igher education has been in a state of crisis for more than a decade. Student loan debt has more than doubled since the Great Recession to $1.5 trillion in 2018. Coupled with a massive decline in tuition revenues, many colleges and universities are on the verge of collapse. In response to the financial hardship that forced tuition down and debt to rise, university administrators cut costs. They did this by hiring part-time instructors without benefits and subcontracting staff positions to push down wages and to save the university money.
CONAHEC News and Information
Thursday, Jun. 18, 2020
Universities are places of teaching and learning, but also of knowledge creation and discovery. Most people view the distinction of college vs. university as teaching vs. research, undergraduate-only vs. undergraduate and graduate/professional, liberal arts vs. comprehensive, or even small vs. large. And while there may be truth to some of these distinctions, the simplest explanation is that a college typically stands alone, whereas a university comprises multiple colleges or schools, and includes both undergraduate and graduate programs.
Thursday, Jun. 18, 2020
As an educator for U.C. Riverside, Michael P. Toothman, PMP, has worked in higher education for the past 15 years.
In that time, he's developed more than 4,000 project managers from 1,000 companies, and 40 countries and led global collaborations for multi-cultural teams and won awards in the process.
But for Toothman, and for the rest of the States, his world has turned on a dime in the advent of COVID.
Moving Courses Online
Thursday, Jun. 18, 2020
Another judge has blocked Education Secretary from enforcing her CARES Act guidance. Today, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted an injunction, blocking the Department of Education from enforcing their CARES Act guidance against California community colleges.
Thursday, Jun. 18, 2020
In the "Before Times," taking a gap year could mean backpacking with a group of recent grads, volunteering with an overseas aid organization or working in the offices of a company you admire. But COVID-19 has rendered many future plans impossible, at least for the time being. And as many colleges and universities across the country close their doors for the fall semester (still offering online learning options), students are weighing whether to take time off.
Thursday, Jun. 18, 2020
One thing the pandemic and ensuing economic slowdown has done is to make people rethink their finances and the value of big-ticket purchases. That includes the value of a traditional college degree.
As the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe, 91% of all students worldwide saw their schools closed, according to UNESCO. In many cases classes continued virtually, putting an unexpected spotlight on online learning.
Thursday, Jun. 18, 2020
- The pandemic has forced universities to bring their courses online.
- This is just one step along the road to a new educational paradigm, however.
- We can expect a new model to emerge once COVID-19 has passed.
Thursday, Jun. 18, 2020
COVID-19 puts higher-ed finances at risk. For some universities, revenue shortfalls are going to be a pain—for other universities the shortfall may be a disaster. Public universities face three major sources of revenue risk: hospital revenues, tuition (both from overall enrollment and with special attention to enrollment of out-of-state students), and state funding. The bottom line here is going to be that the exposure of different schools to these risks is extremely variable. When it comes to the financial consequences of COVID-19, there’s no one-size-fits-all impact.
Thursday, Jun. 11, 2020
When the noted particle theorist Alessandro Strumia gave a talk at CERN near Geneva in 2018, he raised a storm of protest by suggesting that women in his discipline were somehow less capable than men. In response, a collection of physicists who gave themselves the endearing name Particles for Justice came together to issue a statement condemning Strumia’s remarks.
Thursday, Jun. 11, 2020
When Divyansh Kaushik first came to the U.S., his goals were straightforward: to do computer-science research and earn his Ph.D. But over the past three years, he’s become more politically and socially active, first around science policy, and then on a broader swath of issues, including DACA, food insecurity, and optional practical training, the work program for international graduates.