Education

EDU News Curated by Kiosk: Marketing for the holidays and other higher ed news

Higher Ed Marketing for the Holidays

From Kiosk: “The holiday season represents a critical yet challenging period for higher education marketing, characterized by a natural increase in prospective student interest and reflection. Despite widespread travel and fragmented attention due to holiday activities, universities can capitalize on this introspective time by implementing strategic marketing approaches. Key tactics include maintaining lead engagement through staggered staffing or automated solutions, hosting unique virtual events, creating empathetic messaging that resonates with self-improvement goals, and showcasing transformative success stories. By thoughtfully preparing for marketing during the holiday season, institutions can effectively capture prospective students’ attention during a period of personal goal-setting, potentially increasing lead-to-enrollment rates and standing out in a competitive educational landscape.”
View the full article from Kiosk.

 

 

How international students benefit the US economy – Report

From University World News: “The US$43.8 billion that 1.1 million international students in the United States contributed to the American economy during the 2023-24 academic year supported 378,175 jobs, according to new data released by NAFSA: Association of International Educators in partnership with JB International. … This year’s economic contribution by international students surpasses last year’s figure by 7%.”
View the full article from University World News.

 

 

US international enrollment reached record highs. Will the trend last?

From Higher Ed Dive: “Open Doors predicted continuing growth among the U.S. international student population in 2024-25, based on an IIE survey of more than 680 institutions. … But Trump — who tightened U.S. visa programs during his first White House term — will take office just before the spring 2025 semester. While on the campaign trail earlier this year, Trump said international students who graduate from U.S. colleges should automatically get green cards to stay in the country. But his campaign quickly added strict qualifiers to the then-candidate’s statements, causing some to dismiss Trump’s comment as merely a talking point, according to The Times of India, one of the country’s largest English-language news sources.”
View the full article from Higher Ed Dive.

 

 

Student Voter Engagement Efforts Grew in 2024. Student Voting Didn’t.

From Inside Higher Education: “Student voting did not appear to soar to unprecedented heights, as many in the nonpartisan student voting space had hoped. Definitive numbers of how many college students voted are not available yet, but an analysis of exit poll data by Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) shows youth voting down about eight percentage points from the record high of 2020.”
View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

 

Optimism, Concern Follow Trump’s Decision to Tap Former WWE Exec as Education Secretary

From Inside Higher Education: “‘Absurdity when spoken aloud sounds like, Let’s put the lady that led mostly faux entertainment wrestling in charge of our nation’s school system,’ said Shaun Harper, a professor of education, public policy and business at the University of Southern California and an opinion contributor to Inside Higher Ed. But others say that McMahon’s business background will be an asset to the agency. To former education secretary Margaret Spellings, who served under President George W. Bush, McMahon’s selection ‘makes a lot of sense.’”
View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

 

Representation of Low-Income Students at Highly Selective Colleges Didn’t Budge Over 100 Years

From The Chronicle: “In a major roundup of historical records, four researchers compiled data on 2.5 million students at 65 so-called elite colleges … spanning the years between 1915 and 2013. (It’s worth remembering, as the paper notes, that many high-profile colleges have since embraced various strategies for helping low-income and first-generation students.) … Students with parents from the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution, for instance, have made up about 5 percent of all students at such institutions over the last century. One exception: women’s colleges, where the representation of low-income students went from the lowest among highly selective colleges to the highest”.
View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

 

A trend colleges might not want applicants to notice: It’s becoming easier to get in

From Hechinger Report: “As enrollment in colleges and universities continues to decline — down by more than 2 million students, or 10 percent, in the 10 years ending 2022 — they’re not only casting wider nets. Something else dramatic is happening to the college application process, for the first time in decades: It’s becoming easier to get in. … The median acceptance rate at bachelor’s degree-granting universities and colleges was 7.6 percentage points higher in 2022 than it was in 2012, AEI found. Those are the most recent available admission figures reported to the federal government, and do not include institutions with open admission, which take 100 percent of applicants.”
View the full article from Hechinger Report.

 

 

Some colleges have an answer for students questioning the value of higher ed: work-based learning

From Hechinger Report: “Every weekday morning for six months, instead of taking college classes, 25-year-old Tamari Natelauri…goes to work at a large accounting firm. It’s her dream job – and she hasn’t even graduated from college yet. By the time she walks across the stage at Drexel University’s commencement ceremony in 2027, Natelauri will have spent 11 years of her life – and a lot of money – on higher education, including seven years at the Community College of Philadelphia, working part-time toward an associate degree in business. She believes it will be worth it, because along with her bachelor’s degree, she will have a year and a half of accounting experience, a professional network, references and a clear idea of the career she wants to build for herself.”
View the full article from Hechinger Report.