It’s college rankings season again, a time of congratulations, criticism and, occasionally, corrections for institutions and the organizations that rate them.
Typically U.S. News & World Report, the giant of the college rankings world, unranks some institutions months after its results are published over data discrepancies that are usually the result of honest mistakes. But in rare instances, erroneous data issues aren’t mistakes but outright fraud. And when that happens, it can result in soul-searching and, ideally, redemption for those involved.
That’s what happened at Temple University, which was rocked by a rankings scandal in 2018, when it became clear that Moshe Porat, the dean of Temple’s Richard J. Fox School of Business and Management, had knowingly provided false data to U.S. News for years in a successful effort to climb the rankings. Temple’s online master of business administration soared to No. 1—until the scheme was exposed. U.S. News temporarily unranked the program, the U.S. Department of Education hit Temple with a $700,000 fine and Porat was convicted of fraud.
Since then, Temple has worked hard to restore its reputation. In the aftermath of the scandal, officials imposed universitywide changes to how it handles facts and figures, establishing a Data Verification Unit within the Ethics and Compliance Office. Now any data produced by the university goes through a phalanx of dedicated fact-checkers, whether it’s for a rankings evaluation or an admissions brochure.
A Culture Shift
Temple’s Data Verification Unit was introduced in 2019 amid the fallout of the rankings scandal.
At first, it gave rise to “friction points,” as university officials were required to go through new processes to verify data before it was disseminated, said Susan Smith, Temple’s chief compliance officer. But now she believes the unit has won the trust of colleagues on campus who have bought in to more rigorous fact-checking measures.
“It’s been an incredibly positive thing for Temple and I think for data integrity over all,” Smith said.
Initially, Temple partnered with an outside law firm to verify data and lay the groundwork for the unit. Now that is all handled in-house by a small team that works across the university.
While Smith said “the vast majority of mistakes” she sees “are innocent,” her team is there “to act as a sort of backstop” and to “verify that the data is accurate, that there’s integrity in the data.”
The Data Verification Unit also provides training on best practices for data use and dissemination.
University officials believe placing the Data Verification Unit under the centralized Office of Compliance and Ethics—which reports directly to Temple’s Board of Trustees—is unique. And some say the process has created a bit of a culture shift as they run numbers by the unit.
Temple spokesperson Stephen Orbanek, who joined the university after the rankings scandal, said running news releases by the Data Verification Unit represented a “total change” from the way he was accustomed to operating. And while it can sometimes slow down the release of certain data points or responses to media requests, he said he’s been able to give reporters more robust data.
He also noted times when Temple has had to pull back on marketing claims and use “less impressive” statistics after the Data Verification Unit flagged issues with materials. As an example, he cited a fact sheet put out by the university in which officials wanted to refer to Temple as a top producer of Fulbright scholars. But the Data Verification Unit insisted that a caveat was needed: The statistic pertained only to the 2022–23 academic year.
Ultimately, Orbanek sees the Data Verification Unit as a boon for a more transparent campus culture.
“The culture has just kind of shifted, and you get on board,” Orbanek said.
Other Rankings Scandals
Other universities have been less forthcoming about fixing their own data issues.
In 2022, a professor called out his employer, Columbia University, for submitting inaccurate data to U.S. News, which responded by unranking the institution for a short time. Following the scandal and accusations of fraud by some critics, Columbia announced the university would no longer submit data to U.S. News. Officials argued that the rankings have outsize influence on prospective students but don’t adequately measure institutional quality.
Yet Columbia still publishes large swaths of data, such as its Common Data Set. Asked how the university has acted to verify data in the aftermath of the rankings scandal, a spokesperson wrote by email that data is “reviewed by a well-established, independent advisory firm to ensure reporting accuracy” but did not respond to a request for more details on the verification processes.
The University of Southern California also navigated a rankings scandal in 2022. USC provided faulty data to U.S. News for its Rossier School of Education, omitting certain metrics, which helped it rise in the rankings, according to a third-party report that largely blamed a former dean.
U.S. News temporarily unranked Rossier; graduate students sued the university, accusing officials of falsely advertising rankings based on fraudulent data. That legal battle is ongoing, and earlier this year a judge ruled that the case can proceed as a class action suit.
Officials did not respond to a request from Inside Higher Ed for comment on whether or how USC has changed the way it verifies data for use in rankings or for other purposes.
U.S. News also did not respond to specific questions about if or how it verifies that information submitted by institutions to be used for ranking purposes is accurate. A spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed, “U.S. News believes that data transparency and internal accountability practices by educational institutions are good for those institutions and good for consumers.”
NEW YORK — The early morning mist hung over Lower Manhattan as buses began arriving from campuses across America. From Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the South to state flagships in the Midwest, from community colleges in New Jersey to Ivy League institutions in New England, students and faculty poured into New York City with a singular purpose: to stand with the Rev. Al Sharpton in defending diversity, equity and inclusion programs under siege.
Thursday’s “March on Wall Street” drew thousands to Manhattan’s Financial District, but among the clergy, labor and community leaders were hundreds of higher education advocates who had traveled from every corner of the nation, transforming the demonstration into an unlikely convergence of campus and community activism.
The 45-minute march through downtown Manhattan carried special significance, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. But this time, the target wasn’t the nation’s capital—it was corporate America’s headquarters.
“We come to Wall Street rather than Washington this year to let them know, you can try to turn back the clock, but you can’t turn back time,” Sharpton said as the demonstration began at New York’s popular Foley Square.
For the academics who joined the march, Sharpton’s words resonated with particular urgency. Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald J. Trump has successfully moved to end DEI programs within the federal government and warned schools to do the same or risk losing federal money.
Dr. Harold Williams, an adjunct sociology professor from Philadelphia who had driven three hours with a van full of colleagues, clutched a handmade sign reading “Education is Democracy.”
“We’re watching the systematic destruction of everything we’ve worked to build,” said the 63-year-old educator, who was just one when his mother brought him to Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963 to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. “They’re not just cutting programs, they’re cutting the pathways that opened higher education to an entire generation of students.”
Among the crowd that gathered near the African Burial Ground—the largest known resting place of enslaved and freed Africans in the country—Dr. Michael Eric Dyson’s voice carried the weight of history and the urgency of the present moment.
The prominent Vanderbilt University professor and public intellectual delivered a rousing address along with a litany of other activists including Marc H. Morial of the National Urban League, Maya Wiley of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers.
“Well, you know, people often ask, what was it like? They look at the grainy black and white photos of Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy and Rosa Parks and Ella Baker and Diane Nash and John Lewis. What was it like to be with them?” Dyson said in an interview with Diverse.
“Well, you know right now, these are the times that define us. These times to future generations will be remarkable. What did you do with the fascist presidency, with an authoritarian man, with an autocrat who was attempting to absorb for himself all the power that was not due him? Well, this is what it looks like.”
Dyson’s words particularly resonated among the young activists in the crowd—students who had grown up during an era of increasing attacks on institutional knowledge and educational access.
The logistics of moving academics from campuses nationwide told its own story of commitment. Many had used personal funds or organized fundraisers to join what some called an “academic pilgrimage” to stand with Sharpton and the broader civil rights community. Howard University organized a busload from the nation’s capital.
Jonah Cohen, 18, a freshman at City College of New York, said that he was energized by the public demonstration of activism.
“This is our moment,” he said of the student turnout. “We are no longer accepting these attacks without a fight. We are fighting back against those who want to take us back to an uglier America. We see a better country.”
State Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate in the upcoming New York City mayoral race, marched alongside some of the professors and students, embodying the coalition between academic and political leadership that advocates say is necessary to resist the rollbacks.
The National Action Network’s strategy of encouraging consumer boycotts of retailers that have scaled back DEI policies resonated with many academics who said that they understood the connection between corporate and educational equity initiatives.
“Corporate America wants to walk away from Black communities, so we are marching to them to bring this fight to their doorstep,” Sharpton said.
Welcome back to the HEPI blog. Our apologies if you have missed your daily dose of higher education policy debate being delivered to your inbox, but we have been busy working on something new. Following our recent HEPI survey, we were thrilled that in addition to readers using HEPI to stay up to date with the latest in higher education policy, over 70% of our readership use HEPI’s research as an evidence and information base. Many colleagues also draw on this to inform strategic planning, develop good practice, or influence governmental and regulatory policy. As such, we have revamped the HEPI website, making it easier for you to find the trusted, evidence-based research we provide. You can now explore our reports, blogs and events by policy area and use the improved search function to find everything you need. We encourage you to visit the new site, and in the spirit of enthusiastic debate, to let us know what you think.
Today’s blog was authored by Darcie Jones, former Vice President of Education at the University of Plymouth Students’ Union and current HEPI Intern.
We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel, a karaoke classic. But most importantly a 40-year list of crises and cultural touch points, many of which still present in 2025. The tale of generational fatigue led me to think about the role students play in inheriting challenges they didn’t ignite but are trying to fight. As a sabbatical officer, I often heard ‘our students aren’t activists or political’, suggesting a view of apathy towards student activism. So is student activism dead, or does it need a new lens?
Public perception of student activism often falls within a stereotype: paint throwing, glued to the M5, and generally privileged. In some ways that isn’t false, those activists do exist. Iconic movements such as climate strikes and large-scale encampments often dominate the narrative. It takes activists like these to stand-up, utilise their privilege and be radical to create public discourse. However, such dramatic imagery can cultivate scepticism: are students genuinely passionate or merely troublemakers? Maybe it is possible they can be both.
HEPIs report ‘There was nothing to do but take action’: The encampments protesting for Palestine and the response to them, documented ‘one of the most intensive periods of student protest since the Vietnam War.’ These encampments, born of frustration, helplessness and digital outrage, illustrated a moment when activism was unmistakably alive and visible on campuses. However, what happens to student activism when ‘radical activists’ take a break?
What if student activism isn’t always headline worthy? What if it thrives quietly in the pages of student newspapers, or in the safe spaces built by student communities? Reframing of student activism recognises that while it can be revolutionary, student activism can also be impactful and behind the scenes.
From investigative features on sector issues such as tuition fee hikes, to institutional procedural failures, student journalism shines a light where mainstream media may not. Written by (sometimes faceless) students, hard-hitting features highlight the feelings amongst the student community and utilises media presence to create institutional discourse and influence policy – all without having to leave their bedrooms. The importance of student newspapers in amplifying the voice of students on local or global issues can be seen sector wide, with The Tab, originally established at the University of Cambridge, now spanning across 29 UK universities.
Community-led student spaces are an overlooked driver of cultural change. Student societies and support groups for those from marginalised backgrounds, such as LGBTQ+ societies, offer more than community. They lobby for inclusive institutional policies, host educational events and shape campus cultures from within. These groups offer a safe space for students to form authentic communities without marginalisation, in itself being a form of activism for students from certain cultures. Student groups show that impactful campaigning can be done with accessibility in mind, empowering silenced voices to speak up in ways that suit their needs.
This is just a small example of the methods in which students portray activism within student communities. Overall, arguing that students ‘are not political’ erases all that students do to challenge political climates. Choosing to attend work over lectures, creating a student-led community larder to counteract student poverty, attending a pride parade – these are all political choices. This perspective broadens the activism spectrum: it is not just about visible spectacle – it is about sustained effort, relationship-building, and structural change in all forms.
Moreover, it challenges the notion that activism is solely reactive. Instead, activism can be proactive and constructive, laying the groundwork for safer, more inclusive and better-informed environments.
Therefore, student activism is not dead. It remains alive and evolving. Yes, fiery protests make headlines and are important to enact urgent change. But equally important are the quieter forms of resistance: the written word, shared personal experience, safe and inclusive spaces built one meeting at a time.
Just as the fire ‘was always burning’, student activism continues – whether lighting bonfires or quietly tending embers in the corners of campus. Let’s not dismiss it when it is not loudly visible; instead, let’s recognise and foster it wherever it thrives.
Patients benefit from a diverse healthcare workforce. Doctors, particularly those from disadvantaged and minoritised backgrounds, play a crucial role in advocating for what is best for their patients.
The NHS recognises this, linking workforce diversity with increased patient satisfaction, better care outcomes, reduced staff turnover, and greater productivity.
A promising start
Efforts to widen participation in higher education began at the turn of the century following the Dearing report. Over time, access to medical schools gained attention due to concerns about its status as one of the most socially exclusive professions. Medical schools responded in 2014 with the launch of the Selecting for Excellence report and the establishment of the Medical Schools Council (MSC) Selection Alliance, representing admissions teams from every UK medical school and responsible for fair admissions to medical courses.
With medical school expansion under government review, institutions face increasing pressure to demonstrate meaningful progress in widening participation to secure additional places. Although medicine programmes still lag in representing some demographic groups, they now align more closely with wider higher education efforts.
However, widening participation policy often follows a deficit model, viewing disadvantaged young people as needing to be “fixed” or “topped up” before joining the profession. Phrases like “raising aspirations” suggest these students lack ambition or motivation. This model shifts responsibility onto individuals, asking them to adapt to a system shaped mainly by the experiences of white, male, middle-class groups.
Beyond access
To create real change, organisations must move beyond this model and show that students from diverse backgrounds are not only welcomed but valued for their unique perspectives and strengths. This requires a systems-based approach that rethinks every part of medical education, starting with admissions. In its recent report, Fostering Potential, the MSC reviewed a decade of widening participation in medicine. Medical schools across the UK have increased outreach, introduced gateway year courses, and implemented contextual criteria into admissions.
Contextual markers recognise structural inequalities affecting educational attainment. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds often attend under-resourced schools and face personal challenges hindering academic performance. Yet evidence shows that, when given the chance, these students often outperform more advantaged peers at university. Contextual admissions reframe achievements in light of these challenges, offering a fairer assessment of potential.
Despite progress, access remains unequal. Although acceptance rates for students from the most deprived areas have increased, their chances remain 37 per cent lower than those from the least deprived areas. Research indicates that a two-grade A-level reduction is needed to level the playing field—an approach several schools now adopt. Other policies include fast-tracking interviews, test score uplifts, and alternative scoring for widening participation candidates.
Not just special cases
These processes, however, are often opaque and hard to navigate. Many applicants struggle to determine eligibility. With no single definition of disadvantage, medical schools use varied proxy indicators, often poorly explained online. This confusion disproportionately affects the students these policies aim to support; those without university-educated parents, lacking insider knowledge, and attending under-resourced schools.
A commitment to transparency is vital but must go beyond rhetoric. Transparency means all medical schools clearly outline contextual admissions criteria in one accessible place, provide step-by-step guides to applicants and advisors, and offer examples of how contextual data influences decisions. Medical schools could collaborate to agree on standardised metrics for identifying widening participation candidates. This would simplify eligibility understanding, reduce confusion, and promote fairness.
Tools like MSC’s entry requirements platform are a good start but must be expanded, standardised, and actively promoted to the communities that need them most. Genuine transparency empowers applicants to make informed choices, selecting schools best suited to their circumstances and maximising success chances. This also eases the burden on schools, advisors, and outreach staff who struggle to interpret inconsistent criteria.
Ultimately, moving away from the deficit model toward an open, systems-based approach is about more than fairness. It is essential for building a medical workforce that reflects society’s diversity, improving patient care, strengthening the profession, and upholding the NHS’s commitment to equity and excellence.
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Dive Brief:
Ohio University plans to wind down 11 undergraduate programs and merge another 18 to comply with a new state law that sets minimum graduation thresholds. The university said Tuesday it would suspend admission to the programs upon receiving approval from the state higher education department.
Signed in March, Ohio’s sweeping Advance Ohio Higher Education Act gave state colleges just months to determine which programs to cut. The law requires public institutions to eliminate any undergraduate program that issues fewer than five degrees annually over a three-year period.
At Ohio University, 36 programs fell below the allowed threshold. Along with the programs it plans to cut and merge, the university said it will request waivers to keep operating another seven.
Dive Insight:
With the passage of the new legislation, also known as SB 1, Ohio lawmakers made deep inroads into the academic operationsof public colleges, asserting new state controls over decisions historically left to faculty and administrators.
SB 1 also created a policy that could wipe out dozens or even hundreds of academic programs if the experience of Ohio’s neighboring state is any gauge.
In Indiana, a similar policy with programmatic graduation thresholds — inserted into the most recent state budget bill — has already put 75 degree programs on the chopping block. The state’s public colleges also moved to suspend another 101 programs and consolidate 232.
As in Ohio, Indiana state colleges only had months to review their portfolios for cuts.That created uncertainty for many.
“Even tenured faculty are wondering, am I going to have a job in two months?” one faculty governance leader in Indiana told local media, describing “chaos and confusion” on campus.
At Ohio University, many programs slated to end have parallel programs that will continue. For example, the university is on track to suspend bachelor’s of arts degrees in chemistry, geological sciences, mathematics and physics, but it will continue offering bachelor’s of science degrees in those topics.
Students currently enrolled in affected programs will be able to complete their degrees, the university said.
Meanwhile, the institution is planning curricular changes to merge 18 programs with similar or overlapping degrees, most of them in the visual and performing and liberal arts such as instrumental music and several geography majors.
Ohio University requested waivers to keep open seven other programs, even though they fell below the thresholds. The institution said the degrees are unique, have undergone curriculum changes or meet workforce needs, the institution said.
Some students in Ohio are protesting SB 1’s overall and widespread impacts on campuses in the state. A petition launched by the Ohio Student Association asserts that “students have lost not only programs, centers, and scholarships — but also the sense of community and support that made higher education in Ohio accessible, inclusive, and excellent.”
The petition urged administrators at state colleges “not to overcomply with SB 1 — to act in the interest of students rather than in fear of the legislature,”adding that “institutional overcompliance furthers a broader political movement that seeks to erase the progress made toward justice in higher education.”
The group called on campus stakeholders to wear black in protest of the bill and its impacts.
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Dive Brief:
Learning how to use a drone can help students develop hands-on STEM skills such as programming while also fostering interpersonal skills like collaboration and resilience, experts said.
However, for these programs to be sustainable at the middle and high school levels, educators must ensure they connect drone usage to real-world scenarios, collaborate with local business and government agencies, and make the curriculum engaging beyond the first year of instruction, educators said.
“Drones are used in so many industries now. It’s no longer just trying to build a robot arm, they’re being used in police work, agriculture, space, construction work, etc.,” said Louann Cormier, senior program manager of aerial drone competition at the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation. She encourages educators to simply “take the leap” if they are interested in incorporating drones into their classrooms.
Dive Insight:
For a sustainable and effective drone program, educators need to connect with students and demonstrate that this technology can be applied in the real world, said David Thesenga, a middle school science teacher at Dawson School, a private school in Colorado.
Cormier noted how learning with drones can open students’ eyes to pathways they hadn’t considered before.
“There’s so many industries where [students] don’t think of STEM or they don’t think of technology, but now all of a sudden they do, and it just opened up opportunities to them,” said Cormier. “The more that you can connect with them on their own interest levels or something that they find fascinating, that’s your entry point.”
Drones can be an expensive undertaking, Thesenga said, but schools don’t need to buy top-of-the-line drones. It’s actually about balance, explained Cormier, because cheap drones are not a great option either — they tend to break more easily and have function issues.
Cormier encourages districts to start with an entry-level educational drone, because they are safe and don’t require any sort of certification to use. A sustainable drone program also requires a good teacher or coach who’s invested in it, who’s going to stick around for a while and think about how this is done, Thesenga said
Going beyond the classroom and training students for drone competitions can also make the program more sustainable long-term. Students not only get excited, but it also gives them something to strive for, Cormier said.
Competitions also help educators give a focus to instruction. For beginning educators who may not know what to cover, the competition aspect includes specific tasks, and the curriculum aligns with what they’ll be judged on. It provides a pathway to start, and from there, educators become more confident and comfortable and can progress into instructing on other areas of the drone industry.
A sustainable drone program also needs to keep students engaged as they progress through the different school levels, said Jenn DeBarge-Goonan, executive vice president of communications for Rocket Social Impact, which works with companies and nonprofits to develop social impact programs.
DeBarge-Goonan said that making sure there’s a new challenge each year as the program evolves ensures that a student in year three is not doing the same thing they did in years one and two.
There are several ways to fund these programs, Thesenga and Cormier noted. When looking at grants, Thesenga highlighted that they are often not specifically drone-related. However, schools can fund drone programs through general classroom grants or education tech grants.
Cormier recommends reaching out to local organizations that utilize drones, as they are typically invested in the expansion of drone usage and need people in their labor pipeline.
Advanced manufacturing in the U.S. is undergoing a period of rapid expansion, with an anticipated $1 trillion investment in projects, 63% of which is expected to be allocated to facilities near rural communities, according to an analysis from the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility.
The McKinsey Institute also surveyed nearly 1,500 rural high school students and recent graduates, finding that 8 in 10 would like career-connected learning and apprenticeship opportunities. However, only 5 in 10 reported having access to career-connected learning in high school, and only 3 in 10 had access to apprenticeships.
Dive Insight:
The report highlights that as advanced manufacturers expand into rural America, they play a crucial role in fostering strong relationships with local school systems.
Advanced manufacturing industry experts and companies are seeking workers with foundational, technical and durable skills, the report found. However, there seems to be a short supply of these skill sets across the manufacturing labor pool.
One cause of this shortage, the report argues, is a lack of strong, established collaborations between the industry and K-12 schools. The industry’s need for well-equipped future workers could also meet the needs of K-12 schools to expand students’ career opportunities.
Research has found that taking CTE courses can lead to higher graduation rates and greater employment opportunities, which is why industry and rural schools can work together to provide K-12 students with the necessary education and technical skills to enter the incoming workforce, the report noted.
To ensure that students are learning these high-demand skills, employers and industry associations should provide apprenticeships and other workplace learning opportunities for rural schools, as well as help create industry-relevant curricula, the report explained. A strong collaboration benefits not just schools and students, but companies that are also securing a pipeline of prepared workers.
The report recommends that school systems work with local governments and organizations to build connections with employers. Through strong partnerships with industry professionals, schools can develop more effective, career-connected and evidence-based models, the report said.
CTE courses provide students with hands-on, real-world skills for a defined set of careers, and an effective course focuses on skills in demand in the local market. As manufacturing investments grow in rural communities, the report said, schools could offer CTE courses that prepare students with technical and other STEM-based skills necessary in the advanced manufacturing field.
The report also emphasized that industry partners should have regular interaction with students and touch base with them at regularly scheduled intervals. This ensures students are consistently aware of the different career pathways available to them. These interactions can evolve as students advance through different grades, shifting from informational to more tangible resources like apprenticeships, summer jobs and postsecondary scholarships later in high school.
Beyond industry partnerships, state legislatures can also offer incentives for CTE programming through policies and funding, the report recommends. States are already providing these types of incentives, with 40 states collectively approving more than 150 policies focused on boosting CTE programming in 2024.
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Two children — ages 8 and 10 — are dead and 17 other people injured at a Minneapolis Catholic school after an active shooter opened fire Wednesday morning. Fourteen of the 17 injured are children, two of whom are currently in critical condition, according to the Minneapolis Police Department.
The tragedy took place during the first week of classes for Annunciation School, a private pre-K-8 Catholic school with a little over 390 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It occurred while dozens of children were attending religious mass at Annunciation Church, said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara during a Wednesday press briefing.
During the event, the shooter barricaded some doors to the church from the outside to keep students from leaving as he shot at children and churchgoers from outside the building, through the windows. O’Hara said a smoke bomb was found at the scene.
That kind of “frontal assault” style attack at a school is “relatively rare” according to David Riedman, a school shooting expert who manages the K-12 School Shooting Database. A similar style of attack was seen at the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, he said.
“Most school shootings are insider attacks (current students) who commit a surprise attack when they are already inside the building,” said Riedman in a Wednesday analysis sent via email.
It is unknown whether the shooter — who was in his early 20s and appears to have died by suicide during the attack — was a former employee or student of the school, said O’Hara.
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey during the Wednesday press event. “They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence, and their parents should have the same kind of assurance.”
The Annunciation Church shooting is the 146th at a K-12 school so far in 2025, according to Riedman’s count.
“These school shootings happen in all sizes of communities and in rural, suburban, and urban areas,” he said.
School shootings reached all-time highs three years in a row between the 2021-22 to 2023-24 school years, according to Riedman’s K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks anytime a gun is brandished with intent or when a bullet hits school property. The 2024-25 school year then saw a 22.5% decrease in school shootings compared to the prior school year.
There were 254 total school shooting incidents in 2024-25, compared to the nearly 330 school shooting incidents in each of the school years between 2021-22 and 2023-24.
John Wilson is right (“No One is Gaslighting You,” Aug. 20, 2025) that the term “gaslight” can be abused and manipulated in ways that are tendentious, ad hominem and not empirically sound, as can many words and phrases.
However, that’s not an argument against its reality as a social phenomenon and its pernicious impacts. One of the common features of prejudice and discrimination is their denial. That doesn’t make all reported allegations of prejudice and discrimination accurate and true, but it is a frequent characteristic of expressions of prejudice and discrimination to deny their existence. Whether or not such forms of discrimination and prejudice are institutional or systemic may be legitimately contested. But, even if they do not meet the definitions of those terms, when prejudice and discrimination are repeatedly and extensively encountered and consequently undermine equality, freedom and access to justice, it is inimical to the respect and fulfillment of civil rights and human rights to focus on debating whether terms such as “gaslighting” or “institutional discrimination” are appropriate to describe real and widespread experiences of exclusion and abuse.
Rather, energy should be invested in correcting those alleged rights violations and reducing their prevalence and intensity, affirming human dignity, equity and equality, and respect for diversity. Like many forms of discrimination and racism, antisemitism is widespread in the United States. Sociological research shows that approximately one in four Americans holds substantially prejudiced anti-Jewish attitudes, including justification for discrimination and violence against Jewish Americans. Universities are not immune to these pejorative and harmful societal prejudices and beliefs; they reflect them. Elite institutions, including Harvard, are not ivory towers of moral virtue. Gaslighting is as real at universities as it is elsewhere and minorities—including Jews—experience it frequently. I have experienced it at my own university repeatedly and pervasively from different sectors of the university, including its leadership. Our new chancellor is trying to improve our campus climate and culture to ensure greater inclusion and respect for Jewish students, staff and faculty, but this will require substantial will and leadership, investment of resources, and the support of our university community as a whole.
The dynamics of abusive behavior and behavior that enables abuse—including in contexts of domestic abuse but not exclusive to it—–are such that bigotry often manifests as a denial of empathy, care, trust and responsiveness to individuals reporting and experiencing its harms, and concurrent attacks on their character, honesty and rights and hostile claims that their reported experiences are fabricated, exaggerated or made with malicious intent.
That should never be our response to harassment and discrimination that violate civil rights laws and undermine the ethos of our universities and their capacity to provide equal access to education without discrimination for everyone.
Noam Schimmel is a lecturer in global studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Email remains one of the most effective ways for colleges and universities to connect with their audiences. Unlike social platforms that limit reach through algorithms, email marketing for educational institutions provides a direct line to prospects, parents, students, alumni, and partners, people who have already chosen to hear from you. It’s measurable from start to finish, integrates easily with CRMs and student information systems, and can be automated to deliver timely, relevant messages.
The numbers back it up: across industries, email consistently produces one of the strongest returns on investment of any channel. In higher education, the impact is even greater when schools combine clean data with thoughtful segmentation, personalization, and creative storytelling. In practice, email often becomes the foundation of a recruitment strategy, supporting everything from initial outreach to alumni engagement.
This guide brings together proven email marketing best practices for educational institutions. Alongside examples and trusted resources to help your team build campaigns that not only perform but also feel authentic and meaningful to the people you’re trying to reach.
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Where Email Fits in the Student Journey
Email plays a role at every stage of the student journey, from the first moment of discovery through to lifelong alumni engagement. What makes it so effective is its ability to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.
Awareness: Introduce programs, highlight scholarships, and showcase campus life with engaging stories that spark curiosity.
Consideration: Share degree guides, student experiences, faculty spotlights, and invitations to virtual or in-person events.
Decision: Provide deadline reminders, financial aid instructions, advisor booking links, and follow-up checklists that help prospects commit with confidence.
Onboarding & Retention: Support new students with orientation details, academic advising reminders, wellness resources, and career services updates that strengthen their connection to your institution.
Alumni & Advancement: Keep graduates engaged with mentorship opportunities, continuing education offers, impact reports, and giving campaigns that showcase the value of staying involved.
Example in practice:The University of Alberta has built a structured email journey for international prospects, connecting them with advisors and surfacing key requirements at each stage of the process. This ensures that students receive timely, relevant information tailored to their current stage in the decision-making process.
Best Practices for Higher Education Email Marketing
To make email marketing for educational institutions truly effective, schools need more than just frequent sends; they need strategy, structure, and respect for their audience. The best-performing campaigns are built on trust, relevance, and timing.
That means starting with a clean, permission-based list, segmenting by intent, and delivering value at every step of the journey. Each best practice below focuses on how colleges and universities can move beyond “batch and blast” tactics to create meaningful, high-ROI conversations with students, parents, alumni, and partners.
1. Build a Permission-Based, High-Intent List
The strength of your email marketing starts with the quality of your list. Buying addresses might look like a shortcut, but it usually leads to poor engagement and deliverability issues. Instead, focus on capturing leads through owned, value-driven channels.
Program pages with downloadable guides, open house registrations, scholarship calculators, and career snapshots are all proven ways to attract high-intent prospects. Keep sign-up forms short, just name, email, and one preference field, then use progressive profiling to enrich data over time.
Example: George Brown College attracts prospective students by offering downloadable program guides in exchange for email sign-ups. Because students self-select the guide they want, the college immediately knows their area of interest and can trigger tailored follow-up campaigns. This approach builds a fully permission-based list where every contact has explicitly indicated their intent, making subsequent outreach more relevant and effective.
Segmentation is the most consistent way to boost engagement and conversions in higher ed email marketing. Instead of sending broad blasts, divide your audiences by lifecycle stage, program interest, geography, or even behaviour, for example, attending a webinar or abandoning a form. This allows every recipient to receive content that feels timely and relevant. Segmentation also prevents fatigue by cutting down on irrelevant sends, which in turn protects your sender reputation and keeps unsubscribe rates low.
How can segmentation improve the effectiveness of email marketing for higher education? Segmentation makes emails more relevant, which increases engagement. For example, international prospects segmented by country can receive updates on visas and housing, while domestic students see local funding options. Segmenting by lifecycle stage, program, and behaviour helps improve click-throughs and leads to better-qualified student interactions.
Example:Humber College’s international portal structures content by region and need, ensuring students see information on study permits, housing options, and support services tailored to their home country. This kind of geo-segmentation can be mirrored in email journeys, for instance, sending region-specific pre-arrival checklists or visa guidance, so that communications land with stronger relevance for each subgroup of students.
True personalization goes deeper than inserting a first name in the subject line. In higher education, it means dynamically adjusting content blocks based on program interest, geography, or behaviour.
For example, prospective Nursing students should see different resources than prospective Business students. International applicants may need tuition estimates in local currency or immigration guidance. Behavioural triggers, like a reminder to finish an application, show prospects you’re paying attention to their journey.
Why is personalization important in higher education email marketing? Personalization helps students see themselves at your institution. Tailoring emails by program, start term, or action, such as reminding them of an unfinished application, makes communication feel relevant and timely. This reduces fatigue and unsubscribes while guiding students toward conversion more effectively than generic messages.
Example:Arizona State University has invested in dynamic email content that highlights degree options, campus resources, and next-step reminders based on each student’s profile data. ASU’s own email marketing guidelines encourage the use of personalized fields and scripting for tailored messaging, ensuring that outreach feels individually relevant and helpful rather than generic.
4. Write Subject Lines and Previews That Earn the Open
Subject lines and preview text are the most decisive factors in whether an email gets opened. In higher education, a few consistent principles stand out:
Specificity: call out the program or event directly (“Early Childhood Education: Virtual Info Session Tomorrow”).
Urgency and utility: use time-sensitive reminders, but avoid spammy tactics (“Last 48 hours for residence priority”).
Length: keep subject lines to 45–50 characters, and use preview text to complete the thought and front-load value.
Testing: run A/B tests where possible: subjects, preheaders, and sender names (e.g., “Admissions at Seneca”) are all worth experimenting with. Emoji can work sparingly for student audiences.
Example:The University of Arizona’s marketing team advises keeping subject lines concise (30–50 characters) and imbued with a sense of urgency, while still indicating the email’s content. Their guidelines echo what many have found: clear, direct subject lines (often including deadlines or event details) tend to lift open rates, because recipients immediately grasp the email’s value.
In a nutshell, what are the best practices for creating engaging subject lines in higher education email marketing?Keep subject lines clear, specific, and under 50 characters. Highlight benefits like deadlines, outcomes, or events, and use preheaders to expand the message. Test frequently with A/B experiments, and consider humanized sender names (e.g., “Admissions at [School]”) to increase open rates without relying on gimmicks.
5. Design Mobile-First and Accessible
Most students and parents first open emails on their phones, so mobile-first design isn’t optional. Use responsive templates, 16-pixel body text, and tappable CTAs with enough space to avoid errors. Break content into scannable blocks with headings and subheads, and avoid image-only buttons.
Accessibility should be built in: add alt text, maintain contrast ratios, and caption videos. Keeping one clear CTA helps prevent distraction while making the path forward obvious. Load times matter, too. Opt for system fonts, compressed images, and videos hosted externally.
Example:The University of Toronto’s Future Students portal provides a good model for digestible, mobile-friendly content blocks. Information is organized in concise sections and bullet points that mirror best practices for responsive email design. By structuring content for quick scanning on a small screen, U of T ensures that key messages (from program highlights to “Apply Now” links) remain prominent and actionable even on mobile devices.
How often you email matters as much as what you send. A thoughtful cadence keeps your audience engaged without overwhelming them. Consider these practical benchmarks:
Prospects: 1–2 emails per week; increase frequency near application deadlines or events, then cool down.
Applicants/Admitted Students: Send transactional updates and personalized nudges; shield them from generic blasts.
Enrolled Students: A weekly digest from student affairs or the registrar is usually sufficient, plus urgent communications when needed.
Alumni: monthly updates with stories, impact reports, and targeted appeals tied to affinity or giving campaigns.
Example:The University of Rochester balances its email frequency by audience: it sends all current students, faculty, and staff a brief daily bulletin for campus-wide announcements, but for undergraduates, it also delivers a focused weekly newsletter highlighting only the most important deadlines and updates for the coming week. This approach keeps students informed and on track (e.g., keeping current on scholarship deadlines or add/drop dates) without inundating them with multiple emails per day, illustrating how strategic timing and pacing can improve engagement.
The best emails guide students toward small, progressive steps that build confidence and commitment. Think of calls-to-action (CTAs) as a series of micro-conversions leading to the big one: enrollment.
Early stage: “Download the Business Degree Guide.”
Mid stage: “Register for the Sept 12 Virtual Info Session.”
Late stage: “Finish Your Application” or “Book a 1:1 with Admissions.”
Example: Concordia University encourages one-on-one engagement by making it easy for prospects to connect with recruitment advisors. In their outreach and on their website, Concordia invites prospective students to “Speak with a recruiter” and provides direct contact links for regional advisors.
By embedding advisor contact/booking links in recruitment emails, they effectively turn email into a two-way channel, and prospects can immediately take the next step of scheduling a conversation, which is often a key conversion on the path to enrollment. This kind of CTA (e.g., “Book a 1:1 Advising Appointment”) helps move students from interest to action at the decision stage.
Automation ensures no student falls through the cracks. It also frees staff time by replacing one-off sends with structured flows. At a minimum, schools should build:
Welcome or nurture series by program cluster (3–5 emails over 10–14 days).
Event workflows: registration confirmation → reminder emails (24 hours and 2 hours before) → post-event follow-up with recording and next step.
Application rescue: reminders for incomplete applications, missing documents, or deposits.
Example:The University of Georgia’s admissions office uses automated “incomplete application” emails to prompt action from applicants. About 10–15 days after a student applies, if any required materials are still missing, UGA’s system sends a notification to alert the student. This kind of trigger-based outreach (in UGA’s case, coupled with a status portal for real-time updates) helps increase completion rates by nudging students at the right moment. Ensuring more prospects finish their applications and none are unknowingly left behind due to missing paperwork.
Testing makes email performance predictable. Without it, you’re guessing. To get reliable insights, follow a structured method:
Hypothesis: define what you’re testing and why (e.g., “Clearer subject line → higher open rate”).
Minimal variable: test one change at a time: subject, CTA wording, or design. Not everything at once.
Sample & duration: send to enough recipients for statistical significance, and let the test run its course.
Centralize learnings: record results in a shared log and bake winners into future templates.
This discipline helps schools turn experimentation into ongoing optimization, rather than one-off guesswork.
Example: Arizona State University’s email marketing team bakes A/B testing into its processes and training. In fact, ASU’s internal Marketing Academy offers specific sessions on email A/B testing best practices. By systematically experimenting, for instance, testing whether an email from “Admissions at ASU” versus a personal advisor name yields a higher open rate, or which subject line phrasing drives more clicks, universities like ASU turn anecdotal hunches into data-backed decisions. The result is a cycle of learning where each campaign performs better than the last, based on real audience insights.
A great email program doesn’t just send, it learns. Schools should define KPIs at each stage of the student journey and connect systems so results tie back to outcomes that matter.
Top of funnel: track deliverability, open rates (adjusted for privacy changes), and click-through rates (CTR).
Mid-funnel: measure landing-page engagement, event registrations, and advisor bookings.
Bottom of funnel: monitor application starts and completions, offers accepted, and deposits paid.
Lifetime value: go further with retention term-to-term, alumni engagement, and giving participation.
Tools make this possible. Google Analytics 4 allows schools to set and track conversion goals across web and email touchpoints. Marketing automation platforms like HubSpot, Mailchimp, and HEM’s Mautic provide email-level reporting, lifecycle attribution, and integration with CRMs or student information systems.
The real power comes when those metrics are connected—so you can see not just who opened, but who enrolled. That’s how email proves its ROI in higher education.
Example: UMass Amherst provides a powerful case study in data-driven email marketing. After consolidating campus communications onto a single platform, they now rigorously track email performance and outcomes. In 2022, UMass separated its email sends into transactional vs. commercial categories to better gauge effectiveness. The university sent 6.7 million marketing (commercial) emails with a 61% open rate and only a 0.10% unsubscribe rate, about half the industry benchmark.
These granular metrics (including year-over-year improvements in opens and clicks) are tied back to student engagement and enrollment outcomes. By monitoring and sharing such results, the UMass team can conclusively demonstrate email ROI in higher education, for instance, showing that automated, targeted campaigns directly led to more applicants completing their files and more students registering for classes
Deliverability, Privacy, and Compliance Essentials
Even the best-designed email is wasted if it never reaches the inbox. To protect deliverability and ensure compliance, schools need to focus on three pillars: technical health, consent, and governance.
Authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Align subdomains for bulk mail so your institution sends with a verifiable identity.
Maintain list hygiene by removing hard bounces automatically and applying “sunset rules” for long-inactive contacts. This keeps the sender’s reputation strong.
Comply with Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL): capture express opt-in, include your institution’s physical mailing address, and provide a one-click unsubscribe.
Offer preference centres so subscribers can opt out of specific program streams rather than unsubscribing from all communications.
Monitor sender reputation and complaint rates across platforms. Coordinate centrally across departments to avoid overlap that leads to over-messaging.
Schools that treat deliverability and compliance as core practices, not afterthoughts, protect both their brand and their audience’s trust, while ensuring every message has a fair chance of being read.
Content Strategy: What to Send (And When)
The most effective email marketing calendars are tied to the academic cycle. By planning content around what matters most to students at each stage, schools can stay relevant, reduce last-minute scrambles, and guide prospects and current learners smoothly from interest to enrollment, and beyond.
September–October: Focus on discovery. Send “Explore Programs” series, scholarship primers, and fall open house invitations to capture interest early in the cycle.
November–December: Support applications. Share step-by-step application checklists, portfolio preparation guides, and alumni career stories that reinforce outcomes.
January–February: Address financial and career considerations. Feature financial aid tutorials, co-op or internship spotlights, and “Ask an Advisor” live chats to build trust and reduce barriers.
March–April: Drive urgency. Countdown emails for application deadlines, residence selection reminders, and campus life reels or shorts work well here.
May–June: Transition from admission to enrollment. Focus on onboarding with orientation sign-ups, registrar instructions, and personalized next-step communications.
July–August: Provide last-mile support. Send guidance on IDs, transit, and housing, plus international arrival instructions to prepare students for day one.
A calendar like this ensures that your emails are not just timely, but also aligned with the emotional and practical needs of your audience throughout the year.
Turning Best Practices Into Results
Email remains one of the most powerful tools available to higher education marketers, but only when strategy and technology work hand in hand. The best practices outlined here are: permission-based lists, segmentation, personalization, accessibility, automation, and compliance. Ensure every message is not just delivered but resonates with the right audience at the right time.
This is where Higher Education Marketing (HEM) makes the difference. With deep sector expertise, we help schools design and execute email strategies that align with recruitment, retention, and advancement goals.
Central to this is our use of Mautic CRM, an open-source higher education email marketing automation platform customized for educational institutions. Mautic allows institutions to manage campaigns, segment audiences, automate journeys, and integrate seamlessly with student information systems, all while keeping data governance and compliance front and center.
By combining best-practice strategy with the flexibility of Mautic CRM, HEM enables institutions to run smarter, more personalized campaigns that drive measurable ROI across the student lifecycle. The result is simple: stronger engagement, higher conversion rates, and a more connected experience for every student, from prospect to alumni. Do you need help crafting an effective marketing strategy for student recruitment for your institution? Contact HEM for more information.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Question:How can segmentation improve the effectiveness of email marketing for higher education? Answer: Segmentation makes emails more relevant, which increases engagement. For example, international prospects segmented by country can receive updates on visas and housing, while domestic students see local funding options. Segmenting by lifecycle stage, program, and behaviour helps improve click-throughs and leads to better-qualified student interactions.
Question: What are the best practices for creating engaging subject lines in higher education email marketing? Answer: Keep subject lines clear, specific, and under 50 characters. Highlight benefits like deadlines, outcomes, or events, and use preheaders to expand the message. Test frequently with A/B experiments, and consider humanized sender names (e.g., “Admissions at [School]”) to increase open rates without relying on gimmicks.
Question: Why is personalization important in higher education email marketing? Answer: Personalization helps students see themselves at your institution. Tailoring emails by program, start term, or action, such as reminding them of an unfinished application, makes communication feel relevant and timely. This reduces fatigue and unsubscribes while guiding students toward conversion more effectively than generic messages.
