Education

EDU News Curated by Kiosk: Student homelessness and other higher ed news

Tackling Housing Insecurity and Homelessness Among University Students

From Kiosk: “Universities have long been heralded as the most reliable pathway to economic mobility, offering students the opportunity to improve their futures through education. Many institutions have built recruitment and enrollment pathways to expand outreach to “the underserved third” to “close the achievement gap.” This is especially true after the landmark Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court ruling, which has pushed many universities to explore socioeconomic diversity as a means of maintaining campus inclusivity​​.”
View the full article from Kiosk. 

 

Homeless students can sleep safely in their cars at this California college. Other campuses say no

From Cal Matters: “The lot is a designated area for Long Beach City College’s Safe Parking Program, an initiative from the college’s Basic Needs Center that offers safe overnight parking for students and connects them to resources like showers and Wi-Fi. The program was created to address a particular student demographic: homeless students living in their cars. A report from the Community College League of California found that 2 out of 3 of the state’s community college students struggle to meet their basic needs and almost 3 out of 5 are housing insecure.”
View the full article from Cal Matters.

 

Why many college students are forced to spend more on housing than tuition

From PBS: “Senior Adrian Aguilar is studying civil engineering. But one of the biggest stressors during his time at the University of Texas at Austin has not been academics. It’s how much he has to pay in rent. … Last year, Aguilar paid about $1,000 a month for a room in an off-campus apartment … Though down from pandemic-level highs, average rents are still 20 percent higher than they were five years ago… At the University of Texas, the cost of tuition has actually fallen 16 percent over the last five years. But like many four-year public universities across the country, the cost of room and board is now higher than tuition for in-state students.”
View the full article from PBS.

 

Two roommates. A communal bathroom. Why are college dorm costs so high?

From USA Today: “When Heidi Veideman enrolled at the University of California, Davis, in the fall of 2022, she arrived with a bevy of need-based grants that covered her tuition. The grants did not cover her housing. And those costs came out to more than $10,000 for the academic year for a ‘triple,’ a space shared with two other students: about $1,250 a month to rent one-third of a room. … Veideman, 20, said she had to borrow money to meet the cost of her room and board. Facing the prospect of mounting debt, she left the Davis campus after a single quarter. Two years later, she is 400 miles away at UC Irvine, living with her fiance’s parents.”
View the full article from USA Today.

 

Finding Solutions for the Growing Student Housing Crisis

From ESI: “Since 2014, the cost of tuition has fallen by 3.5 percent, while room and board has increased by 2.5 percent. … A vital part of the community in which they reside, colleges and universities should take an active role in supporting efforts to boost local affordable housing supply. … Virginia State University, in Petersburg, VA built on-campus modular developments to house incoming students. … In Knoxville, TN, the University of Tennessee has rented out local Knoxville hotels to accommodate incoming students.”
View the full article from ESI.

 

Student accommodation – a housing crisis help or hindrance?

From PBC Today: “Currently, the student accommodation market is overwhelmed by an imbalance between supply and demand, leading to a rising number of students opting for houses of multiple occupancy (HMO) over student halls. As HMOs are often created from existing housing stock, a vicious cycle is created in which students take up residences that could otherwise be used to meet the growing demand for residential homes. … Purpose-built, high quality student accommodation could be the potential catalyst that alleviates the housing crisis, at least in part. Developers must therefore work together with universities, the local authority and the wider community and adopt a data-led approach to achieve success.”
View the full article from PBC Today.

 

Another Public Flagship May Cut Dozens of Majors

From The Chronicle: “Faculty members at the University of Connecticut worry that dozens of majors could face elimination as part of a review of low-enrollment programs… Christopher Vials, an English professor at UConn’s flagship campus in Storrs and president of its American Association of University Professors chapter, said 70 majors were identified as having failed to meet a threshold of 100 student completions over the last five years. … ‘It is anticipated that the end result for the review of low-completion programs will result in the closure of some programs,’ Anne D’alleva, the provost, and Gladis Kersaint, the vice provost for academic affairs, wrote in a memo to all academic deans.”
View the full article on The Chronicle.

 

What one state learned after a decade of free community college

From The Hechinger report: “College Promise, a nonprofit that advocates for making college free, along with tnAchieves, the nonprofit that helps administer the Tennessee program, released a 10-year anniversary report on Oct. 14. The report offers encouraging signs that the Tennessee Promise scholarship program, which now costs about $29 million a year in tuition subsidies and other services, has helped more students go to college and earn two-year associate degrees. In addition, Tennessee shared some of the lessons learned.”
View the full article from The Hechinger Report.

 

The Cost of College Tuition Is Shrinking

From The Chronicle: “While sticker prices have continued to balloon to as large as $100,000 at some private, nonprofit universities, the average net price — the remaining cost of tuition after institutional and grant aid is deducted — for undergraduate students entering their freshman year at these institutions clocked in at $16,510 for the 2024-25 academic year, down from $19,330 in 2006-07 (adjusted for inflation to 2024 dollars).”
View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

Purdue program works to revive liberal arts as key part of the college experience

From PBS: “The course is part of Cornerstone, a general education program that injects the liberal arts into all realms of the freshman academic experience. Melinda Zook, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University: It’s about understanding your humanity, cultivating your inner life, and understanding the world and having empathy for other people. … Cornerstone, which begins with a two semester slate of classes that replaced written and oral communication requirements for freshmen. The strategy, to integrate the liberal arts into the overall curriculum, rather than standing or falling apart.”
View the full article from PBS.

 

‘Substantial’ fall in first-year enrolments at US universities

From Times Higher Education: “US universities have been hit by a ‘substantial’ fall in first-year recruitment for 2024, along with a drop in international students, early figures suggest. Autumn intake data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that total undergraduate enrolment is up by 3 per cent on 2023 levels, with postgraduate intake up by 2 per cent. However, the preliminary figures, which reflect recruitment at about half of all institutions that submit data to the Clearinghouse, revealed some concerning signs for the sector. First-year numbers are down by 5 per cent on last year and by 2 per cent on the 2022 intake – with shrinking numbers of 18-year-old applicants accounting for most of the decline.”
View the full article from Times Higher Education.

 

‘Bleak outlook’ as falling demand quashes enrolment growth hopes

From Times Higher Education: “A report written by Higher Education Policy Institute … finds that previous estimates of 350,000 more students by 2035 are now unrealistic … casting doubt on institutions’ ability to grow their way out of their current financial troubles. While the country’s 18-year-old population has swelled since 2020 and is projected to reach its highest point this century in 2030, this has not yet translated into a big increase in student numbers… Instead, 2023 and 2024 saw the first declines in the Ucas application rate for 18-year-olds after steady increases since 2012 as interest in attending university stagnated among young people, which, the paper suggests, is ‘largely unprecedented in the past three decades.’”

View the full article from Times Higher Education.