Higher Education News:
www.ajc.com
Poll: Georgians overwhelmingly support tuition-free technical training
By Eric Stirgus
Three out of four Georgians would support tuition-free post-secondary technical training, according to a poll released Monday. The statewide poll, by the Mason-Dixon firm, was commissioned by the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute. Georgia currently offers free tuition through the HOPE Career Grant program to students pursuing certificates or diplomas in 17 “high demand” fields of study. The areas include aviation maintenance, commercial truck driving, computer science, movie set production and welding. Some states have explored or implemented programs that offer free tuition for all community college or technical educations. The poll also found 82 percent of Georgians support a need-based financial aid program to make college more affordable for low-income students.
www.chronicle.com
Issues of Accreditation Predominate in New Rulemaking Announced by Education Dept.
By Eric Kelderman
In its latest move to unmake policies and regulations, many of them put in place under President Obama, the U.S. Department of Education announced on Monday a new round of rulemaking on more than a dozen topics, most notably accreditation. The department will consider issues such as the measures accreditors use to evaluate their member institutions, and how the government oversees approval of accrediting agencies. The process of accreditation, which is largely opaque to the public, has become a central issue in higher-education policy. It is the path to more than $100 billion in federal student aid distributed every year. Colleges must be accredited in order to access this money, and accreditors must also go through a process to serve as gatekeepers for federal aid. The department may also propose rewritten rules about how the government measures learning for the purpose of awarding federal aid; whether and how distance learning must be authorized in the states; and allowing a wider range of noninstitutional providers and religious schools access to federal student aid.