CONAHEC News and Information

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020

Sara Goldrick-Rab is Professor of Sociology and Medicine and Founding Director of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University. Christine Baker-Smith is Managing Director and Director of Research at the Hope Center.

As the fall season approaches, students and higher education administrators are preparing for a difficult return to college.

With both the coronavirus pandemic and overdue attention to systemic racism confronting the sector, one thing is clear: For many, a new mindset is required to produce positive results for students.

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020

Sara Goldrick-Rab is Professor of Sociology and Medicine and Founding Director of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University. Christine Baker-Smith is Managing Director and Director of Research at the Hope Center.

As the fall season approaches, students and higher education administrators are preparing for a difficult return to college.

With both the coronavirus pandemic and overdue attention to systemic racism confronting the sector, one thing is clear: For many, a new mindset is required to produce positive results for students.

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020

Young people who are the first in their family to go to university are less likely to attend an elite institution and are more likely to drop out than those with graduate parents, according to new research led by the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies. 

Published today in the Oxford Review Of Education, the study is the first to use large scale nationally representative data to explore the experiences of first generation or ‘first in the family’ university students in England, a group which has been prioritised in initiatives designed to widen access to higher education. 

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020

Not long after the COVID-19 pandemic caused colleges to start teaching remotely, students balked at the idea of paying full tuition for online learning. It’s not hard to understand why. After all, they were not getting the football and basketball games, student clubs, access to labs and the library and the out-of-class conversations that are all part of the typical campus experience.

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020

Businesses — whether large or small, or whether they are healthcare, educational cultural or recreational institutions — all have been tragically affected by COVID-19. For colleges and universities, the beginning of the fall semester will be especially challenging. 

Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020

Following news Friday that 20% of Harvard freshmen have chosen to defer, a new survey out today suggests it will be even worse for the rest of higher education with 40% of expected freshmen attending 4-year residential colleges saying they are likely or highly likely to not attend this fall. On top of this, 28% of returning students say they are not going back or haven’t decided yet. Earlier surveys from late April suggested enrollment drops of as much as 20%.

Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020

Ahead of the coming reopening of further education, universities and colleges around America are beginning to announce massive layoffs and job cuts, citing financial difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Public and private university systems announcing cuts to staff, pay and benefits include the University of Massachusetts, California State University, Boston University, University of Arizona and many others.

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020

Raven Liu always thought that she had a chance, however slim it was, to travel from Beijing to the University of Southern California to attend her first semester in person, even during a pandemic.

“It’s meaningless to learn online because I study film production,” the newly enrolled graduate student said. “I can’t collaborate with my teammates for shooting, and my first year of production courses can be wasted.”

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020

Tuition payments at Texas A&M University come due in just 10 days. But rising junior Hayley Jarjoura — and more than 8,000 of her fellow Aggies — don’t think they should have to pay the full rate for online classes and reduced access to campus services.

In early July, Jarjoura and her friends organized a petition after Jarjoura saw student concerns about costs popping up on Twitter. It’s one of many petitions that have circulated online over the summer, calling for tuition and fees reductions from universities.

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020

The last time the University of Mississippi campus was full of students was in May. They had come to clear out their dorms, after the coronavirus had chased them home in March.

"It was hard because everyone … was finally getting together, bonding, getting really close, like all my friends, and then we all had to leave," said Olivia Fuller, who spent most of the spring semester taking classes online at home in Chicago.

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