Education

EDU News Curated by Kiosk: Affirmative admissions and other higher ed news

Affirmative Admissions One Year Anniversary

From Kiosk: The landmark Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court ruling reshaped the landscape of college admissions, ending the decades-old policy of affirmative action that began with the Bakke case in 1978. The change necessitated a rapid overhaul of nearly 50 years of practices across admissions offices nationwide, a shift that was challenging even for institutions that had anticipated potential legal changes. So, how did universities perform one year after the ruling?
View the full article from Kiosk.

 

MIT blames Supreme Court decision for decreased diversity in incoming class

From Higher Ed Dive: “Top officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have blamed last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision barring race-conscious admissions for lowering diversity in the institution’s incoming class compared to cohorts of recent years. Of MIT’s 1,102 incoming first-year students, around 16% said they are Black, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander or identify with more than one of those groups. However, in the past few years, those groups made up about 25% of the top-ranked college’s incoming first-year undergraduates.”
View the full article from Higher Ed Dive.

 

How the End of Affirmative Action Is Affecting Indigenous Students

From Inside Higher Education: “These national conversations rarely touch on enrollment trends among Indigenous students—but they should, advocates say, because Native American enrollment rates have been falling steeply for years. And the bits of enrollment data starting to trickle out of colleges and universities show that multiple selective universities experienced drops in first-year Native American students’ enrollment this fall. Amherst College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University and the University of Virginia saw their already small percentages of first-year Native American students cut roughly in half.”
View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

How can colleges maintain diverse student bodies?

From Higher Ed Dive: “Duke announced last summer that it would offer free tuition for students from the Carolinas whose family incomes were $150,000 or less. The share of the incoming first-year class identifying as Hispanic or Black increased by one percentage point for each group, to 14% and 13%, respectively, per Axios. The selective University of Virginia expanded a similar program late last year, covering tuition for Virginia families who earn less than $100,000. The share of Black students in the incoming first-year class decreased by about one percentage point, to 7.2%, but the share of Hispanic students increased by a little under 2 percentage points, to 9%.”
View the full article from Higher Ed Dive.

 

ANALYSIS: Could this new admissions tool explain Yale’s post-affirmative action racial demographics?

From Yale Daily News: “The Opportunity Atlas, a tool Yale introduced in the admissions process for the class of 2028, might explain Yale’s sustained racial demographics post-affirmative action. … The Opportunity Atlas is a comprehensive dataset of children’s outcomes in adulthood using data covering nearly the entire U.S. population. The tool was created by Opportunity Insights, a team of researchers and policy analysts based at Harvard University, funded by foundations such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”
View the full article from Yale Daily News.

 

Why legacy admissions bans have exploded in the US

From Politico: “Legislators, primarily Democrats, have centered their pitches on the fall of race-conscious admissions, arguing that if students of color can’t get a boost, wealthy applicants with alumni ties shouldn’t either. Virginia and Illinois this year banned the practice at public universities, and Maryland and California have outlawed it at private colleges as well.”
View the full article from Politico.

 

How the end of legacy admissions disadvantages black students

From The Chronicle: “As Newsom’s rhetoric suggests, these fundamental changes to the way college admissions operate in the United States are being implemented in the name of fairness, as ways to uphold ‘merit’ and further the American Dream. However, the emphasis on merit as a marker of fairness ignores history and overlooks how merit is shaped by systemic inequalities. This shifting standard moves the goal posts for upwardly mobile Black families, denying them the same legacy-admissions pathway to the American Dream that white families have benefited from for generations.”
View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

US universities are struggling to increase diversity. Are legacy admissions part of the problem?

From The Guardian: “Results on increasing diversity among students by decreasing legacy admissions have been mixed. At Carleton College, 13.6% of admitted students had a legacy connection to the school for the 2024-25 school year versus 15.7% for the 2023-24 school year, said Byerly. Reasons behind the slight decrease in legacy students are ‘difficult to know without multiple years of data’, she said, possibly due to standard fluctuations in student demographics or other variables. ‘The fact that the change was so small tends to suggest that interest remains strong among students with Carleton connections, and that they are similar in qualifications to those admitted with legacy preference in the past.’”
View the full article from The Guardian.

 

In other news…

 

The Trump agenda: Here’s what to expect from his second term

From Politico: “Many of Biden’s debt-relief plans are tied up in court, and Trump hasn’t indicated what he will do if they proceed. The Republican Party platform, which doesn’t mention student loans, calls for firing ‘radical Left accreditors’ to drive down tuition costs. Trump has previously advocated for replacing accrediting organizations that oversee colleges and universities and imposing new standards such as removing staff members that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The platform also calls for creating ‘more affordable alternatives to a traditional four-year college degree’ and funding ‘proven career training programs.’ But Trump wants to gut the Education Department, which provides billions of dollars in scholarships for low-income students to afford higher education.”
View the full article from Politico.

 

Cheating Has Become Normal

From The Chronicle: “Talk to professors in writing-intensive courses, particularly those teaching introductory or general-education classes, and it sounds as if AI abuse has become pervasive.  … While the reasons vary by student and situation, certain explanations surface frequently. Students are working long hours while taking full course loads. They doubt their ability to perform well. They arrive at college with weak reading and study skills. They don’t value the assignments they’re given. They feel like the only way they can succeed is to be perfect. They believe they will not be punished — or not punished harshly — if caught. And many, it seems, don’t feel particularly guilty about it.”
View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

Simplifying the Private-Scholarship ‘Treasure Hunt’

The Chronicle: “The Common Application significantly increased the number of low-income and underrepresented minority students receiving private scholarships during the 2023-24 admissions cycle by enhancing outreach to eligible applicants on its platform, according to a new report that the organization released Thursday. The Common Application, which runs the shared college application used by more than 1,000 institutions worldwide, has been experimenting with strategies for connecting underrepresented students to noninstitutional scholarships that can help them pay for college.”
View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

Education-Level Voting Gaps Are Highest Among Men, White People

From Inside Higher Education: “The divide in the political preferences of college-educated voters and those without a college degree has grown in the last decade, concerning higher education leaders who have said the gap reflects political polarization. They say the divide could fuel perceptions that colleges are out of touch with average Americans and shows a need to ensure that higher education is accessible to people from all backgrounds. While college-educated voters were more likely to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris than Donald Trump across all demographics, that gap is greatest among white voters and men. Women, Black people and Hispanic people generally voted similarly regardless of their educational background.”
View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

In UK education news

 

English university tuition fees to increase to £9,535

From Times Higher Education: “Tuition fees in England are set to rise with inflation, ending an eight-year-long freeze that has wreaked havoc on university finances. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has confirmed that, from the next academic year, undergraduates will have to pay more per year for their degrees, with the cost to rise to £9,535 from the current £9,250. Maintenance loans, currently worth £10,227 for someone living away from home outside London or £13,348 for those in London, are also set to rise by 3.1 per cent, adding a maximum of £414 extra, although the government has stopped short of reintroducing maintenance grants.”
View the full article from Times Higher Education.