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  • HESA has published full student data for 2023–24

    HESA has published full student data for 2023–24

    The 2023-24 HESA student data release was delayed by three rather than six months this year.

    We’re clearly getting better at dealing with the output (and the associated errors) of data collected through the HESA Data Platform. While there are not as many identified issues as in last year’s cycle the list is long and occasionally unnerving.

    Some represent a winding back from last year’s errors (we found 665 distance learning students at the University of Buckingham that should have been there last year), some are surprisingly big (the University of East London should have marked an extra 2,550 students as active), and some are just perplexing: the University of South Wales apparently doesn’t know where 1,570 students came from , the University of Portsmouth doesn’t actually have 470 students from the tiny Caribbean island of St Barthélemy.

    Access and participation

    It is surprising how little access and participation data, in the traditional sense, that HESA now publishes. We get an overview at sector level (the steady growth of undergraduate enrollments from the most deprived parts of England is notable and welcome), but there is nothing by provider level.

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    One useful proxy for non-traditional students is entry qualifications. We get these by subject area – we learn that in 2025 a quarter of full time undergraduate business students do not have any formal qualifications at all.

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    With the UK’s four regulators far from agreement as to what should be monitored to ensure that participation reflects potential rather than privilege, it’s not really worth HESA publishing a separate set of UK wide statistics. The closest we get is SEISA, which is now official statistics. I look forward to seeing SEISA applied to UK-domiciled students at individual providers, and published by HESA.

    Student characteristics

    We get by subject area data on disability (at a very general, “marker” – known disability – level) which I have plotted on a by year basis. The axis here is the proportion of students with a known disability – the colours show the total number of students. For me the story here is that creative subjects appear to attract students who disclose disabilities – art and creative writing in particular.

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    I’ve also plotted ethnicity by provider, allowing you to see the ways in which the ethnic make up of providers has changed over time.

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    Student domicile (UK)

    UK higher education includes four regulated systems – one in each of the four nations. Although in the main students domiciled in a given nation study at providers based in that same nation, there is a small amount of cross-border recruitment.

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    Notably nearly three in ten Welsh students study at English providers, including more than a third of Welsh postgraduates. And two in ten Northern Irish students study in England. The concern is that if you move to study, you are less likely to move home – so governments in Wales and Northern Ireland (where there are student number controls) will be thinking carefully about the attractiveness and capacity of their respective systems to avoid a “brain drain”.

    Within these trends, particular providers have proven particularly efficient in cross-border recruitment. If you are a Northern Irish student studying in England chances are you are at Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, or Northumbria. If you are Welsh and studying in England your destination may well be UWE, Bristol, Chester – or again, Liverpool John Moores.

    There is a proximity effect – where students are crossing the border, they are likely to stay close to it – but also (if we look at Northern Ireland domiciled students looking at Glasgow or Newcastle) evidence of wider historic cultural links.

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    Student domicile (international)

    Thinking about providers recruiting from Northern Ireland made me wonder about students from the Republic of Ireland – do we see similar links? As you might expect, the two larger providers in Northern Ireland recruit a significant share, but other winners include the University of Edinburgh and St Margaret’s. UCL has the biggest population among English providers.

    You can use this chart to look at where students from any country in the world end up when they study in the UK (I do insist you look at those St Barthélemy students – literally all at the University of Portsmouth apparently).

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    An alternate view lets you look at the international population of your institution – the established pattern (China in the Russell Group, India elsewhere) still holds up.

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    What’s of interest to nervous institutional managers is the way international recruitment is changing over time. This is a more complicated dashboard that helps you see trends at individual providers for a given country, seen along with how your recruitment sits within the sector (mouse over an institution to activate the time series at the bottom.

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  • Podcast: Regret, ABA, provider collapse

    Podcast: Regret, ABA, provider collapse

    This week on the podcast we discuss new research on student regret, as a report from the University of Bristol reveals that while two-thirds of current undergraduates are happy with their choice of degree, it drops to less than half among recent graduates. Are improved advice and guidance really the answer?

    Plus we look at the collapse of the Advanced Business Academy (ABA) and its aftermath, as an Office for Students (OfS) investigation uncovers serious concerns about student placements and course delivery. And we examine new research on widening participation “cold spots” and the stark disparities in teachers’ expectations for students based on geography and school ratings.

    With Mary Curnock Cook, non-executive in education and edtech, Pete Quinn, inclusion consultant, Mack Marshall, Community and Policy Officer at Wonkhe and presented by Jim Dickinson, Associate Editor at Wonkhe.

    XXXXX

    Hindsight is a wonderful thing – but foresight is better

    When tuition fee payments are suspended, what happens to students left behind?

    25 unanswered questions about the collapse of ABA

    The UPP Foundation is launching a new inquiry into widening participation to support the government’s opportunity mission

    Students can make a real difference to educational opportunity in their regions through tutoring

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  • The Tools Helping University Students Succeed After Graduation (Post College Journey)

    The Tools Helping University Students Succeed After Graduation (Post College Journey)

    Seattle, Wash.– As thousands of university students graduate each year, many find themselves
    facing an unexpected challenge: career uncertainty. Despite earning degrees, a large portion of
    graduates report feeling unprepared to enter the workforce. Post-college career expert Laurie
    Nilo-Klug
    is tackling this issue head-on, providing students with the tools they need to build
    confidence and thrive in their careers.

    Ms. Nilo-Klug, an Adjunct Professor at Seattle University and the founder of Post College
    Journey
    , has dedicated her work to helping students transition from college to the professional
    world. Through her programs, Laurie has empowered students to take control of their career
    paths, addressing common issues such as imposter syndrome, skill uncertainty, and job market
    navigation.

     

    After implementing her career confidence-building tools in the classroom, Laurie observed a
    remarkable 60% increase in student confidence levels. “Many students leave college with
    impressive degrees but lack the self-assurance to effectively launch their careers. 

    My goal is to bridge that gap with actionable strategies that instill confidence and competence,” says Laurie. Laurie explains, “In a recent assignment, I had students choose two career exploration activities, and their selections revealed a strong drive to connect classroom learning with their post-college goals. 

    Their enthusiasm for hands-on experiences, such as job applications and simulations, highlighted the critical need for practical, real-world learning opportunities. After gathering student feedback and analyzing the data, I found a 60% increase in their career confidence levels. This reinforced my belief that early and direct exposure to career exploration is essential for student success.”

    In this activity, students were tasked with selecting two career exploration activities from the
    following options:

    ● Attending a career development event;
    ● Having an appointment with the career center;
    ● Joining a student club;
    ● Doing a career self-assessment
    ● Applying to a job;
    ● Or completing a job simulation and then reflecting on what they have learned.

    This assignment aimed to show that career development offers many paths, so it’s crucial to
    understand why you choose an activity, what you hope to gain, and reflect on what you learn.
    Laurie expected students to pick low-effort options like self-assessments or joining a club, given
    their frequent concerns about time constraints. Instead, nearly all chose job simulations or
    applied for a job, showing a strong preference for hands-on experience.

    For media inquiries or to schedule an interview with Laurie Nilo-Klug, please contact:
    Marisa Spano
    [email protected]

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  • Free speech in an age of fear: The new system loyalty oaths – First Amendment News 464

    Free speech in an age of fear: The new system loyalty oaths – First Amendment News 464

    “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” — Benjamin Franklin

    If you look beneath the veneer of it all, what surfaces from the chaos of the last eight weeks is a demand for unyielding loyalty to a man and his personal and political whims. 

    His demands, followed in fear, are cravenly honored by political figures, media corporations, university presidents, law firms, Justice Department lawyers, and all others who surrender on bended knee to an authoritarian figure who holds the title of the 47th president of the United States. 

    Few stand up to him; many kowtow to him. Silence and sycophancy surround him. Meanwhile, his agency hitman exercises power with unconstitutional zeal. 

    When persuasion fails, when logic departs, when toleration ceases to be tolerated, and when the very pillars of freedom of expression are battered with ruinous consistency, then the promise of the First Amendment is breached with abandon — this while so many fiddle. 

    Given what has gone on in the first quarter of 2025 alone, this much is true: We are witnessing frontal attacks on freedom, especially our First Amendment freedoms (e.g., FANs 463462461, and 460). 

    Government by executive order is his calling card — his “trump” card. Shakedowns are his tactic. “Administrative error” is the justification given by his confederates for egregious due process violations. 

    No matter how personal, punitive, or partisan, this power (often unconstitutional in principle and authoritarian in practice) has become this administration’s default position. His will is effected by his lieutenants, implemented by his attorney general, executed by his DOGE goons, fulfilled by his FBI director and other cabinet officials, orchestrated by his deputy of policy, and defended by his press secretary. 

    In such ways, as professor Timothy Zick’s “Executive Watch” posts have revealed and will continue to reveal, the First Amendment is also under siege.

    Fear is the engine that drives so much of this aggrandizement of power, and the submission to it. As in the McCarthy era, robotic loyalty fuels that engine. What we are seeing in Washington is a new era in compelled allegiance. Executive order “negotiations” are premised on mandatory loyalty.

    To get a sense of the nature of this problem, simply consider some of what Thomas I. Emerson (a revered civil liberties and free speech scholar) wrote 55 years ago in his seminal “The System of Freedom of Expression.” When liberty is contingent on one’s “beliefs, opinions, or associations,” there is a “grossly inhibiting effect upon the free exercise of expression.” 

    The inevitable result, Emerson added, is to silence “the more conscientious and invite the less scrupulous to pass. ‘Self-executing’ by its nature, it places the burden upon the person…to interpret [the loyalty oaths’] purpose, recall all past events in his life, and decide what current or future [orders might affect him] at his peril.” The net effect is to leave citizens “at the continuing mercy” of the government. 

    Put bluntly: “It is inherently demeaning to a free people.” (emphasis added) 

    It is that fear, born of direct or veiled demands for loyalty, that has seized power in the control rooms of our government. Time and again, day in and day out, yet another executive order, followed by servile enforcement, abridges our First Amendment freedoms. When will it end? When will enough men and women of courage join together and say “enough”? One answer was tendered in 1776 in a work titled “The American Crisis.” To quote its author, Thomas Paine:

    These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

    Related 

    To preserve America’s tradition as a home for fearless writing, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and Substack are partnering to support writers residing lawfully in this country targeted by the government for the content of their writing — those who, as Hitchens once put it, “committed no crime except that of thought in writing.”

    If you fit this category, whether or not you publish on Substack, we urge you to get in touch immediately at thefire.org/alarm or pages.substack.com/defender.


    Coming Soon

    A Question and Answer interview with Janie Nitze, co-author with Justice Neil Gorsuch of “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law.”

    See “An open invitation to Justice Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze to reply to their new book’s critics,” FAN 444 (Oct. 23)


    Voice of America court victory in journalists’ firing case

    The Voice of America can’t be silenced just yet. A federal judge on March 28 halted the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the eight-decade-old U.S. government-funded international news service, calling the move a “classic case of arbitrary and capricious decision making.”

    Judge James Paul Oetken blocked the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which runs Voice of America, from firing more than 1,200 journalists, engineers and other staff that it sidelined two weeks ago in the wake of President Donald Trump’s ordering its funding slashed.

    Seth Stern on DOGE and related free speech issues

    First Amendment Watch spoke with director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, Seth Stern, about the First Amendment issues baked into the online exchange. Stern described Martin’s letter as intentionally ambiguous, argued that confusion over DOGE as a quasi-government agency brings its transparency responsibilities into question, and described the free speech issues that may arise from Musk’s roles as a social media platform owner and advisor to the president.

    Yale Law School ‘Free Speech in Crisis’ conference

    Agenda

    Friday, March 28

    9:15 a.m. | Welcome/Opening Remarks 

    • Organizers: Jack Balkin, Genevieve Lakier, Mikey McGovern

    9:30 a.m. | Panel 1: Media Environment 

    • Chair: Paul Starr, Princeton University
    • Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School
    • Mary Anne Franks, George Washington University School of Law
    • Eugene Volokh, Hoover Institution

    11:15 a.m. | Panel 2: Polarization 

    • Chair: Robert Post, Yale Law School
    • Nicole Hemmer, Vanderbilt University
    • Liliana Mason, SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University
    • Ganesh Sitaraman, Vanderbilt Law School

    2:15 p.m. | Panel 3: Political Marketplace 

    • Chair: Rick Hasen, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
    • Rick Pildes, NYU Law School
    • Bradley A. Smith, Capital University Law School
    • Ann Southworth, University of California, Irvine School of Law

    4:00 p.m. | Panel 4: Workplace 

    • Chair: Amanda Shanor, University of Pennsylvania
    • Helen Norton, University of Colorado School of Law
    • Benjamin Sachs, Harvard Law School
    • Liz Sepper, University of Texas Law School

    Saturday, March 29

    9:30 a.m. | Panel 5: Knowledge Production 

    • Chair: Amy Kapczynski, Yale Law School
    • E.J. Fagan, University of Illinois Chicago
    • Vicki Jackson, Harvard Law School
    • Naomi Oreskes, Harvard

    11:15 a.m. | Panel 6: Campus Politics 

    Chair: Genevieve Lakier, University of Chicago Law School

    • Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley
    • Athena Mutua, University at Buffalo School of Law
    • Keith Whittington, Yale Law School

    1:00 p.m. | Wrap-Up Conversation 

    • Organizers: Jack Balkin, Genevieve Lakier, Mikey McGover

    Forthcoming book on free speech and incitement 

    Cover of the book "Free Speech and Incitement in the Twenty-First Century" by Eric Kasper and JoAnne Sweeny

    Free Speech and Incitement in the Twenty-First Century explores the line between free speech and incitement, which is a form of expression not protected by the First Amendment. Incitement occurs when a person intentionally provokes their audience to engage in illegal or violent action that is likely to, or will, occur imminently. 

    This doctrine evolved from World War I through the Cold War and the civil rights movement era, culminating in a test announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969). Since the 1970s, this doctrine has remained largely unchanged by the Supreme Court and, as such, has received relatively little academic or media attention. 

    Since the late 2010s, however, violence at political rallies, armed protests around Confederate statues, social unrest associated with demonstrations against police, and an attack on the U.S. Capitol have led to new incitement cases in the lower courts and an opportunity to examine how incitement is defined and applied. Authors from different perspectives in Free Speech and Incitement in the Twenty-First Century help the reader understand the difference between free speech and incitement.

    ‘So to Speak’ podcast on Columbia University, DEI, and law firms

    We explore how censorship is impacting institutions — from universities to law firms to the Maine House of Representatives.


    More in the news

    2024-2025 SCOTUS term: Free expression and related cases

    Cases decided 

    • Villarreal v. Alaniz (Petition granted. Judgment vacated and case remanded for further consideration in light of Gonzalez v. Trevino, 602 U. S. ___ (2024) (per curiam))
    • Murphy v. Schmitt (“The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit for further consideration in light of Gonzalez v. Trevino, 602 U. S. ___ (2024) (per curiam).”)
    • TikTok Inc. and ByteDance Ltd v. Garland (The challenged provisions of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.)

    Review granted

    Pending petitions 

    Petitions denied

    Free speech related

    Thompson v. United States (Decided: 3-21-25/ 9-0 with special concurrences by Alito and Jackson) (Interpretation of 18 U. S. C. §1014 re “false statements”)

    Last scheduled FAN

    FAN 463: ‘We simply could not practice law . . . if we were still subject to the executive order’

    This article is part of First Amendment News, an editorially independent publication edited by Ronald K. L. Collins and hosted by FIRE as part of our mission to educate the public about First Amendment issues. The opinions expressed are those of the article’s author(s) and may not reflect the opinions of FIRE or Mr. Collins.

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  • “Anything Can Be Done With Anything”: Innovative Universities with Dara Melnyk

    “Anything Can Be Done With Anything”: Innovative Universities with Dara Melnyk

    There’s an old joke about innovation in higher education.  It goes like this:  How many universities does it take to screw in a lightbulb.  Change

    Maybe that’s a bit unfair, but it’s unquestionable that the sector isn’t famed for welcoming change, in particular radical change.  One particular aspect is what is called isomorphism – the tendency of all institutions to look the same because they are copying some “ideal” model university (think Harvard or Oxford); indeed, that institutions which don’t copy the model followed by “prestige” universities must ipso facto lack “quality”. 

    But innovation does happen.  It’s just not always widely noticed or celebrated.  But there is one regular webinar that is trying to change that, and that’s the Innovative Universities Global Webinar Series.  Based at Constructor University in Germany, it’s co-hosted by two fantastic higher education researchers.  One is Isak Frumin, who joined our podcast last year to talk about post-Soviet universities, and the other is today’s guest, Dara Melnyk.

    We invited Dara onto the show today to discuss what she and Isak have discovered about innovative universities over the course of their webinar series.  What are the catalysts for innovation in higher education?  What kinds of structures or leadership are required to sustain innovation?  Does the innovation process look different in different parts of the world?  I found this an absolutely delightful conversation, mainly because Dana’s job allows her to delve deeply int topics that I wish I could spend more time on myself, and this was a chance for me to live that life vicariously.  I hope you find her as insightful as I did.  And so without futher ado: over to Dara.


    The World of Higher Education Podcast
    Episode 3.26 | “Anything Can Be Done With Anything”: Innovative Universities with Dara Melnyk 

    Transcript

    Alex Usher (AU): Dara, how did the Innovative Universities Global Webinar come about? What was the motivation to create a platform specifically focused on institutional innovation in higher education?

    Dara Melnyk (DM): So, there were practical reasons—I’d say three of them—and one completely impractical reason.

    The first practical reason is that we truly believe innovative universities are important. They’re useful because they test new approaches, and when those approaches are successful, other universities adopt them. That’s how you upgrade higher education systems. It’s, I think, one of the most powerful—and also most ethical—mechanisms for institutional change, as compared to implementing strict policies.

    The second practical reason is tied to my work. I’ve been consulting and advising universities for the past decade, and it’s simply easier to talk about universities when you can use extreme cases. These cases make for good examples, and innovative universities really have to get that one thing at the core of their distinction exactly right. They can typically articulate what they do very clearly, which makes it efficient to learn from them. For example, a lot of universities practice PBL, but if you want to really understand how it works, it makes sense to go to the core—to McMaster University, Maastricht University, whichever you prefer.

    The last practical reason is that innovative universities often have to fight private battles with regulators. They’re constantly trying to bridge the gap between their vision and the realities of everyday practice, and that can get pretty isolating. So we thought it would be helpful to create a gallery of cases, where university leaders could speak about their ideas and challenges—and where others could learn from those stories and feel a bit better about their own practice.

    And finally, the impractical reason—I promised you one of those! Isak, my co-host, and I have this acute curiosity about higher education. Innovative universities intrigue us. They surprise us. They’re hopeful. And most importantly, they make us question what we believe about higher education.

    AU: How do you go about selecting cases? What is it that makes a university truly innovative? Is it technology, governance, pedagogy? And how long do you have to wait to know if it’s an innovation worth copying?

    DM: Okay, so there are two questions here. First, about selecting cases—I’d love to tell you that we have a long, strict list of criteria, that we run them through models or maybe Excel files or something like that. But truly, we just follow our gut feeling. If something gives us pause, it might do the same for the audience. That’s how we choose. Someone tells us about an institution, and we think, “Okay, this is interesting—how do they do it?” And that’s when we decide to feature it.

    Now, in terms of what makes a university innovative, we mostly focus on innovations that are constitutive, not auxiliary—meaning they’re absolutely necessary for that specific university model to function. We do also like looking into innovations in the operational model. But typically, we concentrate on innovations in the core—so, in teaching and learning—because that seems to be the very essence of the idea of the university.

    AU: In your experience, I’m wondering to what extent institutions innovate for—how can I put this—internal reasons, as opposed to external challenges. What kinds of external challenges or changes in the environment, I guess, force institutions to rethink their model? And how often is it those external forces that are decisive in making institutions take that turn toward innovation?

    DM: I feel it’s not that cut and dried. While universities do sometimes respond to external forces or challenges, they also just as often stand idly by—disallowing what’s happening. Not in the sense of ignoring it, but rather acknowledging it, addressing it, and then denying any responsibility for taking action. That happens just as frequently.

    What I think triggers innovation more reliably is what I would call inflection points—periods in history when norms start shifting, and people begin to question what they believe in and what is right. And while that’s happening, you can sneak in something truly unusual.

    The largest and longest inflection period we’ve seen was probably in the 1960s and 1970s, when a lot of things were changing. Gender norms and generational roles were being questioned, there was widespread discontent with U.S. foreign policy and levels of inequality, and in Europe there was a kind of religious rebellion. That’s how we ended up with, I think, almost half of the cases in our collection.

    And possibly, we are living through an inflection period now as well. We’re seeing technological shifts, a new political order—or, as The Economist recently and aptly put it, “disorder”—emerging, as well as climate wars. Institutions are responding to all of that, but they’re also enabled to respond, because no one is quite sure what the correct university model is right now. For a time, that uncertainty creates room to innovate. I think at some point, it will settle again—and innovating will become difficult.

    AU: It seems to me that innovations require a pretty careful mix of institutional structures, leadership styles, funding mechanisms—these could be internal or external. Is there any configuration that you think is more likely to support long-term change?

    DM: First of all, anything can be done with anything. We’ve seen the most fascinating cases of innovation happen under really severe constraints. But at the same time, there are factors that significantly contribute to innovation. I’d classify them as stories, leaders, and policy.

    Starting with stories: if a university community believes it must innovate—for whatever reason, whether to be a pathfinder, to show other universities the way, or to solve problems because it has a vision it’s trying to implement—then it keeps solving issues in order to make that vision real.

    When it comes to leaders, personal drive matters. And you actually need several people with that drive, because they’ll argue, they’ll compete, they’ll collaborate—and ultimately, they’ll move the university forward. No university leader is an island, to paraphrase John Donne. No team, no vision, no innovation, ultimately.

    And finally, policy. I think you’d agree there needs to be sufficient autonomy to experiment. It sounds like a basic statement—like something you hear in every second university president’s speech—but universities are often quite limited by licensing and accreditation regulations. And also by something I’d call self-arrest, borrowing from Antony Giddens: playing it safe just in case, keeping still, not rocking the boat.

    So autonomy is really important. I love the title of the book by Bartlett Giamatti about universities—The Free and Ordered Space. I’ve been obsessed with that phrase. It seems incredibly relevant to universities, because, well—there is no order if you don’t have freedom. Freedom is the basis of order for universities.

    AU: Dara, your series features universities from all over the world. I’ve been so impressed by the way you’ve been able to go to various corners of the globe. What’s your impression about how the approach to innovation differs regionally? So, is there a North American path to institutional innovation that’s different from what you see in Europe or Asia? Is it about philosophy? Is it about traditions? I mean, what are the differences you see globally?

    DM: I think it’s about problem fields. A problem field is a cluster of issues you have to navigate and somehow address—quote in your design—for sponsors to even consider investing, for students to consider coming, and so on.

    If I were to walk you through the regions—this is a really rough typology at the moment, but still—
    For Africa, the problem field is the trifecta of affordability, quality, and regional relevance. That last part is sometimes interpreted as decolonization, but I think it’s more than that.

    Asia is incredibly diverse, both economically and culturally. I’d say China seems especially concerned with identifying its own way and positioning universities as economic drivers—meaning actual partnerships between higher education institutions and industry. And in developing countries, I think it’s mostly about securing social mobility for students.

    Now, traveling to North America—we’ve only looked at the U.S. so far; Canada is pending—it’s also very much centered on affordability. But with the University of Austin—not to be confused with the University of Texas at Austin—we’re seeing a return to thinking about and experimenting with what a university should be in the first place. That sounds a bit like the 1960s to me. So, we’ll see what happens there.

    And finally, Europe is all about Europe—Europeanness. Its largest innovation, the European University Networks, is centered on that. And apart from this sense of Europeanness, there’s a lot of attention to innovative and experimental pedagogies, partly in response to demographic changes.

    AU: About a year ago, we had a guest on the show, Brian Rosenberg—you’ve probably read his book, Whatever It Is, I’m Against It. He painted a picture of American institutions as being very resistant to innovation, basically because there are too many points of veto within the institution. What are the biggest obstacles you see preventing universities from adopting innovative practices? Are you as pessimistic as Brian? How do you get around that tendency toward inertia?

    DM: I am definitely not as pessimistic as Brian—maybe because I don’t live in the U.S. I hope the land down below Canada won’t be offended by that!

    Now, talking about obstacles, there are both external and internal ones. Externally, they’re quite plentiful, but I think it boils down to a conflict between open and closed systems. A higher education system is either welcoming—in narrative and policy—to innovation, or it’s not. And the way to overcome that barrier usually involves promotion, and often lobbying, for the importance of innovative universities.

    According to our observations, successful, innovative universities are typically led by talented lobbyists. You have to be able to fight back—to be an actor, not just an agent, in the national conversation.

    Now, for internal obstacles, the biggest one is a lack of critical discussion about the organization. If people can’t voice issues or share ideas—because, for example, they’re afraid to—then nothing changes, and nothing will change. So, step one is to create a platform for that discussion. And step two is not just to invite people to share their opinions—or embolden them, if you can—but to actually carry the conversation through to real projects. Try something out. It may or may not work, but at least you’ve tried. And then you can try again. That’s how you become an innovative institution.

    AU: What’s the most innovative institution you’ve seen? I know you’ve done dozens of these around the world. What’s the one that really affected you the most—one that you thought was the most interesting to think about or to look at?

    DM: It doesn’t really work like that. We tend to get excited about every single institution we look at. The more attention you pay to one, the more fascinated you get. For me, it’s typically the last case—either the one we just covered or the one we’re about to cover.

    So, the case we just covered is Roskilde University in Denmark, which is a cousin of McMaster University. They’re just wonderful. They have their own proprietary methodology—problem-oriented project learning—and they keep introducing new innovations. If you look at the news page on their website, it’s not just updates about research outcomes and student results. It’s also things like, “We’re going to introduce this,” or “We’re thinking about that.”

    And the case we’re going to cover very soon, in a couple of days, is Tidelines Institute. It’s a micro-college. There’s a proper definition for that, but I like to define micro-colleges as institutions where everybody knows everybody.

    Tidelines is located in the Alaskan wilderness and sees itself almost as complementary to traditional higher education institutions. It’s not a disruptive institution—it’s a complement. It’s an addition. It offers experiential learning through short-term projects for students. They can come for six months or even just a couple of weeks and learn something amazing by doing.

    AU: So, based on all these conversations you’ve had, what are the big themes that you think might affect—for lack of a better word—the university of the future? Obviously, there’s not one university of the future; there are lots of different possibilities and roles for individual institutions to play. But are there specific themes emerging from your research that you think might become a more hegemonic—or dominant—blueprint for higher education in the coming decades?

    DM: Some things are clear. First, affordable university models will keep appearing—because everyone wants them to. For that, you might look at NewU University in Washington, DC. It’s a really brave and persistent case that I admire deeply. Or the African Leadership University, which Brian Rosenberg—whom you mentioned—is an advisor to.

    Second, universities will implement more technology. We all know it; everybody talks about it. I’d recommend looking at MEF, a Turkish university, to see what they’re doing. They’re quite systematic in implementing new technological solutions.

    Third—and almost as a mirror to that technological implementation—universities will also have to compete with online platforms. They have to offer something no one else does. I really like the idea of Forward College, which is an itinerant college in Europe. Students study in Lisbon for their first year, Paris for their second, and Berlin for their third. Forward College believes that relational pedagogy should lie at the core of education—the relationship between teacher and student as the driver for learning. I think that has its place, maybe even a central place, in universities. These are the spaces where generations meet, and that should be used and leveraged.

    That said, I want to make a slightly extended comment about innovation. I’m not sure if Isak would agree, but even though I research innovative universities, talk about them, and write about them, I don’t truly believe in innovations in higher education. I don’t think they’re possible.

    Lately, I’ve been reading and listening to things about ancient Greece and ancient Greek education—and also listening to Bastille, because for me, that’s connected. There’s a line in their song Pompeii: “But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?” The more I learn about innovative higher education, the more I believe in two things: first, nothing will fundamentally change; and second, nothing should.

    On that first point—about the lack of fundamental change—most innovations are reimaginings. We keep reimagining ideas that have already been discussed, that have already been tried, throughout the couple of thousand years of higher education history.

    And on the second point—maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Maybe it’s something universities should retain. They are organizations that manage knowledge. They gain knowledge through research, they transmit it through education, and they apply it through technology transfer. The formats might change, but at their core, universities should remain the one type of organization responsible for the complete knowledge cycle. Everything else seems secondary to me.

    AU: Dara Melnyk , thanks so much for joining us today. And it just remains for me to thank our excellent producers, Tiffany MacLennan and Sam Pufek—and you, our viewers, listeners, and readers—for joining us today. If you have any questions or concerns about today’s episode, or suggestions for future ones, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected]. Run—don’t walk—to our YouTube channel. Subscribe to it so you never miss an episode of The World of Higher Education. Join us next week when I’ll be joined by Nicolas Badré, the Chief Operating Officer of the Galileo Global Education Group. We’ll be talking about the rise of private higher education in Europe and the Galileo Group’s fascinating experiments with artificial intelligence in teaching and learning. Bye for now.

    *This podcast transcript was generated using an AI transcription service with limited editing. Please forgive any errors made through this service. Please note, the views and opinions expressed in each episode are those of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the podcast host and team, or our sponsors.

    This episode is sponsored by Studiosity. Student success, at scale – with an evidence-based ROI of 4.4x return for universities and colleges. Because Studiosity is AI for Learning — not corrections – to develop critical thinking, agency, and retention — empowering educators with learning insight. For future-ready graduates — and for future-ready institutions. Learn more at studiosity.com.

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  • How Trump Is Wreaking Havoc on the Student Visa System

    How Trump Is Wreaking Havoc on the Student Visa System

    Last week, an international student adviser at a small regional college logged on to a private forum for international enrollment and admissions professionals, seeking advice on “something strange” she’d noticed.

    She had run a report on her Student Exchange and Visitor Information System database, where international student records are stored, after seeing troubling reports of foreign student deportations. When she got the results back, she found that a number of her students had had their legal residency status terminated without her knowledge.

    This is the third installment in an Inside Higher Ed series on international students under Trump. Read the first and second here.

    In the days since, nearly 100 other international student service professionals have piled onto the discussion thread to share similar stories: They trawled through SEVIS only to find unexpected visa revocations and had to quickly decide how to notify affected students.

    Inside Higher Ed obtained access to the forum but is keeping it and the identity of the officials posting there anonymous to ensure the privacy of the participants.

    Most of the officials on the forum reported an even more troubling detail: Students weren’t just having their visas revoked; they were losing their student status altogether.

    When international students have their entry visas revoked, they almost always retain their legal residency status in SEVIS, according to immigration lawyers. They can stay in the country as long as they remain enrolled in courses and must reapply for a new visa if they leave. Now, as the Trump administration revokes hundreds of student visas each week, federal immigration officials also seem to be terminating students’ SEVIS status—paving the way for arrest and deportation.

    One forum member asked how it was possible that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could alter SEVIS status on their own; they’d never seen it done before and thought it might be a mistake.

    “I’m just wondering if we have any recourse to request corrections,” they wrote. “Trying to think creatively (and maybe desperately) at this point.”

    University officials and immigration experts who spoke with Inside Higher Ed both on the record and on background echoed the concerns of the forum participants. They said the Trump administration is playing fast and loose with the visa system and that its tactics are severely limiting universities’ options to help students who may be targeted by ICE.

    The officials on the forum said affected students were almost all Middle Eastern—Turkish, Kuwaiti, Saudi, Iranian—or from majority-Muslim countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Some said they’d received letters with unusually forceful wording, demanding they turn over student records under threat of federal investigation. Many fretted over how to advise affected students without running afoul of immigration authorities themselves.

    They all worried about how best to protect students while adjusting to a visa system that appeared to be changing overnight into something unrecognizable.

    “Most of us are not practicing immigration attorneys (and haven’t needed to be),” one university official wrote. “We’re in a strange new world where little from past practice seems to apply.”

    ‘Strange New World’

    Some students have had their visas revoked due to criminal records, but many university officials report only minor infractions like traffic violations, some of them adjudicated years ago. Those without a criminal record are having their visas revoked largely under a specific clause in the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state personal power to determine if a student’s continued presence “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

    That 35-year-old clause has almost never been invoked until now. In an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit filed by detained Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a group of immigration lawyers says they scoured court records and legal documents for precedents of the foreign policy risk clause being used to revoke student visas. Out of 11.7 million cases, they found it had been used only 15 times before this year and had only resulted in deportation four times.

    In an email to Inside Higher Ed, a State Department spokesperson confirmed that the “revocation of [a] student visa lead[s] to termination of their students status,” and that it’s up to ICE agents whether to notify universities of the change. They added that they don’t provide statistics on visa revocations, but that the “process is ongoing and the number of revocations is dynamic.”

    “The State Department revokes visas every day in order to secure America’s borders and keep our communities safe—and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson wrote.

    Clay Harmon, director of AIRC: The Association of International Enrollment Management, said he’s heard reports of abrupt visa revocations from members across the country, and that it’s disrupting international student service offices tasked with helping manage student visas.

    “Folks in the visa system are already strapped to meet current mandates,” he said. “Adding this arbitrary element into what has always been a very well-regulated system causes an undue and unfair burden on institutions.”

    Visa Vigilance

    Many international student support officials said they’ve recently made a habit of checking SEVIS daily for new terminations, especially after last week’s ramping up in international student deportations blindsided some college officials.

    When Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by ICE agents last week, not only were university officials unaware that her visa had been revoked, but her file in SEVIS still said she was “in good immigration standing,” according to a court motion filed by the university Wednesday night. Ozturk’s SEVIS file was only updated to reflect a termination of her status at 7:32 p.m., hours after she was abducted from the street outside her residence; university officials did not receive an email from ICE about the change in her status until 10:30 the next evening.

    A spokesperson for Minnesota State University at Mankato, where a student was detained by ICE agents last Friday, told Inside Higher Ed Wednesday that they hadn’t received any communication from immigration officials about the student whatsoever. And at the University of Minnesota’s flagship campus, a computer system did not show that Turkish graduate student Dogukan Gunaydin’s visa was revoked until several hours after he was taken into custody, according to a lawsuit Gunaydin filed Sunday.

    One university international affairs official, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak freely about his experience, said he decided to check SEVIS last week after reading Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement that the department had revoked 300 student visas last month. He was shocked to find that one of his students had not just their visa but also their legal status to remain in the country revoked, on the grounds they might be a foreign policy risk.

    The official, who has been working in the field for more than 40 years, said he’d never seen immigration services revoke a student’s SEVIS status before.

    “We usually check SEVIS once a semester … we don’t usually have to check statuses because we’re the ones who would change them,” the official said. “Now we are making a point to check thoroughly, every day. It’s the only way to protect our students.”

    The student had not been notified of their status termination before the university reached out and “had absolutely no idea” what could have precipitated the decision. They hadn’t participated in any campus protests or written op-eds and were hardly politically active. The only criminal infraction they remembered was running a stoplight.

    Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired Cornell law professor who specializes in immigration law and student visas, said leaving university officials in the dark about changes to visa status “makes it difficult for colleges to advise their international students.”

    “The system works on communication going both ways between immigration officials and institutions,” he said. “The government doing things in secret makes it hard for both students and universities to know whether they are complying.”

    There’s a lot at stake in compliance for universities: The Trump administration has threatened to use the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, which normally investigates universities for visa fraud, to decertify colleges it believes have been harboring students they determine are threats to national security, according to an Axios report. Decertification would bar colleges from enrolling any international students at all.

    Harmon of AIRC said the political weaponization of SEVP would be unprecedented.

    “Their primary concern has been to verify that institutions are offering bona fide educational services and aren’t just diploma mills,” he said. “I’ve never heard of a fully accredited, reputable institution being subjected to some kind of investigation outside of the standard recertification process.”

    One student adviser wrote on the forum that they received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security demanding a number of international students’ records and threatening to revoke the college’s visa certification “without any chance of appeal” if they did not provide the records within five business days. Another said they’d gotten the same letter, but their deadline was just three business days.

    Some college officials say fear and caution make it hard to do all they can to help students.

    “Having to be so careful around actually protecting the student’s physical safety just feels … not good enough, frankly,” one adviser wrote. “It’s just very painful to have to tread so lightly when there is so much more at stake for them.”

    Scott Pollock, a veteran immigration lawyer who specializes in international educators and student visas, said that’s part of the Trump administration’s strategy.

    “The administration has been sowing terror in the hearts of international students. Now that’s spreading to school officials as well,” he said. “It’s all part of this revenge-driven policy.”

    This past week several international students who received visa revocations decided to leave the country voluntarily. Two Saudi students at North Carolina State University fled this week, as did a student at Temple University and a graduate student at Cornell University who is suing the Trump administration.

    Many more likely did the same without fanfare—including the anonymous university official’s student, who hopes to apply for re-entry as soon as they can.

    “It was not an easy decision for the student, and it was not an easy decision for us to help them make,” the official said. “But they thought it would be the least risky thing to do and give them the greatest opportunity to finish their degree, which was their priority.”

    “I really hope to see them back on campus in the fall.”

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  • Staff and Funding Cuts at the NEH Loom

    Staff and Funding Cuts at the NEH Loom

    The Department of Government Efficiency has struck higher ed institutions once again—this time through the National Endowment for the Humanities.

    Leaders of the agency—which supports research, innovation and preservation in disciplines related to culture, society and values—told staff members Tuesday that the Trump administration intends to make substantial reductions in staff, slash the agency’s grant programs and rescind grants that have already been awarded.

    Humanities advocates don’t know exactly how large the cuts to NEH’s approximately 180-person staff or $78.25 million grant budget will be, but they note that “patterns at other agencies” provide a solid hint. The impact on colleges and universities, they say, would be crushing.

    “The NEH supports the full range of humanities work that takes place at higher ed institutions, including support for research and teaching, academic publishing and professional development programs for faculty,” said Stephen Kidd, executive director of the National Humanities Alliance. “Cuts would be particularly devastating, because unlike a lot of private funders, the NEH is more prestige-blind. With its mandate to support the humanities across the country, it’s more likely to give grants to people at smaller and public institutions.”

    President Trump has been talking about cutting humanities funding since his first term. Even before whispers about the latest cuts began, humanities scholars expressed concern that new grant-eligibility rules imposed to comply with Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion would “undercut NEH’s very mission.”

    The president and his cabinet secretaries have already fired or offered buyouts to tens of thousands of government employees in an attempt to hollow out the federal workforce. Two of the most notable cuts impacted the Department of Education—which supports higher ed through federal student aid programs, data collection and accountability measures—and the Department of Health and Human Services, one of the world’s largest research funding sources for colleges and universities.

    Now Trump is turning his focus from educational infrastructure and sciences to history, literature and philosophy. Paula Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association, believes the move is “sending a message.”

    The cut “adds up to a huge net loss for all of higher education” and suggests “it is not worth investing in the study of our culture and the culture of others,” Krebs said. “In the larger context of DOGE cuts, the nation is saying that it’s not worth investing in the study of anything at all.”

    The announcement of looming cuts at NEH comes just three weeks after the agency’s Biden-appointed chair, Shelly Lowe, resigned. A citizen of the Navajo Nation, Lowe was the agency’s first Native American chair. Before that, she served as executive director of the Harvard University Native American Program.

    The agency is now being led by interim director Michael McDonald, who previously served as its general counsel.

    Since Lowe stepped down, DOGE staff members have made several appearances at the office. On Tuesday, they said 70 to 80 percent of the staff would be let go, three staff members told The New York Times. Sources also told the Times that all grants approved by the Biden administration but not yet paid out in full will be canceled.

    Neither NEH nor the White House responded to Inside Higher Ed’s request for comment.

    Founded in 1965, the NEH has allocated more than $6 billion in grants to museums, historical sites, libraries, state humanities councils and higher education institutions to support a variety of programs.

    Kidd, from the Humanities Alliance, said one of the most substantial losses universities could face is funding for curriculum development. In an era when public doubt regarding the value of a college degree is on the rise and skills-based hiring is gaining traction, humanities departments across the country are looking for new ways to mix the classical liberal arts with modern pre-professional training. NEH grants, he said, have been a key source of support for such experimentation.

    “These kinds of curricular innovations can help to ensure that students in the humanities have strong pathways to future careers,” Kidd said. It’s “NEH’s support for curricular innovations that might bring the humanities in conversation with business or with biological and health sciences.”

    He and other humanities association leaders have also expressed concern about cuts to grants intended to help libraries and museums preserve historical documents, art and other materials that are key to humanities research. The cuts to NEH, they say, will only compound the damage that has already been done by Trump’s executive order to disband the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

    “Without funding for preservation, materials will disappear, degrade or not be collected in the first place,” Kidd said. “And once those are lost—they’re lost. The record of human activity is gone.”

    Though its mandate is much broader than the humanities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities also registered concern about the NEH cuts.

    “NEH-funded research documents American history and culture [and] explores the legal and ethical use of emerging technologies such as AI,” said Craig Lindwarm, the association’s senior vice president of governmental affairs. “While undoubtedly reforms to NEH can be made and efficiencies found, cuts to NEH research would undermine progress in these critical areas and beyond.”

    To Peter Berkey, executive director of the Association of University Presses, the looming endowment cuts are the epicenter of “a disastrous ripple through the entire scholarly ecosystem.”

    “Perhaps most importantly,” he said, “these actions will diminish the very disciplines that drive the development of critical thinking, the understanding of value and the pursuit of justice and democracy among the next generation of scholars and citizens.”

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  • FSA Executive Retires and Acting Under Secretary Takes Over

    FSA Executive Retires and Acting Under Secretary Takes Over

    The responsibilities of acting under secretary James Bergeron doubled as the Department of Education announced Wednesday that he will not only oversee the regulatory duties related to higher ed but manage the entire Office of Federal Student Aid.

    Even in the wake of major layoffs, FSA remains the largest office in the department. It oversees the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the allocation of Pell Grants and—at least for now—management of the $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio.

    FSA had been led for much of the last year by Denise Carter, who is now retiring after more than 30 years working in the federal government. Carter also served as acting education secretary earlier this year. The department didn’t say in the news release why Carter was retiring now; the agency has offered early retirement offers and buyouts as part of an effort to reduce the workforce.

    Carter said in the release she was grateful for the opportunity to serve her country.

    “As I move on, I hope we as a nation commit to ensuring every student has the support needed to achieve extraordinary educational outcomes,” Carter added. “The economic strength of our nation depends on their success.”

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  • 400 Books Removed From Naval Academy Library

    400 Books Removed From Naval Academy Library

    The U.S. Naval Academy has culled 400 books deemed to promote to diversity, equity and/or inclusion from its library at the insistence of the Trump administration, according to the Associated Press.

    Last week, the Naval Academy, located in Annapolis, Md., identified 900 potential books to review in response to orders from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office to remove books containing DEI-related content, The New York Times reported. That list included The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., Einstein on Race and Racism, and a biography of Jackie Robinson. A list of the books that were ultimately removed has not been released.

    The nation’s five military academies were also told in February to eliminate admissions “quotas” related to sex, ethnicity or race after President Trump signed an executive order to remove “any preference based on race or sex” from the military. Both the Naval and Air Force Academies have also completed curriculum reviews to remove materials that allegedly promote DEI, and a West Point official also told the AP that it was prepared to review both curriculum and library materials if directed to do so by the Army.

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  • Scholars’ Stories of Losing Federal Funding

    Scholars’ Stories of Losing Federal Funding

    Sixteen researchers across a range disciplines from the biomedical sciences and STEM to education and political science share their experiences of losing research grants and what impact the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding will have on science, public health and education in Inside Higher Ed today.

    The Trump administration told researchers Rebecca Fielding-Miller, Nicholas Metheny, Abigail Hatcher and Sarah Peitzmeier that trainings connected to their National Institutes of Health grant focused on the prevention of intimate partner violence against pregnant and perinatal women were “antithetical to the scientific inquiry, do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness.”

    “We could not disagree more,” Fielding-Miller, Metheny, Hatcher and Peitzmeier write. “Anyone who has cared for a child or for the person who gave birth to them knows that preventing maternal and infant death and abuse should be a nonpartisan issue. The current administration is intent on making even this issue into ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ When it comes to public health, there is no such thing.”

    Meanwhile, Judith Scott-Clayton writes that the decision to cancel a Department of Education grant funding a first-of-its-kind randomized evaluation of the Federal Work-Study program—four and a half years into a six-year project—will leave policymakers “flying blind.”

    “Since 1964, the FWS program has disbursed more than $95 billion in awards,” Scott-Clayton wrote. “In comparison, our grant was less than three-thousandths of 1 percent of that amount, and the amount remaining to finish our work and share our findings with the public was just a fraction of that.”

    Read all of the scholars’ stories here.

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