families hire private college counselors, and they … Continue reading “Across Colleges of All Types, Student Anxiety Is a Growing Issue”
On July 6, the Trump administration announced new guidelines that would revoke the F-1 visas of international college students if their schools did not hold in-person classes in the fall. After much public outrage and criticism of the guidelines, the White House rescinded its plan a week later. The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that … Continue reading “Did You Know? Without Foreign Students, NC Schools Would Take a Big Hit”
Universities’ frantic struggles to create fall semester plans that bring students back to campus often hinge on social distancing. While students are excited about the promise of an on-campus fall, many detailed university plans have made it clear that freshman year will hardly resemble the bustling experience it was before. Instead, strict social distancing standards … Continue reading “Fall 2020: The Semester of Isolation”
Rumors of the humanities’ decline have been greatly exaggerated, a new report by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences says. While the popularity of specific majors has changed, overall, the humanities as a whole are still attracting a strong number of students. Most importantly, the study didn’t find any evidence for a decline in … Continue reading “The Future of the Humanities Is Not an Adjunct-Fueled Decline”
Two UNC system schools, Western Carolina University and UNC-Greensboro, have announced that they will not offer students housing refunds if the university closes due to another COVID-19 outbreak. Both schools added an addendum to their housing contracts relieving them of liability should campus shut down again. The addendum states that “in the event of such … Continue reading “No Housing Refunds Put UNC System Students in Tough Spot”
There are now 15 United States federal executive departments. Here they are, in order of their dates of inception: State, 1789 Treasury, 1789 Interior, 1849 Agriculture, 1862 Justice, 1870 Commerce, 1903 Labor, 1913 Defense, 1947 Health and Human Services, 1953 Housing and Urban Development, 1965 Transportation, 1967 Energy, 1977 Education, 1979 Veterans Affairs, 1989 Homeland … Continue reading “The Time Is Now: Abolish the Department of Education”
Although colleges across the country plan to reopen for the fall semester, much is still unknown about how to best proceed. Leaders are grappling with how to best safeguard public health while attempting to re-establish some sense of normalcy on campus. Despite the uncertainties that lie ahead, a professor at the University of North Carolina … Continue reading “Goldstein: Research Universities Have a Duty to Reopen “
Miguel Urquiola is professor and chair of the department of economics at Columbia University. His special field is education and his book Markets, Minds, and Money: Why America Leads the World in University Research is about American higher education—its history, its relationship to higher education in Europe, and the trajectory it has followed from the … Continue reading “Why Do American Universities Lead the World in Scientific Research?”