Higher Education

Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

Could a tweet or a text increase college enrollment or student achievement?

Peter Bergman, Teachers College, Columbia University

Can a few text messages, a timely email or a letter increase college enrollment and student achievement? Such “nudges,” designed carefully using behavioral economics, can be effective.

But when do they work – and when not?

Barriers to success

Consider students who have just graduated high school intending to enroll in college. Even among those who have been accepted to college, 15 percent of low-income students do not enroll by the next fall. For the large share who intend to enroll in community colleges, this number can be as high as 40 percent.

There are a number of possible reasons for this attrition: many families overestimate the cost of college because the sticker price of colleges can be much higher than the net price (the sticker price minus the potentially large amount of aid a low-income student could receive); students may struggle with complex financial aid forms; there may be a lack of support to guide them through the application process. So, even when low-income students who are high-achieving do enroll in college, the majority fail to enroll in a college that is comparable to their level of achievement.

Can a few text messages or a timely email overcome these barriers? My research uses behavioral economics to design low-cost, scalable interventions aimed at improving education outcomes. Behavioral economics suggests several important features to make a nudge effective: simplify complex information, make tasks easier to complete and ensure that support is timely.

So, what makes for an effective nudge?

Improving college enrollment

In 2012, researchers Ben Castleman and Lindsay Page sent 10 text messages to nearly 2,000 college-intending students the summer after high school graduation. These messages provided just-in-time reminders on key financial aid, housing and enrollment deadlines from early July to mid August.

Instead of set meetings with counselors, students could reply to messages and receive on-demand support from college guidance counselors to complete key tasks.

In another intervention – the Expanding College Opportunities Project (ECO) – researchers Caroline Hoxby and Sarah Turner worked to help high-achieving, low-income students enroll in colleges on par with their achievement. The intervention arrived to students as a packet in the mail.

What happens when an intervention arrives in a mail? Mail image via www.shutterstock.com

The mailer simplified information by providing a list of colleges tailored to each student’s location along with information about net costs, graduation rates, and application deadlines. Moreover, the mailer included easy-to-claim application fee waivers. All these features reduced both the complexity and cost in applying to a wider range of colleges.

In both cases, researchers found that it significantly improved college outcomes. College enrollment went up by 15 percent in the intervention designed to reduce summer melt for community college students. The ECO project increased the likelihood of admission to a selective college by 78 percent.

Getting parents involved

Of course, it’s not just at college enrollment time that nudging can be helpful. Parents also face behavioral barriers while their children are in middle and high school. Many parents underestimate the number of assignments their child has not turned in as well as the number of school days their child has missed. Unfortunately, schools often do a poor job communicating this information to parents in a timely fashion.

I tested an intervention that sent text messages to parents about their child’s missed assignments and grades. The messages were frequent – sent four times more often than report cards – and provided detailed information to parents about their child’s missed assignments and grades. Each message listed page numbers and problems students needed to complete so that parents could track their child’s progress.

The involvement of parents cam motivate children. More Good Foundation, CC BY-NC

Parents responded by communicating with the school more often and motivating their children to do the work: students turned in 25 percent more assignments, which led to significant improvements in grades and evidence of increased math scores.

When there is no impact

While these interventions are promising, there are important caveats.

For instance, our preliminary findings from ongoing research show that information alone may not be enough. We sent emails and letters to more than one hundred thousand college applicants about financial aid and education-related tax benefits. However, we didn’t provide any additional support to help families through the process of claiming these benefits.

In other words, we didn’t provide any support to complete the tasks – no fee waivers, no connection to guidance counselors – just the email and the letter. Without this support to answer questions or help families complete forms to claim the benefits, we found no impact, even when students opened the emails.

More generally, “nudges” often lead to modest impacts and should be considered only a part of the solution. But there’s a dearth of low-cost, scalable interventions in education, and behavioral economics can help.

Identifying the crucial decision points – when applications are due, forms need to be filled out or school choices are made – and supplying the just-in-time support to families is key.

The Conversation

Peter Bergman, Assistant Professor of Economics and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

Why debt-free college will not solve the real problems in America’s higher education system

David H. Feldman, College of William & Mary and Robert B. Archibald, College of William & Mary

On July 6, Hillary Clinton took a half-step toward Bernie Sanders’ free public college tuition plan. She proposed partnering with states to zero out tuition by 2020 for families making US$125,000 or less.

We know that American higher education faces serious long-term problems. However, reducing tuition or college debt to zero isn’t the right way to solve them.

We have been studying America’s higher education system and college costs. Our research tells us that the deep problems in American higher education today aren’t due to the fact that students borrow or pay tuition. It is because the schools serving the bulk of America’s underprivileged students are increasingly resource-starved.

So, what should our candidates be worrying about when it comes to higher education? And what policies might make a dent in our real problems?

Inequality in higher education

Let’s first look at how higher education has been split into separate and unequal worlds.

As researchers Caroline Hoxby and Sarah Turner have shown, students who attend a college ranked “most competitive” by Barron’s, a financial magazine, enjoy $27,000 of instructional spending per student. These include schools such as Yale, Duke, Kenyon and the University of Miami. At a “non-selective” four-year university that number drops to $5,000. This group includes many non-flagship state universities and small liberal arts colleges that accept most applicants.

The divide is further deepened as only a small percentage of low-income students are able to attend top universities. Only four percent of the students who attend the institutions rated as “most competitive” are from the bottom quarter of the socioeconomic status distribution. Students from the bottom half of the income distribution cluster at community colleges and non-selective four-year institutions.

Rising income inequality and declining state support for higher education further risks cementing in place this division between first class and steerage class education.

Rising inequality, declining state support

Consider the following facts: Most of the income growth since 1965 has gone to the richest 20 percent of American households. Since 2000, a household at the bottom fifth has lost $3,200, measured in 2014 dollars, or 13 percent of its income. But America’s richest five percent earns an extra $7,000.

U.S. household Income from 1967 to 2013. David Feldman, Author provided

For students from poor and middle-income families, stagnant or declining income is a real barrier to college access unless state or federal subsidies become more liberal.

But most states have cut funding to public universities. Between 2000-01 and 2014-15, annual state spending per full-time student fell by $2,573, measured in 2014 dollars. Over the same time period the annual tuition and fees paid by the average student at a public four-year university have risen by $2,038, also measured in 2014 dollars. Tuition increases have not fully recovered state cuts.

Despite tuition increases, public universities, and especially the less-selective non-flagships that serve the bulk of the population, are increasingly resource-starved.

Our calculations, based on data from the Delta Cost Project,which conducts research on how colleges spend their money, show the following: In 1987, public universities spent 88 cents for every dollar that private nonprofit institutions spent on the wages and salaries that drive instruction. By 1999 the ratio had fallen to 81 cents. And by 2010, it had fallen further, to 73 cents on the dollar.

This has consequences. Economists John Bound, Michael Lovenheim and Sarah Turner have found that falling graduation rates, especially among young men, are concentrated at resource-starved community colleges and less-selective public universities.

These researchers found that increases in the student/faculty ratio were the main culprit in declining graduation rates at public universities. This is driven by lack of resources. At community colleges, weaker student preparation is the problem, and this is a consequence of poverty.

What are candidates saying?

But these are not the issues that worry our candidates most. College debt has grabbed the headlines, so college debt has grabbed their attention.

Donald Trump. Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Donald Trump’s website currently contains nothing about higher education. But his campaign co-chair, Sam Clovis, recently offered the outlines of a Trump position. Among the proposals is that government should get out of the loan business – handing it back to private banks.

What would that mean for high school students, who have no collateral and no credit record? Banks generally will not lend money to 18-year-olds with nebulous plans, absent a guarantee. Clovis suggested the guarantee would come from colleges and universities, who would have to pay for student default. Their “skin” would be in the game.

In fact, Trump’s program would hand private banks a financial windfall, because they would earn the fees and interest, and if a student failed to keep up on payments, someone else would take the hit. In Trump’s world, those would be the schools that currently work with large numbers of “risky” underprivileged students.

Hillary Clinton’s platform contains a $25 billion fund to support private nonprofit colleges that serve underprivileged students. This would be, in our view, a step in the right direction if it could pass through Congress.

What we know about student debt

The substantive proposal in Clinton’s New College Compact is the following:

Every student should have the option to graduate from a public college or university in their state without taking on any student debt.

Our point is there is no good reason why debt should be off the table. Substantial gains go to the students who earn a degree, and reasonable amounts of debt are a good way to finance any long-run investment. Students who borrow near the average levels ($25,000 to $32,000), and who graduate, tend to have little difficulty paying back.

A demonstrator holds up a sign to protest student debt. Andrew Burton/Reuters

As Sandy Baum of the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, has shown, most of the “extreme” debt is concentrated in two places. The first is graduate students. The returns to their degrees are larger and less uncertain.

A doctor with $160,000 in debt is in much better shape than a dropout who has $14,000 to pay. Most of the dropouts come from under-resourced schools that serve our most at-risk students – this is a problem that worsens inequality.

The second is the for-profit sector. Although for-profits account for only nine percent of degrees awarded, they are responsible for a quarter of the total number of students whose debt exceeds $50,000. For-profits serve a lot of older students and many veterans using GI benefits.

What needs to change

In our view, two reforms could help break the trend toward inequality in the American higher education system.

The first is related to the federal government’s need-based Pell Grants of up to $5,815 per academic year. Pell Grants, which are awarded to low-income, undergraduate students, do not have to be repaid. So, they reduce the price of a year in college.

Ashland CTC, CC BY-NC-ND

In today’s dollars, the current maximum Pell Grant has slightly less purchasing power than it did in 1978.

Yet the cost of services – which includes everything from restaurant meals and haircuts to dental care and higher education – has risen faster than the inflation rate. As a result, a Pell Grant covers a declining portion of the cost of a year in college. The maximum Pell Grant covered 94 percent of the tuition and fees at a public university in 2000-01. By 2015-16 it covered only 61 percent. Congress could set the Pell maximum simply by tying increases to an index of service prices.

The second reform that we suggest is a federal program to encourage states to raise their own investment in public universities. Former Democratic Senator Tom Harkin proposed giving states a federal grant based on how much funding they provided per student at their own public universities.

In Harkin’s proposal, states would qualify for a grant if they spent at least $2,865 per student annually. States that offered more funding of their own could get a bigger grant per student from the federal government.

The advantage of Harkin’s bill was that it did not propose to micromanage how the grant would be used. States could use it to hold down tuition growth, but they could also use it to improve the quality of the programming to help underprivileged students. Those are the students who currently fail in large numbers at underfunded public institutions.

We believe these two ideas alone could be a down payment on a fairer higher education system. These ideas would help funnel more resources into the colleges and universities that educate the vast majority of America’s at-risk student population.

The Conversation

David H. Feldman, Professor of Economics, College of William & Mary and Robert B. Archibald, Professor of Economics, College of William & Mary

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

Why are public colleges and universities enrolling too many out-of-state students?

Brendan Cantwell, Michigan State University

A recent report by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute pointed out how out-of-state enrollments at the University of Massachusetts are limiting opportunities for in-state students.

For the right-leaning Pioneer Institute, UMass is an example of the public sector run amok. But Pioneer is not alone. There are others who have voiced similar concerns. For example, a state audit came out with a scathing criticism of University of California for discriminating against local students. And recent federal data show 43 of the 50 state flagship schools enrolled fewer local students in 2014 than they did a decade earlier.

My experience as a higher education researcher suggests it is important to understand why colleges and universities are enrolling students from out of state. The point being that years of underfunding and the growth of market-based practices such as competition for tuition revenue have created incentives for colleges and universities to enroll nonresidents. The consequence of this has been added financial strain on lower-income students.

When public universities devote fewer resources to lower-income or minority students, that shows an erosion of the very mission for which the state colleges and universities, were founded.

Wooing nonresident students

Data complied by the College Board show the share of out-of-state students at public colleges and universities grew in 38 states between 2002 and 2012.

And it is not just prominent flagship schools that attracted out-of-state students. A study from the New America Foundation, a public policy think tank, found that even regional colleges are wooing nonresident students.

Is it diversity that is getting state universities to enroll nonresident students?Fabrice Florin, CC BY-SA

Clearly, out-of-state students can provide many educational gains: college students benefit when they interact with each other through a process economists call “peer effects,” which include the learning and social development students get from each other. Educational research shows all students gain from a diverse student body. By engaging with peers with different experience and viewpoints, students learn more both in and out of the classroom.

But it may not be the benefits of a diverse student body that are driving public schools to enroll nonresidents.

Going after the money

Nonresident students pay higher tuition at public colleges and universities. In 2013, average in-state tuition at public four-year colleges was US$7,526, but a whopping $17,047 for nonresidents.

Public institutions have been experiencing declining state funding for decades For example, state funds accounted for 52.8 percent of operating expenditures at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1987, but only 16.9 percent by 2012.

It comes as no surprise then that these institutions would look to nonresident students for additional revenue.

Nonresident students bring in much-needed revenue. Dollar image via www.shutterstock.com

A recent study found a strong relationship between state funding and nonresident students enrollment. When states increase funding, public institutions enroll fewer nonresidents.

“Enticing” students

Public colleges and universities were established by the states to educate residents and to improve the lives of people through research and service. However, in recent years, these institutions have become increasingly focused on improving their own bottom line and competing in the marketplace. Recruiting nonresident students who pay high tuition is one way in which public schools compete in markets.

The market for nonresident students can be understood as a form of interstate and international commerce.

Colleges compete to attract wealthy nonresident students by providing “country club” campuses, investing in luxury dorms and other amenities that attract wealthy students.

Who pays the price?

Policymakers in the U.S. have long favored markets in higher education, the idea being that when institutions compete they will offer better-quality and lower-priced education.

The question of quality is difficult to assess, but here is the impact this market-based approach had on price.

Changes to the way higher education was funded in the 1980s and 1990s encouraged colleges to compete for revenue. Aid came to be allocated to students rather than schools and more in the form of loans. Along with this came shrinking of direct funding from the states while increasing funds available through competition.

Over time, competition for revenue helped to drive the price of tuition up. Adjusting for inflation, the average net price for instate tuition at public four-year colleges increased by 170 percent between 1990 to 2015.

Predictably, students and institutions with the fewest resources are left to face the greatest challenges of such a steep hike. In 2008, it took 90 percent of family earnings to cover tuition at a public four-year college for students in the bottom fifth of the income distribution.

Who pays? Tania Liu, CC BY-ND

In this process, institutions that enroll a high proportion of local lower-income students rather than competing for lucrative nonresidents have become most vulnerable.

For example, underfunding has resulted in overcrowded classrooms and crumbling facilities at the City University of New York, where over half of the students come from families with incomes below US$30,000. And this is not the only such example.

A budget impasse in Illinois brought Chicago State University, with a student population that is 69 percent low-income, to the brink of closure.

What is to be done?

The California-based Campaign for College Opportunity, a nonprofit that works to expand college access, suggests capping nonresident enrollment at public colleges and universities. And the plan is gaining traction. Hillary Clinton recently endorsed caps on nonresidents at the University of California.

Setting limitations on nonresident students might seem to be common sense. However, institutional autonomy has been a strength of higher education in the U.S.

Further, my evaluation of the evidence suggests that it is funding cuts and market competition rather than nonresident enrollments per se that have drawn higher education away from its public mission.

Perhaps little can be done in the near term. But over a longer period public reinvestment combined with renewal of the public mission among state intuitions seems a more sustainable path than an arbitrary cap on nonresident enrollments.

The Conversation

Brendan Cantwell, Assistant Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education, Michigan State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

Improving College Diversity in 2018

Many Americans are surprised by the 2016 election results, but at this point, the results will stand and later this month, a new U.S. President will be inaugurated. It remains to be seen what the Trump presidency will mean for diversity – and that’s true at the college level too.

If we want to make a positive difference for the future of America, change begins with education. Emphasis must be placed on the inclusion of all students, regardless of gender, ethnicity or economic status. Diversifying our nation’s elite colleges would be a step in the right direction. An increased number of college graduates from top universities equates to a more educated, skilled and productive workforce for our country.

Reaching the Working-Class Student

Though many colleges and universities enroll students with diverse ethnicities from all over the globe, disadvantaged students do not typically enjoy the same inclusion. Overall, college just isn’t as accessible to working-class students. What’s more, troubling is that many low and middle-class students could thrive at a top university if only given a chance. Often, financially disadvantaged students who obtain top test scores and grades, don’t even bother applying to these schools.

Case in point: According to a study conducted by education researchers from Harvard and Stanford, just 34 percent of high school seniors who excelled academically and were in the bottom income distribution bracket, attended one of the nation’s selective colleges. For students in the highest income category, the figure was 78 percent. Although public and private universities have expressed a desire to recruit economically diverse students, it’s just not happening.

Unfortunately, of the low-income students who do choose to pursue higher education, many select community colleges or institutions based primarily on their proximity to home. The outcome of attending these schools is that fewer resources tend to be offered and many formerly high-achieving high school students, wind up not even graduating college.

Early Encouragement

Paving the way early on can set the tone for a child’s entire educational career. If programs and services can be tailored to the students who are most often overlooked, we may be able to influence the number of diverse college students positively. By identifying and targeting disadvantaged children as young as middle school age, schools may be able to, at the very minimum, provide information on the importance of quality higher education.

Resources and dedicated staff should be made available during the school day for students to access throughout their education. Delivering financial aid information and materials to interested students would also go a long way in establishing awareness for available assistance. It’s crucial that top ranked universities play their part, as well. Offering community outreach programs and forging public school partnerships in poor areas, is a good place to start.

If institutions become more accessible to students via programming and recruitment endeavors, the odds that students will be fully informed when it comes time to consider higher education are increased.

Beyond Test Scores

In addition to an emphasis on better targeting and programming throughout schooling, colleges may also want to examine their traditional means of determining and selecting candidates. Less focus on grades and SAT/ACT scores and more attention placed on student portfolios and potential should be in order. How a student will fare in college, and in the working world, aren’t always made evident by test scores. The option of taking other qualifications into account allows institutions the opportunity to diversify their student population greatly.

Another issue worth touching on is retention of diverse students and what can be done to ensure their collegiate success. Programs and support for non-traditional students would be ideal, even being offered before classes beginning, to aid in easing the transition. Resources specific to first-generation students, full-time working students, and students who are parents, are just a few examples of the specifically targeted assistance that could make a positive impact.

The bottom line is, higher education opportunities need to be equally available to all. If we are to correct the inequality running rampant at colleges nationwide, special focus must be made to assist underprivileged students in their quest for higher education.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

How The Competency-Based Model Will Revolutionize Higher Education

By: Laura Seuschek, Chief Creative Officer at Wisewire

Higher education across the globe is in a state of transition. Online learning has become commonplace and the opportunities to present and teach can be handled literally without borders. The result is an industry at a crossroads. Particularly in the United States, the cost of traditional college and graduate school continues to rise while competency-based education (CBE) emerges as a new pedagogical approach.

CBE focuses on outcomes, or the mastery of specific skills. CBE programs range in execution, but most are developed as online programs that cater to very specific needs. Rather than attempt a broad range of topics in the traditional education model, CBE allows students to select topics relevant to their career goals and focus intensely on those topics until mastery is achieved. In many cases, CBE courses interweave a variety of workplace related competencies, and the result is often program graduates who are immediately hirable, all without the cost of a traditional four-year degree.

The idea that the college experience does not have to be limited to four years of balancing a strict timeline of education with a dynamic social is somewhat counterintuitive to ideas ingrained in education culture. However, as the economics of higher education grow more costly, affordable alternatives are growing in popularity, particularly because of these new ideas:

#1: Skills, Not Time

The traditional educational model is based on blocks of time tied to topics. Semesters, quarters, years, –they are all arbitrarily assigned finish lines and require students to balance their studies and their lives. Organizing one’s life around a traditional college timeline is even more difficult for those students older than the stereotypical college age of 18 to 22. CBE offers students a way to be efficient learners, bypassing areas of strength and focusing instead on career-specific skills and subject areas. This model allows students to forego redundant pre-requisites or topical breadth requirements and instead dive directly into content that is truly important: the skills needed to thrive in a competitive job environment.

#2: Start at the Right Place

Traditional education has become so routine that students do not question if the material is necessary to set them up for success. If students are forced to learn the history of accounting or take a course on subject matters that  they are already well-versed on, then they may shrug it off as an “easy A”. CBE flips that on its ear with assessments that demonstrate when students have mastered a skill and give credit for prior learning, allowing students to skip past unnecessary and redundant pre-requisites. The investment of both time and money into training and learning is thus optimized, breaking the mentality of an “easy A” and instead focusing purely on pushing the student forward. Not only does this shift to targeted learning make greater use of resources, it transforms the educational culture from one of “have to do” to “want to do.”

#3: Cost

When most people reflect on their college experience, they often focus on the social aspect, the transition from living with parents or guardians to adult independence. However, not everyone needs this level of social interaction. Some traditional college age students simply want to enter the workforce as quickly as possible while many older students are looking to open up job options or further their education. CBE is an effective option for students looking for targeted instruction without the need for the campus experience, which makes up a significant part of the tuition. CBE focuses on mastery of needed skills, which allows for a greater individual cost savings, particularly for students who are able to receive credit for previous work or place out of pre-requisites through assessments.

Note: Federal Student Aid does not currently cover non-traditional models, though the Department of Education is beginning to offer Title IV aid for innovative models.

#4: Maintaining the Cutting Edge

The best designed CBE programs are informed by learning science, student outcomes data, as well as program effectiveness data including alignment to workplace. Advanced analytics track metrics regarding mastery, adapting programs for maximum effectiveness. The analytics associated with CBE optimizes the program for current students and provides data to content developers for future programs. Through the use of smart reporting and predictive algorithms, programs can be improved at both macro and micro levels on a regular basis.

CBE is a developing field, one that is advancing in distribution and interaction as technology evolves.  In the past decade, online learning has grown from mere slideshow presentations and PDF workbooks to truly interactive and optimized modules, and this evolution will only continue to advance. The result? More access to higher education, leading to a stronger and more-skilled workforce and thus faster growth of the global economy and innovation. The CBE journey is truly just beginning.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

The Edvocate’s List of 40 Must-Read Higher Education Blogs

*The Edvocate is pleased to produce its “Best of the Best” resource lists. These lists provide our readers with rankings for education-related blogs, twitter accounts, influencers, products, etc. These lists are meant to be fluid, and for that reason, they are regularly updated to provide up to the moment information.*

The world of higher education is unlike any other sphere. It is a place where young people strive to learn who they are and find a career path, where leading experts pass on knowledge, and many people simply try to figure out what they want to do.

There are so many thought leaders and experts in the realm of higher education. This can make trying to wade through a wealth of higher education blogs seem impossible. The following list can help you find some of the most insightful, educational, and entertaining blogs in higher education. We’ve even gone through and ranked them to help you determine which are the most helpful.

The rankings for are broken down into four categories.

  1. Activity (25%). Blogs need to be regularly updated. The blogs that are updated daily (or almost daily) score well here.
  2. Originality (25%). Sites should offer something new so that they have more value (otherwise, why would you read them).
  3. Helpfulness (25%). There is a lot of information in higher education, so the sites need to be helpful for resolving problems and knowing what is happening. A high score here means that the site is almost universally helpful – if it deals more with a niche, the score could be a little lower as it will not be useful or helpful to everyone interested in higher education.
  4. Authority (25%). The blogger or bloggers are experts or authorities in the field. If the blogger or bloggers are not experts (they could be in the media or writers who aren’t experts), the score will be lower.

The blogs are ranked first by their total score in these four areas. That will show you which ones are popular and are likely to contain information trending in your field. We also endeavored to give you a quick summary of what each blog covers.

  1. Higher Ed: NPR

Managed by NPR, this is a blog that covers all of the latest news, both highly publicized and little-known topics, making it a must read for anyone in higher education. It has something for students, staff, faculty, and administrators, and can help you keep current with the rapidly changing world of academia.

Score:  Active 25, Original 25, Helpfulness 24, Authority 24
Total: 98

Twitter: @NPR_ED

  1. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

This blog provides a look at education from many different angles. The site is updated daily, but the blogs are updated a couple of times a month (sometimes more often based on the time of year). As the name suggests, it highlights the issues of concern to minorities in education.

Score:  Active 24, Original 25, Helpfulness 24, Authority 24
Total: 97

Twitter: @DiverseIssues

Newsletter: http://diverseeducation.com/news/subform.html

  1. Prof Hacker

This blog focuses on teaching, technology, and productivity within academia, but it does occasionally stray into politics when the latest news affects higher education.

Score:  Active 25, Original 24, Helpfulness 22, Authority 25
Total: 96

Twitter: @ProfHacker

  1. NACAC Admitted

The NACAC (or National Association for College Admission Counseling) is the place to go if you work in admission, or if you (or your kids) are getting ready to take the plunge into the admissions process.

Score:  Active 25, Original 22, Helpfulness 24, Authority 23
Total: 94

Twitter: @NACAC

  1. NAFSA: Association of International Educators

NAFSA focuses on the latest in news, from politics to holidays, around the world. They also offer advice on a number of different topics through guest bloggers.

Score:  Active 22, Original 24, Helpfulness 22.5, Authority 25
Total: 93.5

Twitter: @NAFSA

  1. Campus Technology

For the latest in news about available and upcoming technology on campus, you should have this blog bookmarked. Multiple posts are added daily, making it something you can make part of your regular routine.

Score:  Active 21, Original 24, Helpfulness 23, Authority 25
Total: 93

Twitter: @Campus_Tech

  1. Bryan Alexander

One of the best-known authorities for technology in higher education, this blog covers a wide range of tech-related topics that can be inspirational and informative. From finances to international higher education to the latest news in the US, it is always worth a look to see what he has to say on a weekly basis.

Score:  Active 22, Original 23, Helpfulness 21, Authority 25
Total: 91

Twitter: @BryanAlexander

  1. ACRLog

The blogs focus on things that matter to both librarians and academics. It takes a look at how best to reach students through the library setup, how to manage events and a host of other items that you may not think about when you talk about libraries. It is a niche subject, but it is incredibly helpful to those who need their libraries or who are interested in seeing how best to utilize them in a higher education setting.

Score:  Active 23, Original 25, Helpfulness 19, Authority 22
Total: 89

Email: [email protected]

  1. Inside Higher Ed

This is a site that everyone in higher education should bookmark because it has posts about virtually everything in the field. With an area that goes to other blogs and articles, it is like a search engine just for those in the industry.

Score:  Active 25, Original 20., Helpfulness 21, Authority 22
Total: 88.5

Twitter: @InsideHigherEd

  1. Confessions of a Community College Dean

Followers of this blog get a look into the life and experiences of a dean. With facts, answers, tips, tricks, and the occasional touching tribute, this blog is great for anyone in academia. There are also details about how he balances work with family life so you will get a look into his wit and witticisms on a wide range of subjects. It is done somewhat anonymously, so if you want to contact the blogger, you will have to go through the comments section of the blog.

Score:  Active 25, Original 25, Helpfulness 15, Authority 23
Total: 88

  1. Times Higher Education

A higher education blog staple, Times Higher Education takes in the news and events about and on campus on a daily basis. It is a great way to start the day catching up on events that you may have missed or to prepare for tomorrow.

Score:  Active 25, Original 18.5, Helpfulness 23, Authority 20.9
Total: 86.9

Twitter: @TimesHigherEd

  1. Coursera Blog

Though not specific to higher education, this site covers a lot of related areas (as well as a lot that specifically address higher education issues and ideas).

Score:  Active 23, Original 20, Helpfulness 23, Authority 20.8

Total: 86.8

Twitter: @Coursera

  1. Frontiers

If you are interested in staying current with the latest in elearning, this is the blog to bookmark. With several posts a week, the site covers a range of elearning topics, such as adaptive learning, policies, and the use of the latest virtual tools.

Score:  Active 20.5, Original 21, Help 23, Authority 22
Total: 86.5

Twitter: @WCET_info

  1. Top Hat Blog

Top Hat strives to keep students and professors working together. They cover a good bit of news and assessments about higher education edtech too.

Score:  Active 23, Original 21, Helpfulness 20, Authority 22
Total: 86

Twitter: @TopHat

  1. IIE Opening Minds

The focus of this particular blog is on the various international learning experiences, such as studying abroad and latest learning theories around the globe. It takes a unique look at how to open minds through higher education on the international stage.

Score:  Active 16.9, Original 23, Helpfulness 22, Authority 24
Total: 85.9

Twitter: @IIEglobal

  1. International Student Blog

Designed to help international students, this blog focuses on the issues, concerns, and news specific to the niche. Whether you need advice on socializing in a new country, tips on traveling, or what to expect over the various holidays around the world, it is a great place for those who are learning outside of their home country.

Score:  Active 22, Original 23, Helpfulness 21, Authority 19.7
Total: 85.7

Twitter: @IntStudent

  1. Faculty Focus

Dedicated to professors, assistants, and anyone who teaches in higher education, this blog provides a lot of information on a regular basis. It also stays focused on this area so you will not get sidetracked by news and other topics that tend to dominate other sites.

Score:  Active 25, Original 19.5, Helpfulness 21, Authority 20
Total: 85.5

Twitter: @FacultyFocus

  1. A Millennial Professor’s View of Higher Education

The blog focuses on many of the different aspects of higher education administration and staffing, from finding a job to creating and maintaining long-term relationships in the academic world. If you are an administrator, this is definitely a blog you should be checking out regularly.

Score:  Active 18.3, Original 22, Helpfulness 23, Authority 22
Total: 85.3

Twitter: @drjtedwards

  1. EricStoller.com

This blog highlights many different conferences, technologies, and methods that are instrumental to being successful in the academic world. As it is managed by a consultant in the UK, you can also find some wisdom and words about how to successful work for others around the globe. There is a nice dovetail between the two areas, making it a blog that is great for educators and business professionals.

Score:  Active 18, Original 25, Helpfulness 18, Authority 23
Total: 84

Twitter: @EricStoller

  1. EDUCAUSE Blogs

This blog has a focus on legal and administrative concerns. There is a hefty dose of privacy related information posted on a regular basis, which is great as it is one of the fastest changing areas of technology. There is also a considerable amount of policy issues addressed, making it a great site for admin and staff.

Score:  Active 22, Original 21, Helpfulness 15, Authority 23
Total: 81

Twitter: @EDUCAUSEreview

  1. University Business

If you are in administration, this is a must follow blog to keep you informed and help you plan for the future. With multiple blogs posted daily, there is always something new for your to learn or consider.

Score:  Active 25, Original 17, Help 20, Authority 18.5
Total: 80.5

Twitter: @UniversityBusiness

  1. High Ed Webtech

For administrators and staff who manage their school’s tech, this site is invaluable. Regular posts cover the latest trends, how to do them right, and what to avoid.

Score:  Active 20, Original 23, Help 18.4, Authority 19
Total: 80.4

Twitter: @mrichwalsky

  1. Academic Computing

A new blog posts about every other month, but it well worth the wait. The focus is on coding in higher education and new technology. It also touches on topics that matter to professors and students who would like to keep up with the way colleges are teaching computer basics and coding.

Score:  Active 10, Original 25, Help 20, Authority 25
Total: 80

Twitter: @neilccbrown

  1. Will Richardson

If you want a thought provoking blog that takes on random subjects, this one does not disappoint. While other blogs tend to repeat each other, this one is utterly unique and enjoyable when you want to cogitate about something different.

Score:  Active 22, Original 25, Help 17, Authority 15.5
Total: 79.5

Twitter: @WillRich45

  1. Academic Tech Tips

This blog takes a look at the newest tools and trends that professors and administrators can use in schools. It also provides some help on common tools and how to get the most out of them.

Score:  Active 23, Original 19, Help 20, Authority 17
Total: 79

Email: [email protected]

  1. UnCollege

This is a blog aimed at a very specific niche in higher education – student taking a year off of going to school. Since the point is to take a break, the blog gives you ideas and advice about how to make that year both productive and enjoyable so that you are ready to go back and finish your degree with enthusiasm.

Score:  Active 20, Original 25, Help 15, Authority 18.6
Total: 78.6

Twitter: @UnCollege

  1. Udacity

The primary focus is on data and technology, but there is also a heavy emphasis in how they change higher education. It is an interesting blog to track for those who are interested in technology or who want to see where edtech could take higher education in a few years.

Score:  Active 19, Original 21, Help 18.3, Authority 20
Total: 78.3

Twitter: @Udacity

  1. The College Puzzle

Geared more towards students, this blog focuses on how to adapt and thrive in college. They post regularly, making it a site to bookmark for regular perusal.

Score:  Active 25, Original 19, Help 18, Authority 16
Total: 78

Twitter: @Michael_Kirst

  1. The Theory Blog

This blog looks at some of the most entrenched ideas in higher education and questions them. It is thought provoking, even if you do not always agree, making it well worth a monthly check for updates.

Score:  Active 15, Original 25, Help 18.5, Authority 19
Total: 77.5

Twitter: @BonStewart

  1. On Campus

Covering the latest information on campus, this blog is a treasure trove of the latest news, trends, and statistics. It is a great resource for students, professors, and staff, and gives you a way to connect with others to get more information.

Score:  Active 22, Original 16, Help 22, Authority 17
Total: 77

Twitter: @OnCampusWGBH

  1. e-Literate

For the latest in initiatives, news, edtech, and other concerns in higher education, this is a great blog to visit often. With daily posts, there is a wealth of information on this site. When you have some extra time, dig into the archives for some additional learning.

Score:  Active 22, Original 18, Help 19, Authority 17.5
Total: 76.5

Twitter: @mfeldstein67

  1. Campus Overload

This is the site to bookmark if you want to stay current on any news that is either related to higher education or that can have a serious effect on the field. Many of the issues posted are related to activism and concerns on campuses across the country.

Score:  Active 24, Original 15, Help 22, Authority 15
Total: 76

Email:  [email protected]

  1. Logorrhea

As the name suggests, this is a blog that tends to go all over the place, hitting both high profile and more obscure topics in higher education. There is a lot of advice in that can help you keep things in perspective through some of the most difficult situations.

Score:  Active 17, Original 23, Help 18, Authority 17.5
Total: 75.5

Twitter: @DavidJHinson

  1. HEDDA

HEDDA stands of the Higher Education Development Association, and their focus is on helping instructors and administrators. With postings about once a week, they provide details on events and news that can help you plan for future conferences or take lessons learned from recent academic events.

Score:  Active 23, Original 16, Help 18, Authority 19
Total: 75

Twitter: @HEDDAhighere

  1. Blog High Ed

Blog High Ed pulls blogs on higher education and puts them in a single space. The topics cover the gamut of what you need to know in higher education, from Google Analytics and teaching in the classroom to graduation to the latest news. Anyone attending, teaching, or attached to a college or university should bookmark the site and check back regularly for new information.

Score:  Active 25, Original 10, Help 20, Authority 18.5
Total: 73.5

Twitter: @mherzber

Email: [email protected]

  1. Higher Ed Live

The weekly posts to this blog cover the entire higher education gamut. From how to relate to students to dealing with social media to helping get parents engaged, this site has something for everyone who works in academia. They also offer a “Best of” list at the end of the year to help you sift through the wealth of blogs for the highlights.

Score:  Active 19, Original 20, Help 18, Authority 16
Total: 73

Twitter: @HigherEDLive

  1. Student Affairs & Technology Leadership

Take a look at higher education through the eyes of Joe Sabado. His blogs cover many of the challenges he has faced and experiences that have enriched him on his road to becoming the CIO of Student Affairs in Santa Barbara, CA. It is well worth the read if you aspire to become a higher education administrator, or simply want to improve in areas like public speaking and communicating across different departments.

Score:  Active 15, Original 21, Help 19, Authority 17
Total: 72

Twitter: @JoeSabado

  1. Campus Grotto

A great blog for students and educators, this site provides a lot of information on pretty much anything related to higher education. It is geared more towards those who are new to the arena, but it can give you some great insight no matter how long you have been in academia.

Score:  Active 19, Original 20, Help 20, Authority 15
Total: 70

Twitter: @CampusGrotto

Email form:  http://campusgrotto.com/contact-us

  1. Totally Rewired

The tagline for the site says it all – “…education, technology and random stuff.” The site is a great source of information about higher education, and a bit of random news and trending topics to keep you entertained as well as informed.

Score:  Active 12, Original 22, Help 18, Authority 16
Total: 68

Twitter: @Chri5Rowell

  1. Higher Ed Management

With a focus on those in the management of higher education, this blog is a great read even if you are not in management. It can give you advice if you are a higher education leader, or it can let you see how to better work with the administration at your school.

Score:  Active 10, Original 18, Help 16, Authority 20
Total: 64

Twitter: @HigheredMgmt

Conclusion

Whether you are a student, staff, faculty, or administrative, it can be incredibly difficult to stay current on the latest news and trends. By keeping track of a few of your favorite blogs, you can at least take research off of your to-do list.

 

 

 

 

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

Diversity in Higher Education: What MLK Would Say About?

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is recognized as one of the greatest speakers of the 20th century. He championed for equality by focusing on how nonviolent action could bring change, an end to racial injustice, and a movement toward racial equality. One of the areas needing improvement was higher education. If Dr. King were alive today, what would he have to say about diversity in higher education? Continue reading to find out.

In his June 11, 1967, speech, King spoke of the limited roads offered to minorities on the economic highway. Often, education is considered a method for bringing people out of poverty. Higher levels of education provide individuals with more opportunities, and people can build stronger communities through their support and compassion.

So, as we reach the 50th anniversary of that speech, we are left to wonder what King would have to say about our progress in equalizing opportunities in higher education through diversity initiatives and other efforts. While we may not know for certain, here are some points that would likely have him talking.

Diversity Initiatives in the Early 1970s to Now

A study conducted by Peter L. Hinrichs, a Georgetown University Assistant Professor of Public Policy, looked to determine the measures of segregation in higher education as based on comparisons of the number of white and black individuals in the student body. Not surprisingly, Hinrichs found that desegregation efforts increased diversity the most notably in the early 1970s.

During that time, it wasn’t uncommon for colleges and universities to openly recruit minority students as part of the larger segregation efforts associated with the progress made by the civil rights movement. However, over time, many of these practices fell out of favor. This has led to many institutions of higher learning to become less diverse over time incidentally.

While King may find these statistics disheartening, it is important to interject some key points. First, many college students choose to attend schools near their homes. Since populations aren’t evenly dispersed through the country, some regions will show college student bodies with makeup similar to the surrounding area regardless of other efforts.

Second, some schools, such as those labeled as historically black colleges and universities, will also show less diversity. The institution’s original mission attract specific portions of the population based on their history and not necessarily their current actions.

Affirmative Action and College Enrollment

The affirmative action movement has been controversial since its inception, though more so for the way it is used than the underlying concept. The intent of these programs is to allow race to be a factor in choosing which applicants are admitted, giving preference to minorities under certain circumstances. And that was an idea that King actually supported.

In fact, in his book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos of Community?, King explicitly stated, “[a] society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro.”

However, his thoughts on the affirmative action concept weren’t so much guided by racial motives, but issues of need. His goal focused more on finding support for members of the poor regardless of any other characteristic, a sentiment well expressed in this quote from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1964:

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”

So, maybe the larger question shouldn’t be what King would think of diversity in higher education. Perhaps, it should be about what King would think of our world today.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Higher Education

Growth in K-12 Student Diversity Impacts Postsecondary Education

The number of United States public high school graduates is predicted to level off during the next few years. During the same time, the overall amount of high school graduates of color is expected to increase. With the rise in diversity, colleges and universities need to focus on how to not only enroll student of color, but to ensure their success. This goal doesn’t just impact the colleges and universities, it’s also a matter of economic competitiveness and sustainability. As for the institutions with dwindling enrollment, emphasis on diverse students is a matter of survival.

More Minorities Knocking on College Door

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) recently released its annual Knocking at the College Door report that forecasts high school graduate statistics. The most significant finding was that the total number of high school graduates will plateau for the majority of the following decade. This segment attained a record high of approximately 3.47 million in 2012-2013 and is anticipated to experience brief growth between 2024-2026, reaching an estimated 3.56 million. The plateau is attributed to White student population decline, countered by an increase in minority public high school grads, specifically Asian/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics.

According to the new WICHE report, through 2025 the number of Hispanic high school graduates will grow by 50 percent, to roughly 920,000. The current postsecondary completion rate is 21 percent for Hispanics, compared to 45 percent for Whites. With the Hispanic population experiencing the most growth overall, something must be done to address the fact that Hispanic students have the lowest educational attainment rate. The rate of growth for Asian/Pacific Islander graduates is estimated to increase by 30 percent, from 185,000 in 2014 to 240,000 students in 2032.

As a whole, the Asian/Pacific Islander segment has a 61 percent postsecondary completion rate. However, college attainment varies within Asian subgroups, with some completion rates falling in the low teens. The Black student population is forecast to decline from 15 percent to 14 percent, decreasing by approximately 27,000 students over the next 15 years.

Obstacles to Minority College Success

Both Black and Hispanic students have faced obstacles with respect to graduating on time and securing a position paying middle-class wages. It’s believed that one reason this occurs is due to students selecting majors that generally compensate at less than median wages. Education leaders must evaluate why diverse students are choosing majors that don’t pay off financially. This is where high school counseling would be beneficial, to effectively demonstrate the career trajectory and financial implications of pursuing various college majors.

Another influencing factor in lower college graduation rates among minorities is that many are first-generation college students who come from working-class homes. The world of postsecondary education and the professional jobs that follow are not familiar. It’s an overwhelming feeling to simultaneously feel like you aren’t sure what you are doing, but you must be the first in your family to accomplish a college degree. Many colleges and universities are addressing these unique first-generation issues by assigning specific counselors and programs to these students. That’s a trend that needs to continue, particularly as minority college attendance rates rise in the coming decade.

The rise in the minority population of high school graduates poses a challenge, too. The trends illustrate the necessity for more comprehensive college and career counseling during the high school years. It’s imperative to provide students with resources throughout their K-12 careers, in order to ensure their knowledge of workforce outcomes. Counseling prior to making the higher education shift is a method for establishing this connection. Many colleges are shifting to a portfolio process for acceptance, as opposed to just report cards and SAT/ACT scores. These portfolios are started in early high school and help guide students across the high school graduation stage.

Postsecondary institutions must also look for ways to increase opportunity and foster equality, with a major emphasis on appealing to student diversity.  An increase in the number of minority college graduates and educated workers will have a positive impact on the U.S. economy and the university landscape must plan now to make it a reality. More students of color and from at-risk backgrounds are seeking higher education as a means to improve their own livelihoods and the end result will be a stronger, well-rounded U.S. economy.

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, Higher Education, Matthew Lynch

3 Startling Facts about Ivy League Schools

Ivy League schools are prestigious, with many students vying for acceptance and few actually earning a spot as an attendee. However, their reputation does not reveal the whole picture about these schools. For example, are these schools really worth the hefty price tag? Here are three interesting facts that should get you thinking about Ivy League schools a little differently.

1. Ivies are among the wealthiest schools in the nation. The truth is that attracting the best and brightest to one’s campus is always easier when money flows as freely as spring water.

According to a report by Moody’s Investor Service, Americans colleges and universities are developing a wealth gap problem.

“One third of all assets held by colleges and universities” are with the country’s 10 wealthiest universities.

A few on the list include Harvard, Texas, Stanford, Yale, MIT, and Duke. Of the top ten, three are public universities. The rest are private.

Harvard, perhaps the nation’s most prestigious university, is also the country’s richest. In terms of wealth, Harvard is stout with $42.8 billion. That’s almost $10 billion more than the University of Texas, which comes in second.

The report also states that the country’s richest schools “capture the bulk of charitable gifts flowing to higher education” to the tune of 60 percent.

But one of the more interesting portions of the study lands with how many schools collect their revenue. The collection of tuition and student fees at the country’s top 20 private educational institutions has a median of 15 percent. That number jumps to 46 percent for public colleges.

Moody’s report concludes that because of the recovering economy and stock market, university endowments for the country’s wealthiest schools have aided in their increased wealth.

2. Ivy League schools are not an instant payoff for graduates. For people seeking the cushiest early-career salaries, the Ivy Leagues aren’t paying off instantly.

Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia don’t make it into the top 30 universities for starting salaries. University of Chicago, a tie for fourth, doesn’t make the top 200.

The top three schools? The U.S. Naval Academy, Harvey Mudd and West Point.

The list of schools that prepare students for a career with a high starting salary post-graduation day include many other elite military and tech schools, according to a report by PayScale that surveyed 1.5 million employees with degrees from over 1,000 colleges.

Graduates of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis earn a median annual salary of over $80,000 over their first five years post-graduation, earning the school the top number of surveyed schools.

The PayScale survey tells us that Princeton, the highest performing Ivy League school offers its graduates a median starting salary of $60,000 – earning is the 34th highest in the country.

The nation’s traditionally elite schools distinguish themselves with a salary growth near graduates’ mid-career. Graduates from Ivy League and like schools see their pay jump significantly when they are more than ten years past graduation.

3. Actually, high college tuition may not correlate with high earnings at all. Saving a year’s worth of salary for one year of higher education at Harvard may yield great career results for some but that may not be true for all.

According to U.S. News and World Report, a recent Brookings Study shows that “other schools may either not cost as much and yield a similar salary and success of loan repayment, or they may cost about the same but generate higher earnings potential.”

Harvard is a small sample size and represents a limited portion of the zenith of college costs. But, in essence, the study shows that one may earn just as much for the duration of their career by attending a college with cheaper tuition.

That’s not a knock against Harvard as students, and their parents, are free to choose any school that matches with their educational goals.

This is an alternative that students have always taken. Take Ronald Nelson, a student who was accepted to all eight Ivy League schools.

Instead of choosing a prestigious Ivy League school, and the tuition that came along with it, Nelson went with the University of Alabama.

He said that Alabama “offered him a full scholarship and admittance into their selective honors program.” Nelson also wants to save for medical school and states that going to an Ivy League higher education institution would not allow him that luxury.

Students and parents have to make the decision that’s best for them. Rising costs of higher education will likely force more students to choose cheaper schools over ones with higher tuition rates.

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education

Making college matter

Leo M. Lambert, Elon University and Peter Felten, Elon University

Over the next several weeks 18.4 million students will be headed to colleges and universities in the United States. They, their families and taxpayers are making a monumental investment in the futures of these students, believing, correctly, that an undergraduate education is foundational to success in a global and knowledge-based economy.

Many students arrive in college without a clear sense of purpose or direction. That is to be expected. A significant part of the undergraduate experience, after all, involves grappling with big questions about professional, personal and civic identity. Who am I? What do I want to do with my life? How can I contribute to my community and the world? The best students pursue these questions with vigor.

But many others come to college with too little appreciation for the vast opportunities before them, gloss over foundational curricular requirements as merely hurdles to be cleared, show far too little drive in developing a plan to make the most of their educations and focus too heavily on the party scene.

Analyzing data from a study of more than two dozen institutions, sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa conclude that many students “enter college with attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors that are often at odds with academic commitment.” And many universities reinforce these beliefs by building lavish amenities and marketing themselves as something akin to a resort with a curriculum.

An undergraduate education is simply too precious an opportunity to squander or to approach halfheartedly. And while college should ultimately prepare graduates to make a living, it can be – it must be – far more than that.

The good news is that there are simple yet powerful things students can do to ensure that they have a transformative undergraduate experience, no matter where they go to college.

In our book “The Undergraduate Experience,” drawing on decades of work and scholarship in higher education and also interviews with leaders and students from many institutions, we identified what matters most for students.

Two factors are most important.

Take responsibility for learning

Too often students (and others) think learning is a simple process of taking knowledge from the professor during class and then returning it, unharmed, on the test.

When sociologist Mary Grigsby interviewed scores of undergraduates at a large midwestern university, many students echoed the words of one who told her:

“I hate classes with a lot of reading that is tested on. Any class where a teacher is just gonna give us notes and a worksheet or something like that is better. Something that I can study and just learn from in five [minutes] I’ll usually do pretty good in.”

Real learning – that is, learning that makes a significant and lasting change in what a person knows or can do – emerges from what the student, not the professor, does. Of course, professors are critical actors in the process, but students are the ones doing the learning.

To take responsibility for their own learning, students need to move past what psychologist David Perkins has called possessive and performative understandings of knowledge, where learning is about acquiring new facts or demonstrating expertise in classroom settings.

Instead, meaningful learning emerges from a proactive conception of knowledge, where the student’s goal is to experiment with new and unexpected ways of using what he or she is learning in different settings. This requires students to see themselves as the central actors in the drama of learning.

Whether students choose to take the stage or sit in the balcony matters immensely.

Bard College students abroad in Berlin. Irina Stelea, CC BY-SA

When students jump into learning, challenging themselves to stretch and grow, college is most powerful.

Reflections from an Ohio University engineering student show what this looks like:

“[My goal for my senior] year was to try to do things that maybe I’m not good at already so that I can learn to do these things. I will have to do this once I have a job so avoiding projects that are uncomfortable for me now won’t help me NOT avoid them when I’m a part of the work force.”

Develop meaningful relationships

The relationships students form in college also have a profound influence on their experiences, shaping not only who they spend time with but how they will spend their time.

When scholars asked graduates at Hamilton College to think back on their undergraduate years, these alumni pointed to specific individuals (often professors, coaches or classmates) who shaped their paths.

Students typically think first about relationships with peers. These are essential, of course. Finding friends and cohort groups can be reassuring, but scholars have found that students who interact frequently with peers who are different in significant ways (racially, ethnically, religiously, socioeconomically and so on) show more intellectual and social growth in college than those who don’t.

Again, as with learning, students need to move beyond the familiar to find meaning.

And peer relationships are not only about fun. Decades of research have demonstrated that students who study together learn more and more deeply. As the mathematician Uri Treisman reported in a classic study of undergraduate calculus courses that has been replicated in other disciplines, students from many different backgrounds are more academically successful when they

“work with their peers to create for themselves a community based on shared intellectual interests and common professional aims.”

Relationships with faculty also are highly significant.

A large 2014 survey by Gallup and Purdue University revealed that college graduates who believed they had a professor who (1) cared about them as individuals, (2) made them excited about learning and (3) encouraged them to pursue their dreams reported being far happier and more successful than their peers years after graduation.

A recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Levine Scholars Program, a prestigious scholarship for academically talented students interested in civic engagement, told us how the mentoring of sociologist Diane Zablotsky transformed her view of herself:

“I arrived at UNC-C shy and uncertain. But Dr. Zablotsky taught me how to go and get what I wanted. She made me do all the work, but coached along the way and helped me develop great confidence in myself.”

What matters for all students

Critically, what we’re describing here doesn’t apply only to privileged, 18-22-year-olds at elite institutions.

Just one of the many internships on offer…. White House

In fact, Ashley Finley and Tia Brown McNair, scholars at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, have shown that high-impact educational experiences like internships, undergraduate research, capstone courses and study abroad have particularly positive outcomes for students who traditionally have been underserved in American higher education.

A study at the University of California, Davis reinforces this finding by demonstrating that engaging in mentored undergraduate research beyond the typical requirements for biology courses is particularly significant in preparing African-American undergraduates to successfully pursue graduate study and careers in the sciences.

Results from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) also show that institutional prestige and financial resources do not determine the quality of student opportunities:

“Institutions with lower selectivity profiles can and often do offer experiences with faculty that are at least comparable to those at more selective institutions.”

As the NSSE director notes: “Doing those things may not cost any more than not doing them.”

Powerful education, in other words, is available to all students at all institutions, if they intentionally choose experiences that are challenging and relationship-rich.

Acting on what matters most

Douglas Spencer, a 2016 Elon University graduate and now young alumnus trustee, captured what’s at stake in recent remarks to fellow students.

Doug Spencer. Elon University, Author provided

Doug described coming to campus without a strong sense of who he was as a black man or of what he might do with his life. Then, challenged by friends and professors to think more deeply about his own identity, “I unlocked some sort of hidden energy I did not know I possessed.” He began to read not just for class, but (even more) in his free time. Inspired by this reading and his other studies, and echoing W.E.B. Du Bois,

“It became clear to me that the only way I would find real success was if I learned to thrive in times of uncertainty.”

Colleges and universities play an outsized role in shaping the lives of individual students like Doug.

Indeed, we, as educators, cannot recall a time when it mattered more for higher education to cultivate students capable of acting entrepreneurially, ethically, cooperatively and creatively to address complex problems in local, national and global contexts.

That starts with students beginning the academic year ready to act on what matters most for their own learning.

The Conversation

Leo M. Lambert, President, Elon University and Peter Felten, Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning and Executive Director, Center for Engaged Learning, Elon University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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