Education

EDU News Curated by Kiosk: Re-enrollment sees success and other higher ed news

Marketing Strategies for Some College, No Degree

From Kiosk: “The pursuit of college degrees has long been championed for its economic and sociological benefits, with data showing significant earning advantages for graduates. However, a growing concern has emerged: the rise of adults over 25 with some college but no degree or credential (SCNC).”
View the full article from Kiosk.

 

How Maine’s public universities reversed years of declining enrollment

From Maine Morning Star: “In 2020, UMPI started offering its fully remote, online degree and certification program called YourPace, for students that are over 20 years old and have some college credits. YourPace allows them to finish their degrees or certificates on an entirely asynchronous schedule — which means they can log into a learning portal and watch pre-recorded class videos and have access to course materials and assignments on their own time. The program went from 136 students in 2020 to more than 1,400 new and returning students enrolled for this upcoming year, according to President Ray Rice. Some students are in Maine, but there are many enrolled nationwide and even internationally, he said.”
View the full article from Maine Morning Star.

 

Project Kitty Hawk is trying to reenroll students who left the UNC System. Is it working?

From Higher Ed Dive: “In 2021, the North Carolina General Assembly allocated $97 million to start Project Kitty Hawk, a nonprofit ed-tech startup. The initiative launched in May 2023, and, as of late August, Project Kitty Hawk had reenrolled almost 2,800 students who had started college at one of the network’s universities but left without finishing their credentials. … Project Kitty Hawk partners with ReUp Education, one of several companies that work with colleges and universities to contact former students and coach them through re-enrollment. ReUp Education counselors reached out to 103,000 former students from ten universities in the UNC System. … Reenrolled students brought in about $4.5 million in tuition for the system last year.”
View the full article from Higher Ed Dive.

 

Cal State System Pilots GPA Reset Program to Re-Enroll Stop-Outs

From Inside Higher Education: “This year, the California University State system will pilot an intervention, the Second Start program, encouraging students who left college years ago due to unsatisfactory academic progress to return to their university and earn a degree. … To qualify, students must have left the institution at least three years ago and hold a cumulative GPA lower than 2.0. Upon re-enrollment at the institution that they initially left, students will pursue an undergraduate degree program and complete 12 units, earning a 2.5 GPA or better within 12 months. After learners meet the 12-unit and 2.5-GPA threshold, they’re officially considered a Second Start student and will have their previous GPA wiped.”
View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

New Survey Suggests Three Strategies To Re-Enroll Adults Who’ve Dropped Out Of College

From Forbes: “When asked which factors would be important when deciding about enrolling in a degree completion program, over two-thirds (68%) said the tuition or cost of the degree, 56% said the speed at which they could complete their degree, 33% said the number of previously earned credits that would transfer, and 33% said personal, quick, and understandable communication from the institution. This pattern suggests institutions can lure more dropouts to return to college if they offer and publicize a set of specially priced programs, scheduled in a convenient and compact time frame that considers the daily obligations of working adults. Even offering a subset of courses at a discounted tuition price is likely to make a difference to this population.”
View the full article from Forbes.

 

FAFSA Completion Gap Narrows to 2.5 Percent

From Inside Higher Education: “The number of students who filled out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid is now 2.5 percent behind the 2022–23 cycle, an Education Department spokesperson said during a press call. That constitutes significant progress from earlier this spring, when the completion rate lagged by over 30 percent… But the education department’s numbers include both first-year and continuing college students; according to the National College Attainment Network, which has been tracking FAFSA completion since January, completion rates for the Class of 2028 are still down by 9.1 percent compared to last year.”
View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

Will AI Make Standardized Tests Obsolete?

From EdSurge: “ETS, one of the oldest and largest players in standardized testing, is moving away from traditional college entrance exams like the SAT to focus on new approaches to measure the skills and persistence of students. … ‘The assessments that ETS will deliver in the future will be more behavioral than they are cognitive,’ says Kara McWilliams, vice president of product innovation and development at ETS. … ’So we want to look at things like perseverance. … So what are the behaviors that you’re using to get to the answer? We don’t really care what the answer is, but how did you get there?’”
View the full article from EdSurge.

 

College for All? Not Anymore.

From The Chronicle: “In 2009 President Barack Obama used his first speech to Congress to ask “every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training,” touting postsecondary learning as a necessity for economic success. Last month he had a very different message. In a speech at the Democratic National Convention, Obama said that Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential nominee, ‘knows college shouldn’t be the only ticket to the middle class.’ Obama also praised Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and vice-presidential nominee, for removing the bachelor’s-degree requirement for some state jobs.”
View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

Colleges Offer a Degree in 3

From The Chronicle: “With the run-up in tuition in recent years, combined with a crippling recession… some think the three-year degree is an idea whose time has come. In Rhode Island, the House of Representatives recently passed a bill that pushes the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College to streamline curricula to allow students to graduate within three years. … John A. Fry, president of Franklin & Marshall College … says he has talked with many students who are frustrated with the traditional college calendar. ‘We can gnash our teeth all we want, but it is going to be harder and harder to draw students who can make the investment or want to make the investment’ in a private-college degree, he says. ‘We have to innovate.’”
View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

Report Highlights Shortages of Credentials Aligned with Middle-Skills Occupations

From Diverse Education: “There is a broad range of middle-skills occupations, from blue collar positions, such as electrician and carpenter, to vital healthcare professions like registered nurse to police officers and firefighters. High-paying middle-skills occupations provide salaries in which individuals can out-earn most young people with a bachelor’s degree. Median annual earnings could reach around $80,000 by mid-career. ‘Missed Opportunities’ compares the number of credentials currently being produced with the number of job openings projected to exist in 2032. CEW has an online tool to assist regional planners and middle-skills providers in crafting solutions to the anticipated shortage.”
View the full article from Diverse Education.

 

A Silver Lining for HBCUs in Affirmative Action’s Demise

From Inside Higher Education: “A steady stream of highly selective colleges have reported significant declines in first-time Black student enrollment, a drop most institutions have pinned on the Supreme Court’s 2023 affirmative action ban. But one college’s challenge is another’s opportunity: Historically Black colleges and universities appear to be benefiting from a windfall of applicants and new students this fall. … Morehouse College, an all-male institution in Atlanta, had more than 8,000 applications this year, a 34 percent increase from last year’s 6,000 … At Howard University—often called ‘the ‘Harvard of HBCUs’ for its selectivity and list of notable alumni, including Vice President Kamala Harris—applications rose by 10 percent over the previous cycle, from 33,000 to 36,300.”
View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

Fewer College Students Reported Mental-Health Challenges for the First Time in Years

From The Chronicle: “For the first time in 15 years, the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and suicidality in a key survey of college students has decreased in consecutive years — which researchers hope marks the beginning of a downward trend. The data comes from the Healthy Minds Study, one of the country’s largest datasets on student mental health. The report includes survey responses from more than 100,000 students at nearly 200 colleges.”
View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

Unis float £12,500 fees as freshers pack for term

From the BBC: “Tuition fees in England would need to rise to £12,500 to meet universities’ teaching costs, the vice-chancellor of King’s College London has said – but asking for that would seem ‘clueless’. Prof Shitij Kapur is one of the brains behind proposals due to be published in the coming weeks by Universities UK, which represents 141 universities. He told vice-chancellors earlier the ‘blueprint’ would ask for more funding for teaching but without putting a number on it. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she was looking at ‘all of the options’ but there were ‘no easy answers or quick fixes’ …. The cap on fees was raised to £9,000 per year in 2012 and has risen only slightly since then.”
View the full article from the BBC.