Education

EDU News Curated by Kiosk: Continuing Professional Development and Other Higher Ed News

The Evolution of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Higher Education

From Kiosk: “In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is more important than ever. As corporate training investments have dwindled, higher education institutions have increasingly stepped in to fill the void. This shift has profound implications for workers, companies, and educational institutions alike.”

View the full article from Kiosk.  

 

Microcredentials Unleashed: Pioneering the Next Frontier

From Evolllution: “The University of Maine System Micro-Credential Initiative created a unified framework that includes an applied learning opportunity, to help decrease employer confusion about the quality and rigor. Employers are becoming more familiar with the benefits of microcredentials and have expressed interest in partnering with universities to create them. They are especially interested in stackable credentials leading to a degree (UPCEA/Collegis study). As we move forward, microcredentials presented as open badges will aid employers in quickly locating needed talent, while reducing their hiring and rehiring costs. Learner Employment Records (LER) tied to employer talent marketplaces will also aid both learners and employers.”
View the full article from Evolllution.

 

Colleges’ Responsiveness to the Job Market: Key Podcast

From Inside Higher Education: “Report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce found a significant misalignment between the credentials institutions were offering in hundreds of labor markets for so-called ‘middle skills’ jobs requiring more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree. Guest is Michelle Van Noy, an associate research professor and director of the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick. In a wide-ranging conversation, she discusses the complex set of factors that make easy answers hard to come by in this realm.”
View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

 

The Role of Continuing Education in Reclaiming Quality Online Education

From Evolllution: “EdTech and content companies have really ramped up, delivering content quickly, in multiple formats and being ultra flexible. Whereas universities have these large infrastructures and quite a bit of bureaucracy, so it’s not easy for us to move as quickly as the private industry does. In addition, learners are more discerning. They want quality; they want it quickly; they want it when they want it. My concern is the university will fall behind because we can’t move as fast as the industry. The great benefit of university continuing education is access to novel information, research and outstanding instructors, but we need to be sure our learners understand that value and come to us as key partners to learn throughout their lives.”
View the full article from Evolllution.

 

How did the Supreme Court’s race-conscious admissions decision impact college applications?

From HigherEd Dive: “The portion of Asian and Black students referencing at least one race or ethnicity-related phrase in their Common Application essays fell in 2023-24…Overall, however, there were not any meaningful deviations from historical trends in students’ application behaviors — including how they self-identify their racial or ethnic identity — in the 2023-24 application cycle on Common App, which allows students to apply to hundreds of institutions using a single form.”
View the full article from HigherEd Dive.

 

Bloomberg billion makes Johns Hopkins medical school free to most

From Times Higher Education: “Financial services tycoon Michael Bloomberg has given Johns Hopkins University another $1 billion, with the intent of making his alma mater’s medical school free to most of its students. With the gift, Hopkins will offer free medical school tuition to all students with annual family incomes below $300,000. That income threshold covers 95 per cent of all Americans, and nearly two-thirds of the current and entering medical students at Hopkins. .… this latest gift brings the tycoon’s total gifts to his alma mater to about $4.6 billion.”
View the full article from Times Higher Education.

 

Americans More Confident in Two-Year Schools

From Gallup: “About half of Americans (48%) say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in community colleges. Confidence in community colleges is higher than confidence in four-year colleges and universities, as one-third of Americans report high levels of confidence in four-year institutions…Confidence in two- and four-year pathways is highly related to political party. Republicans are far less likely than independents and Democrats to say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in community colleges and four-year schools.”
View the full article from Gallup.

 

Why Northeastern Keeps Acquiring Colleges

From Bloomberg: “In May, Northeastern University in Boston agreed to merge with Marymount Manhattan College. … If approved by regulators, it would become Northeastern’s 14th campus, joining a small empire with outposts in places such as London, Miami and Silicon Valley. … M&A is becoming increasingly common in the shrinking landscape of US higher education, and at the current rate, Northeastern should have no shortage of schools to absorb if it chooses to continue its spree. Squeezed by demographics and higher costs, more schools are folding or looking for lifelines, particularly ones that lack the cushion of a large endowment.”
View the full article from Bloomberg.

 

First-year persistence and retention hit decade high

From HigherEd Dive: “Persistence rates among first-time students are the highest they have been in the past decade, according to a report released Thursday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Of first-year students who enrolled in fall 2022, 76.5% returned to college the following year, the clearinghouse said. That’s up from 75.7% among the previous year’s cohort and higher than pre-pandemic rates. The national retention rate also hit a decade high, rising to 68.2% among the fall 2022 cohort, up 1 percentage point from the year before.”
View the full article from HigherEd Dive.

 

The FAFSA debacle: Another nail in the coffin for vulnerable colleges

From HigherEd Dive: “Issues with the form’s rollout have made identifying merger partners for many small colleges an even greater urgency, one consolidation expert argues…In SPH Consulting’s own analysis, using federal data from 2022, we observed that the smaller the institution the greater the proportion of full-time, first-time undergraduates that were awarded Pell Grants. On average, Pell Grant recipients made up 61.2% of the student body at colleges with fewer than 1,000 students, compared with 35.3% for institutions with enrollment exceeding 20,000. Consequently, the impact of the FAFSA rollout missteps is hurting the smallest schools the most.”
View the full article from HigherEd Dive.

 

Labour election victory leaves universities hoping for change

From Times Higher Education: “During the six-week-long election campaign, Labour declined to rule out ‘bailouts’ for institutions in trouble or raising tuition fees as it acknowledged the ‘crisis’ in funding for higher education. It now faces calls to act quickly amid fears a university could go under, with a rescue or transition fund and a change in narrative on international students on the sector’s wish list, along with tackling the thorny issue of fees. An inflationary rise to about £9,750 a year has been mooted by some sector leaders but polling during the campaign from consultancy Public First showed this was one of the least popular education policy options among voters.”
View the full article from Times Higher Education.