University System News:
www.albanyceo.com
Prominent Georgia Leaders Encourage Need-Based Aid at Lumina-Funded Forum
Staff Report From Georgia CEO
Some 20,000 to 30,000 students are being removed each year from the rolls of Georgia’s state universities and technical colleges for unpaid bills, participants at a high-level forum here learned. In many cases, the balances are less than $1,000. These “purges” from the University of Georgia System and Technical College System of Georgia will make it extremely difficult for the state to meet its goal of producing an additional 250,000 residents with postsecondary credentials by 2025. The state’s target, set by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2011, is in addition to the number of postsecondary credentials residents were already on track to earn. To date, an additional 75,000 Georgians have earned credentials from USG and TCSG institutions, leaving 175,000 degrees or certificates to go in the next 10 years – or 17,500 per year – to meet the Complete College Georgia goal. “Many of our students are on the cusp, financially, of not being able to go forward,” said Hank Huckaby, the chancellor of the University System of Georgia. “We have instances where they are a tire blowout away from having to drop out of school. Those stories are real and they are compounded multiple times throughout our system.”
www.nytimes.com
An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master’s Degree for a Mere $7,000
Kevin Carey
The master’s degree business is booming. College graduates looking for a leg up in the job market are flocking to one- and two-year programs that promise entry to lucrative careers. Top colleges are more than willing to provide them — for a price. Tuition for a 30-credit master’s in computer science from the University of Southern California runs $57,000. Syracuse, Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon charge over $43,000 for the same degree. But one highly ranked program, at Georgia Tech, has taken a very different approach. Its master’s in computer science costs less than one-eighth as much as its most expensive rival — if you learn online. And a new study by Harvard economists found that in creating the program, Georgia Tech may have discovered a whole new market for higher education, one that could change the way we think about the problem of college costs. Georgia Tech rolled out its online master’s in computer science in 2014. It already had a highly selective residential master’s program that cost about the same as those of competitor colleges. Some may see online learning as experimental or inferior, something associated with downmarket for-profit colleges. But the nation’s best universities have fully embraced it. Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, U.S.C. and others have also developed online master’s degrees, for which they charge the same tuition as their residential programs.
www.wsj.com
The Biggest Surprises in College Rankings
Which schools did better and worse in The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education survey than you’d expect? And how do they explain it?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-biggest-surprises-in-college-rankings-1475030103
By MELISSA KORN
Some of the most exclusive institutions in the nation came out on top in The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings—schools that produce chief executives and employ Nobel laureates. But a few schools unexpectedly came up short, while others may raise their profiles with their placement on this list… Purdue University’s main campus in West Lafayette, Ind., tied for No. 37 overall, on par with the University of California, Berkeley and just behind the elite Middlebury College in Vermont. It was tied with Berkeley as the fourth-best public institution, ahead of highly regarded names including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (No. 48 overall), the Georgia Institute of Technology (tied for No. 51) and the University of Virginia (tied for No. 56).
www.wsj.com
For Public Colleges, Funding Cuts Hit Hard
Thanks to a large endowment, the University of Michigan takes the top spot among public schools in the WSJ/THE rankings
http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-public-colleges-funding-cuts-hit-hard-1475029984
By BECKIE STRUM
Falling state funding and rising enrollments have battered public colleges, but the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has navigated the tough times with financial shrewdness, giving it the top spot among public schools in The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings… Take Georgia Institute of Technology, tied for No. 9 among public universities in the U.S. It ties for 51st in our overall ranking but rises to a tie for 26th in the outcomes category. Graduates of Georgia Tech, which has robust programs in engineering and computer science, make a median of more than $74,000 10 years after entering college and borrow less on average than graduates of some pricier private schools.
www.bizjournals.com
Georgia Tech lands $3.4 million National Science Foundation grant to teach entrepreneurship in the Southeast
Urvaksh Karkaria
Staff Writer, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia Tech has received a $3.4 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to expand expand its work in teaching entrepreneurship. The NSF’s I-Corps grant was awarded to Georgia Tech’s VentureLab program, a technology commercialization incubator led by Keith McGreggor. I-Corps — a boot camp that shows what it’s like to form a startup — helps NSF-funded researchers learn how to commercialize their findings and determine if a market exists for what they developed, Georgia Tech noted in a statement. The five-year grant, one of five the NSF awarded to schools across the country, supports innovation hubs called I-Corps nodes.
www.savannahnow.com
UGA Skidaway Institute receives $79,000 gift to support marine research
By Mike Sullivan
Savannah residents Michelle and Barry Vine presented a gift of $79,000 to the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography to support the institute’s cutting-edge oceanographic research. In recognition of the gift, UGA Skidaway Institute plans to name an observation laboratory in honor of Michelle Vine’s father, Albert Dewitt Smith Jr. The Vines’ gift is the largest monetary donation ever given to UGA Skidaway Institute. “We are pleased to support the UGA Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in its continuous effort to conduct research and protect our coastal environment,” said Michelle Vine. “Every day we enjoy the benefits of living on the coast, and as a community, we should never forget how important Skidaway Institute is to us.”
www.goldenisles.news
Foundation awards club $5,000
Submitted by Margie Harris
Georgia-Pacific Foundation recently awarded the Brunswick Chapter of The Links Inc. a $5,000 grant. The grant will support International Trends and Services LIFE program designed to expose minority high school students in grades 11 and 12 to career possibilities in foreign affairs and international business. …Students from Glynn, McIntosh, Camden counties, as well as the Brunswick Job Corps Center are invited to participate with the program at College of Coastal Georgia campus.
www.wtoc.com
Two Georgia Southern Nursing Students Awarded New SJ/C Scholarship Honoring Students Who Died In 2015 Accident
By Mike Cihla, Anchor
SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) – Georgia Southern University nursing students Retha Rowe and Jessica Hartzog, both in the College of Health and Human Sciences, have been awarded the St. Joseph’s/Candler Georgia Southern University Nightingale Scholarship in the amount of $3,000 each. The scholarship was created by the St. Joseph’s/Candler Foundations to honor the lives of five Georgia Southern nursing students who lost their lives in an April 2015 car accident on I-16. They were on their way to the last day of clinicals at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Thus, the scholarship is awarded to Georgia Southern nursing students who have completed a clinical rotation at St. Joseph’s/Candler.
www.jbhe.com
Black Women Now Have the Highest Graduation Rate at the University of Georgia
The University of Georgia reports that African American women now have the highest graduation rate of any demographic group at the university. The Office of Institutional Diversity at the university reports that for students who entered the university in 2008, 92.8 percent of all African American women had either earned their degrees within six years or had transferred to another educational institution. The overall graduation/transfer out rate at the university is 84.6 percent. If we consider only those students who entered the university in 2008 and earned their degrees at the University of Georgia within six years, we find that 86 percent of both Black and White women received bachelor’s degrees by 2014. The graduation rate for Black men was 71 percent, 15 percentage points lower than the rate for Black women.
www.news.wabe.org
Ga. Tech Honey Bee Algorithm Wins Golden Goose Award
http://news.wabe.org/post/ga-tech-honey-bee-algorithm-wins-golden-goose-award
By TASNIM SHAMMA
Three Georgia Tech professors accepted a Golden Goose Award at the Library of Congress last Thursday. It’s awarded to federally-funded research that seems silly but has a significant impact. In 1988, Georgia Tech professors began research on how bees collect nectar as a colony by tracking 4,000 honeybees. Georgia Tech Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering professor Craig Tovey co-directs the Georgia Tech Center for Biologically Inspired Design.
www.getschooled.blog.myajc.com
Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
For Every Student Succeeds Act to succeed, every Georgian ought to get involved
Kimberly E. West and Christopher D. Holmes are second year Ph.D. educational policy and administration students at the University of Georgia. West’s research interests include school choice reform measures and the participation of special needs students in such measures. Holmes’ research interests include federal education law, such as supplemental improvement grants. In this column, they seek to draw attention to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act and the need for Georgians to get involved in the creation of the state’s plan. They explain how Every Student Succeeds differs from No Child Left Behind. Explaining they are parents, former educators, future education policymakers and community members, West and Holmes believe more Georgia citizens should become involved in the state’s education laws and policies.
www.diverseeducation.com
Higher Ed Federal-State Partnerships Urged to Aim Higher
by Jamaal Abdul-Alim
The Education Trust on Thursday amplified the longstanding calls among some in higher education for a greater emphasis on federal-state partnerships that focus on lowering college costs and boosting completion rates for low-income students. The latest call — which comes as some in Congress already have put forth proposals for a more meaningful federal role in fostering better completion rates — comes by way of a new Education Trust report titled “FIXING AMERICA’S COLLEGE ATTAINMENT PROBLEMS: IT’S ABOUT MORE THAN AFFORDABILITY: Critical Considerations for Any New Federal-State Partnership.” Among other things, the report notes that the cost of tuition and fees have risen by 699 percent since 1982, which it says is more than three times the rate of increase in median household income. The costs have led to gaps in attainment rates between rich and poor, with students from high-income families being about three times as likely as students from low-income families to obtain a bachelor’s degree by age 24, the report states.
www.bisnow.com
ARE STUDENT HOUSING AMENITIES FOR THE BIRDS?
https://www.bisnow.com/atlanta/news/student-housing/how-many-seats-will-gsus-new-stadium-have-65707
Jarred Schenke, Bisnow, Atlanta
Make no mistake, the Atlanta Braves’ loss is going to be Georgia State University’s gain. Carter’s David Nelson is working on the massive Turner Field redo for the university. He says for GSU, the acquisition of the The Ted “doubles the size of the campus” overnight while the Braves head to Cobb County. With the goal to put as much of GSU’s athletic department at the stadium site, Carter says it will reduce the seating to 30,000, a decline of nearly 20,000 seats.
Higher Education News:
www.chronicle.com
National Default Rate on Student Loans Declines for Third Straight Year
by Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz
The overall three-year cohort default rate on federal student loans dropped in newly released data, marking the third straight year the rate has fallen, the U.S. Department of Education announced on Wednesday. The percentage of borrowers who defaulted on federal loans within three years of entering repayment dropped from 11.8 percent to 11.3 percent for those who started repayment between the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years. Colleges with high default rates may lose their access to federal student aid, and based on the new data, nine for-profit colleges and one private nonprofit institution may forfeit that eligibility. Last year 15 colleges exceeded the department’s cutoffs. The default rate among public institutions fell from 11.7 percent to 11.3 percent, and those colleges make up about 27.2 percent of all institutions in the data.
www.diverseeducation.com
Report: Students Spend $1.3 Billion a Year on Remedial Courses
by Catherine Morris
Students spend $1.3 billion on remedial education in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia each year. Remedial, or developmental, classes are non-credit course sequences that students take to bring them up to college-readiness, according to a Center for American Progress (CAP) report published on Wednesday. The report said that the $1.3 billion is out-of-pocket costs, paid by families and students. Broken down by state, Californians spent the most on remedial education, with more than $205 million going to remedial education. At the other end of the spectrum, residents of Alaska spent a little over $1.1 million, and residents of D.C spent $26,000. The report argues that $1.3 billion is a large investment in an educational endeavor that does not have an overwhelming track record of success. Nearly 4 out of 10 students never complete their remedial coursework, let alone make it to credit bearing courses, according to a Complete College America report out in 2012. On-time college completion rates for students enrolling in remedial education are less than 10 percent, the CAP report said.
www.chornicle.com
Where the College Scorecard Has Gained Traction So Far — and Where It Hasn’t
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Where-the-College-Scorecard/237919
By Sarah Brown
The Department of Education’s College Scorecard is, at its core, a simple college-search tool that highlights key data points with a few clicks. The most-talked-about piece: the average salary of students who attended a college, 10 years after they first enrolled. Each college’s profile also features its average annual cost, academic offerings, and graduation and retention rates, among other things. (Only students who receive federal financial aid are included in the data.) Department officials released the revamped tool last September, as a replacement for the Obama administration’s controversial college-ratings plan. When they did so, they said the new Scorecard would ensure that students, particularly those from low-income and first-generation backgrounds, had access to reliable information. They also made available for download all of the institutional data used in the tool, so that scholars could use the information to conduct research and third-party vendors could develop apps and other products to assist prospective students with their college searches.
www.washingtonpost.com
Lawyer: Why the lower standard of evidence in college sexual-assault cases is dangerous
By Robert Shibley
When a federal agency issued a new directive on how universities should respond to allegations of sexual assault, many welcomed the change — and the scrutiny on the issue — as long overdue. Advocates for women and victims of sexual assault had long been saying that their complaints about rape and assault on campus were all too often ignored or not taken seriously enough by college officials.
www.chronicle.com
How One University Worked to Get Ahead of the Curve on Title IX
http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-One-University-Worked-to/237914
By Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz
When administrators at the University of Central Missouri received the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, they sensed an opportunity. The letter — a landmark document signaling a new era of federal involvement in colleges’ handling of sexual assault — laid out a new series of mandates on how colleges should be handling investigations into sexual-violence allegations. Follow these guidelines, the office said, or risk running afoul of the gender-discrimination law known as Title IX. Many colleges have reformed their policies in response to high-profile allegations that they botched sexual-assault investigations. Others have made changes in order to resolve federal Title IX investigations. But Central Missouri wanted to change on its own terms, said Corey Bowman, the university’s associate vice provost for student services and Title IX coordinator. Mr. Bowman said he and his team used the “Dear Colleague” letter as motivation to go beyond the department’s standards for compliance and better help students who had experienced some type of trauma to finish their degrees. That involved novel steps like hiring a case manager to help sexual-assault victims.