Tag: paid

Paid Search vs. Paid Social: Why Schools Need Both
Reading Time: 11 minutes

When it comes to digital student recruitment, many institutions feel they need to choose between Paid Search vs Paid Social. Budgets are tight. Teams are often siloed; admissions handles one, marketing handles the other. And with so many moving parts, it’s tempting to simplify: pick one channel and double down.

But that’s a false choice. Here’s the reality: today’s prospective students don’t live in a single marketing lane. They might first discover your school on Instagram, then Google you weeks later to check deadlines, read reviews, or submit an application. Search and social are part of the same decision journey, and schools that favour one while ignoring the other are leaving attention, applications, and enrollments on the table.

At Higher Education Marketing (HEM), the right approach isn’t to choose between Paid Search and Paid Social. Instead, the most effective strategy is to combine both channels to engage and optimize the entire enrollment funnel fully. Social media excels at generating awareness and early interest. Search converts when intent is high. Together, they create a powerful synergy, reinforcing your message, capturing more leads, and moving students smoothly from first click to enrollment. In this article, we’ll break down how both channels work, where each shines, and how schools can maximize performance by aligning them strategically.

Changing Search Behaviours in 2025

Student search behaviour is fragmented, fast, and heavily value-driven. Today’s prospective students, especially from Gen Z and Gen Alpha, don’t wait to be told what to think. They research across platforms long before filling out an inquiry form.

This is the Zero Moment of Truth: when students validate a school by triangulating across ads, websites, reviews, and social content. Credibility must show up everywhere, because trust is built before contact is ever made. Zero-click searches, like featured snippets and Google answer boxes, are also reshaping the landscape. Being cited here or placing targeted ads can influence decisions without ever earning a click.

The numbers speak volumes: 41% of Gen Z use social media to search, while only 32% use traditional engines, and 11% use chatbots. Gen Alpha takes it further. Their research is values-first. They’re looking for sustainability, inclusion, and innovation. And they’re starting earlier than ever.

The Power of Paid Social

One of the biggest misconceptions in education marketing is that paid social is only good for brand awareness. While it’s true that platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are excellent for reaching new audiences, their real power extends far beyond the top of the funnel.

Paid social can drive leads, retarget warm prospects, and support conversions when used strategically. It allows schools to engage students emotionally through storytelling and keep them in the conversation through personalized messaging and real-time interactions.

Is paid search the same as paid social? No. Paid search displays ads based on keyword searches on platforms like Google, while paid social promotes content on social media platforms like Facebook or TikTok. They target users differently and serve distinct stages of the enrollment funnel.

Best Use Cases:
- Story-Driven Awareness Campaigns: Think student testimonials, day-in-the-life content, or campus highlights. These build connection and trust.
- Lead Generation Ads: Click-to-convert campaigns using forms or optimized landing pages can capture inquiries on the spot.
- Event Promotions and Student Life Visibility: Showcase open houses, webinars, or vibrant campus life to entice prospective students.
Best Practices:
- Awareness Ads: Use high-impact visuals and short videos that highlight a key outcome, like career success or global opportunities. Keep the message clear and focused, with an obvious CTA that invites students to learn more.
- Lead Gen Ads: Avoid generic links to your homepage. Instead, use program-specific landing pages or native lead forms. Segment audiences to tailor messages, and emphasize value on different content, such as scholarships, graduate outcomes, or flexible learning options.
- Messenger and WhatsApp Ads: These are ideal for live engagement. Use them to invite students to ask questions, book a meeting, or receive instant info.
The Case for Paid Search

What is the difference between search and social? While paid social excels at sparking interest and building emotional connection, paid search is unmatched when it comes to capturing high-intent prospects. These are the students actively looking for programs, comparing options, or ready to take the next step. Paid search meets them right at the decision-making moment.

This channel is especially powerful for reaching mid- and bottom-funnel audiences. When someone types “best MBA programs in Canada” or “nursing diploma with January intake,” they are already considering enrollment. Paid search allows schools to appear at the top of those results, capturing attention before competitors do.

On the flip side, what are the disadvantages of paid search vs paid social? Paid search can be costly due to high competition for keywords, especially in education. It also depends on users already showing intent, which limits brand-building. Without complementary channels, it may not generate enough awareness or early-stage interest.

Ideal Use Cases:
- Branded and Program-Specific Searches: Ensure your school shows up when a student searches your name or flagship program.
- High-Converting Keywords: Focus on queries like “apply now,” “tuition fees,” or “open house registration.”
- Deadline-Driven Campaigns: Push applications during key moments, like the final days before a semester starts.
Recommended Tactics:
- Responsive Search Ads (RSAs): Automatically test combinations of headlines and descriptions to maximize performance.
- Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs): Let Google fill in the gaps by matching relevant queries to your website content.
- Intent Segmentation: Use different ad groups and copy for high, medium, and low-intent keywords. This improves quality scores and keeps your messaging relevant.
One of the benefits of paid search is that it enables clarity, timing, and precision to come together to convert interest into action.

Building a Full-Funnel Strategy: Social + Search Together

Many schools fall into the trap of treating paid search and paid social as separate silos. But in 2025’s student journey, they’re two halves of the same enrollment engine. When integrated properly, they guide prospects from first glance to final decision, boosting visibility, engagement, and conversions along the way.

Funnel Roles: How Each Channel Contributes

Let’s break down how these platforms complement each other throughout the marketing funnel:
- Awareness: Paid social leads the charge. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are perfect for storytelling, aspirational videos, and brand introductions. These top-of-funnel ads help your school get noticed by students who may not yet be actively searching.
- Consideration: As interest deepens, both channels play a role. Paid search catches students researching specific programs or comparing schools, while social reinforces your value with student testimonials, video tours, and real-time answers to FAQs.
- Decision: This is where paid search shines. When students start typing in branded or program-specific queries, they’re ready to act. Paid social can add fuel here with urgency messaging, think deadline countdowns, financial aid reminders, or last-chance open house invites.
- Enrollment: Now it’s about closing the loop. Use search ads to reinforce time-sensitive messaging, while Meta and WhatsApp retargeting keep your brand top of mind and prompt final steps like booking a call or submitting an application.
Matching Platforms to Funnel Stages

To maximize impact, align your platforms with the right funnel phase:
- TikTok & Instagram: Best for awareness and early engagement. Use these channels to build emotional resonance and plant seeds of interest.
- Google & Bing: Ideal for high-intent actions. When students are actively searching for answers, programs, or deadlines, your ads need to show up.
- Meta & WhatsApp: Great for nurturing leads mid-funnel. Messenger CTAs and remarketing help bring students back into the conversation.
- LinkedIn: A go-to for graduate and professional programs, especially among career switchers and upskillers.
- Niche Channels: Want to reach Gen Z authentically? Explore Reddit threads, Snapchat lenses, or user-generated TikToks that mimic how real students talk and share.
What Does This Look Like in Practice?

Here’s how a real-world campaign could unfold:
- Week 1–3: Launch TikTok videos to raise awareness: spotlight student stories, “day in the life” clips, or big-picture program benefits.
- Week 2–3: Add Instagram ads to deepen interest with engaging visuals and strong CTAs.
- Week 3–6: Deploy Google Search ads targeting keywords like “apply to [Program Name]” or “college deadlines 2025.”
- Week 6–8: Use Meta retargeting to reconnect with visitors who didn’t convert, offering application checklists or counselor consult invites.
This layered strategy ensures your message is reinforced across platforms, leading to more informed, confident applicants.

Sample Budget Breakdown
- TikTok Ads: $500
- Instagram Ads: $500
- Google Search Ads: $2,000
- Meta Retargeting Ads: $300
By diversifying spend across the funnel and choosing the right tools for each stage, schools move from guesswork to strategy and from isolated clicks to full-funnel enrollment growth.

Common Mistakes Schools Make

Despite investing in digital ads, many schools fall into avoidable traps that limit performance. One of the most common mistakes is relying entirely on paid search. While it excels at capturing high-intent prospects, paid search often reaches students too late in their decision process. Without early-stage awareness from paid social, those leads may never warm up enough to convert.

Another issue is the widespread misunderstanding of paid social’s role. Some marketers dismiss it as a brand play with no immediate ROI. In reality, paid social plays a crucial role in shaping perception, building familiarity, and generating qualified leads over time. When schools skip this step, they weaken their funnel.

Disjointed campaigns also create problems. Running separate social and search efforts without coordination means you miss opportunities for synergy and message consistency.

Additionally, many schools neglect retargeting. If a prospective student browses your program page but leaves, that should trigger follow-up ads to reignite interest. Failing to retarget leaves valuable leads on the table.

Finally, default settings on ad platforms can be misleading. Relying on them often results in wasted impressions and mismatched audiences. Custom targeting and exclusions are essential to reaching the right students with the right message at the right time.

Search Trends & Emerging Platforms

The digital landscape is evolving rapidly, and student search behaviour is shifting along with it. One major trend is the rising cost and competitiveness of Google Ads. As more advertisers bid on the same education-related keywords, prices continue to climb, making it harder for schools with modest budgets to compete effectively.

At the same time, prospective students are changing how they search. Many now prefer visual, snackable results and quick answers over scrolling through text-heavy webpages. This shift is fueling the rise of social platforms as search engines in their own right.

TikTok is a clear standout. Its new Search Ads feature allows schools to place short, captioned videos directly within search results, reaching students who are actively exploring options.

To stay visible, schools must also optimize their organic content for discovery. Think FAQ-style posts, hashtag strategy, and short videos that answer common questions in the formats students prefer.

Measurement: How to Track Campaign Impact

Running great campaigns is only half the battle; measuring their true impact is where the real insight lies. To understand which channel is delivering results, schools must go beyond surface-level metrics like clicks or impressions.

Start by tracking key funnel metrics: Cost per Inquiry (CPI), Cost per Lead (CPL), Cost per Application (CPA), and Cost per Enrollment (CPE). These figures help quantify the effectiveness of your campaigns at every stage of the recruitment journey.

To gather this data, use platforms that support full-funnel tracking. CRMs like HubSpot or Mautic are ideal for managing contact progression, while Google Analytics 4 provides visibility into multi-touch user journeys across platforms.

Most importantly, ensure that all campaigns are tagged with UTM codes and that your CRM accurately records lead sources. This lets you attribute not just the first click, but the entire path to enrollment, helping you optimize future budget allocation with confidence.

Real-World Examples of Integrated Paid Search & Social in Education

Story-Driven Awareness Campaign: The Rivers School (a private high school in Massachusetts) regularly hosts Instagram student takeovers, where current students share a day in their life via the school’s official Instagram Stories. These takeovers give prospective families an authentic glimpse of campus life. Such story-driven content humanizes the school experience and builds trust with audiences in the awareness stage.

Source: Instagram

Event Promotions & Student Life Visibility: Concord University (West Virginia) ran a Fall Open House campaign on Facebook, urging students to “REGISTER NOW for Fall Open House”. The official post emphasized that whether you’re just starting your college search or already set on Concord, you should “come experience what being at Concord is like”. This call-to-action, boosted to target local high schoolers, drove sign-ups by promising an immersive campus visit.

Source: Instagram

Messenger and WhatsApp Engagement: The University at Buffalo (SUNY) launched an official WhatsApp channel for prospective international students. By opting in, students receive personalized updates – announcements, event invites, deadline reminders – right in WhatsApp, a platform they use daily. This allows UB’s admissions team to handle inquiries and nurture leads through quick chats and broadcasts on a familiar channel.

Source: University at Buffalo

Branded and Program-Specific Search Campaigns: A real example is Assiniboine Community College in Canada, which runs search ads for terms such as “January intake Nursing diploma” – ensuring that students searching for nursing programs with upcoming start dates find Assiniboine’s program page first. By focusing on branded queries (school name, flagship programs) and niche program keywords, schools across the board make sure they capture students who are already intent on a particular school or offering.

Source: Google

High-Converting Keyword Campaigns: Educational marketers also bid on bottom-funnel keywords that signal immediate intent – like “apply now,” “admissions deadline,” or “tuition fees [School].” University of Louisville business school promoted its online MBA program with an urgent message: “Don’t miss out – this is your last chance to apply before the application deadline on 12/1! Start your application here.” By targeting such high-converting phrases in ads and search (and using urgency-laden copy), schools push motivated prospects to take action.

Source: Facebook

Recap: Why You Need Both Paid Search and Paid Social

Schools that depend on just one marketing channel risk falling behind. Students don’t stick to a single path when researching their options. Instead, they move fluidly between search engines and social platforms, using both to gather information, compare schools, and make decisions.

This is why a dual-channel strategy matters. Paid Social helps schools introduce themselves, tell a compelling story, and spark curiosity early in the decision journey. It creates awareness and builds emotional connection. Paid Search, on the other hand, reaches students who are actively looking for specific programs, deadlines, and next steps. It captures intent and drives action.

When both channels are aligned, schools gain full-funnel coverage. Retargeting efforts become more strategic, and nurture campaigns stay relevant from the first interaction to enrollment. As a result, conversions improve and return on investment increases.

But to unlock the full value, schools must track every touchpoint, not just the final click. Integrating CRM data with UTM tags and analytics tools ensures you’re seeing the full picture and making smarter marketing decisions moving forward.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Is paid search the same as paid social?
Answer: No. Paid search displays ads based on keyword searches on platforms like Google, while paid social promotes content on social media platforms like Facebook or TikTok. They target users differently and serve distinct stages of the enrollment funnel.

Question: What is the difference between search and social?
Answer: While paid social excels at sparking interest and building emotional connection, paid search is unmatched when it comes to capturing high-intent prospects. These are the students actively looking for programs, comparing options, or ready to take the next step. Paid search meets them right at the decision-making moment.

Question: What are the disadvantages of Paid Search?
Answer: Paid search can be costly due to high competition for keywords, especially in education. It also depends on users already showing intent, which limits brand-building. Without complementary channels, it may not generate enough awareness or early-stage interest.
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December 3, 2025
College students are tired of being told that we ‘should be grateful’ for our internships. We also want to get paid

by Savannah Celeste Scott, The Hechinger Report
November 17, 2025

Imagine clocking out of an eight-hour shift and your compensation is a pat on the back and experience for your resume.

This scenario is a disturbing reality for around one million college students , and it needs to stop. Students work countless hours on top of their academic pursuits only to be told they should be “grateful for the opportunity.”

The government must pass legislation mandating that all internships include monetary compensation; employers must stop exploiting students and recent graduates while they build necessary work experience.

The idea of an unpaid internship is odd considering that most of us grew up learning that work is rewarded. Some 71 percent of American households give children ages 5 to 17 an allowance for doing their chores, a Wells Fargo study found.

Practices like that have led many of us to believe that labor should be paid, and it should be no different when we enter the job market.

Related: Interested in innovations in higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter.

There is a disturbing correlation between unpaid internships and exploitation, especially for people from marginalized communities. Historically, Black people have been the face of working without compensation — a phenomenon dating back to early American slave practices.

Unpaid work is not just exploitation — it is dehumanizing. No person can survive without money, so no one should be required to work with no compensation to help them live. The reality is that, unlike higher-income students, low-income students cannot afford to work for free. They need money to cover their tuition, afford groceries and pay for a place to live. This is why unpaid internships further the cycle of economic exploitation, the student-run Columbia Spectator noted.

Yet there are plenty of people who believe compensation does not always have to be monetary. Many students have heard employers extol the value of “experience” as they try to persuade them to work without pay.

Such was the case for me when I was hired for a legal internship as a freshman in college. I thoroughly enjoyed my internship, as it gave me both professional and social opportunities. But it was an extremely difficult time for me both mentally and financially.

I was taking 16 credit hours, regularly writing for a student publication and working another part-time job to save money for law school. The stress of going into the office every day to handle casework — often ranging from domestic violence to sexual assault cases — was mentally taxing when combined with schoolwork and extracurricular responsibilities.

While the experience that the internship provided was incredible, monetary compensation would have made it much less stressful, as I would not have needed the other job.

Unpaid internships can also hurt graduates’ prospects in the job market. Those who have had unpaid internships receive fewer job offers on average than those who completed paid internships, statistics from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) show.

The average student who completed an unpaid internship also saw $22,500 less in their starting salaries than those who completed paid internships. According to the Delta Institute, “employers offering compensation tend to invest more in mentoring, performance feedback, and skill-building”; that added investment provides students with more preparation for the job market and helps them look more impressive to an employer.

Related: Looking for internships? They are in short supply

Unpaid interns have been fighting for compensation for decades. A lawsuit filed by two interns against Fox Searchlight over their lack of compensation when working on the movie “Black Swan” resulted in a legal battle that lasted five years. The two interns were finally compensated a total of $13,500 for their work — despite the film grossing more than $300 million.

The Fox Searchlight lawsuit sparked a wave of other impassioned interns to plead their cases as well, including a class-action lawsuit against NBCUniversal back in July 2013. That resulted in a $6.4 million settlement split among thousands of interns.

In both cases, the employers made millions of dollars in profits but still refused to pay their interns until they were legally forced to do so.

According to Shawn VanDerziel, the president and chief executive officer of NACE, paid internships are a “game changer” to employers and employees alike. The dilemma is this: Employers want labor, and students want internships. The most obvious solution would be to pay students for the work that they do.

Students do not work for fun. They work because they want to create better futures for themselves; their success will be less likely if they don’t receive monetary compensation. The government needs to make it illegal for employers to exploit students by having them work without pay.

College students should not be expected to work for free.

Savannah Celeste Scott is a senior at the University of Georgia in Athens, studying journalism, Spanish and law, jurisprudence and the state on a pre-law track.

Contact the opinion editor at [email protected].

This story about unpaid internships was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

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November 17, 2025
High-profile comedians paid handsomely to not offend Saudi royals at Riyadh comedy fest
Last year, FIRE launched the Free Speech Dispatch, a regular series covering new and continuing censorship trends and challenges around the world. Our goal is to help readers better understand the global context of free expression. Want to make sure you don’t miss an update? Sign up for our newsletter.

Saudi government takes short break from jailing and torturing critics to host Riyadh Comedy Fest

Comedy’s greatest asset is its ability to use just laughter to take the powerful down a peg. But what took place in Saudi Arabia earlier this month wasn’t so funny.

Over 50 well-known comedians including Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, and Dave Chappelle all performed in recent weeks at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, despite criticism from some fellow comics who were also invited — and offered large sums to perform — but said no. One of those comedians, Atsuko Okatsuka, shared a reason why she chose to reject the offer: It came with very restrictive strings attached.

A contract Okatsuka posted on social media said participants couldn’t make jokes that degrade, embarrass, or ridicule the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, its leadership and public figures, “the Saudi royal family and legal system,” and “any religion” or “religious figure.”

Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority certainly looks to have enforced the rules. Two comedians were dropped from the lineup after making comments about how they were still willing to accept the money despite the country’s extensive human rights violations, because in doing so they acknowledged said violations. That’s a no-no. Jim Jefferies was cut after saying on a podcast, “One reporter was killed by the government — unfortunate, but not a fucking hill that I’m gonna die on.” Similarly, Tim Dillon, while on a podcast responding to critics of his participation, was removed for the comment, “So what if they have slaves, they’re paying me enough to look the other way.”

And even though Saudi Arabia has tortured and imprisoned government critics — including American citizens — and brutally executed journalist Jamal Khashoggi just for engaging in the kind of speech that these comedians were paid handsomely to avoid, some of the performers are still singing the praises of the event. Burr said the “royals loved the show” (the one at which they were contractually exempt from mockery) and “to their credit,” they negotiated the speech restrictions down to “Don’t make fun of royals [and] religion.”

Chappelle, too, said on stage that “in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, that you’ll get canceled,” and that it’s “easier to talk here than it is in America.” Chappelle isn’t wrong that comments about Kirk in the aftermath of his assassination led to a disturbing trend of firings and punishments across the country bolstered by threats and demands from lawmakers, one FIRE is working to combat. And he’s right to be worried about the state of free speech in the United States. I certainly am.

No, canceling Chappelle is not a ‘win for free speech’

If we don’t push back against this trend, our society may soon find itself with fewer artists willing to push boundaries and fewer outlets for authentic artistic expression.

Read More

But I’d encourage Chappelle, who made a significant amount of money directly from the government which he was forbidden to criticize at his show, to speak to the country’s journalists, apostates, women’s rights activists, writers, and teachers about his assertion that Saudi Arabia is a freer place to speak. That might be difficult, though, since so many have been imprisoned or even executed by authorities.

UK judge backs ‘right to offend’ in reversal of Quran burning conviction

In one of the more disturbing free speech stories of this summer, I wrote in June about a Westminster Magistrates’ Court guilty finding against asylum seeker Hamit Coskun for publicly burning a Quran in London. Most alarming was the judge’s justification for the religiously aggravated public order offense conviction. The “disorderly” nature of Coskun’s protest, he asserted, “is no better illustrated than by the fact that it led to serious public disorder involving him being assaulted by two different people.” Not great.

But this month, his conviction was overturned, a much-needed win both for Coskun and for the UK’s flailing speech rights. Justice Joel Nathan Bennathan said that, though Quran burning is deeply offensive to many, free expression “must include the right to express views that offend, shock or disturb.”

In Quran burning conviction, UK judge uses violence against defendant as evidence of his guilt

UK judge cites violence against Quran-burning protester as proof of his guilt, Brazil sentences comedian to over eight years for telling jokes, and France targets porn.

Read More

Dropped Graham Linehan case may signal UK policing shift

And Graham Linehan — the target of a high-profile arrest at Heathrow Airport for a series of posts on X, including one where he said if “a trans-identified male is in a female-only space…call the cops, and if all else fails, punch him in the balls” — says he’s now in the clear. Linehan, a comedy writer, wrote on X that “police have informed my lawyers that I face no further action in respect of the arrest at Heathrow in September,” but he intends to pursue legal action for wrongful arrest.

There’s more: In the wake of the dropped charges against Linehan, the UK’s Metropolitan Police said they “will no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents” to “provide clearer direction for officers, reduce ambiguity and enable them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations.”

Other speech news out of the UK hasn’t been so rosy
- Imgur is no longer available in the UK after the company decided to block users in the country from its services following a threat of fines from the Information Commissioner’s Office. But the ICO says that’s not the end of the story. “We have been clear that exiting the UK does not allow an organisation to avoid responsibility for any prior infringement of data protection law, and our investigation remains ongoing,” interim executive director Tim Capel warned.
- The UK is still trying to undermine Apple’s encryption, despite some reports that the government backed off this summer. The UK Home Office is reportedly pushing yet again for access to UK Apple users’ iCloud backups.
- Anti-abortion activist Rose Docherty was arrested late last month for violating Scotland’s Safe Access Zones Act by holding a sign that read “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want” outside Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. This is Docherty’s second arrest under the law. She received a warning after the first.
- It’s unclear if he will ultimately be charged, but a North Yorkshire blogger and activist was arrested last month under the UK’s Public Order Act for allegedly stirring racial hatred on social media. Police visited his home, and then took him in for questioning late at night, for posting on X an image of the Palestinian flag overlaid with the message, “F-ck Palestine. F-ck Hamas. F-ck Islam. Want to protest? F-ck off to Muslim country & protest.”
- An Oxford student was arrested and suspended from his university for comments he made at a rally in London this month. Metropolitan Police arrested him for inciting racial hatred for sharing a chant he said he had been workshopping: “Gaza, Gaza make us proud, put the Zios in the ground.”
- Mass arrests of protesters against the ban on activist group Palestine Action continue. In the first weekend of this month alone, nearly 500 protesters were taken in for “supporting a proscribed organisation.” This is how far the crackdown has extended: A man who held up a magazine cover with reporting about the arrests of people holding up “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” signs was also arrested on the same charges under the Terrorism Act 2000. And a woman claims she was arrested in London for holding up a sign that doesn’t express support for the group but instead said, “I do not support the proscription of Palestine Action.”
- Restrictions on protests over the Palestine Action ban are likely to grow. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that police will be given broadened authority to take into account the “cumulative impact of frequent protests” when placing conditions on demonstrations. Mahmood said the right to protest “must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbors to live their lives without fear.”
- And that’s not all. Prime Minister Keir Starmer suggested Mahmood will “look more broadly at what other powers are available,” specifically “in relation to some of the chants that are going on at some of these protests.” Starmer is presumably referring to chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which have been criminalized in some nations.
Tunisia sentenced a man, now pardoned, to death for criticizing the president

Censorship doesn’t get more extreme than this: A Tunisian court sentenced a man to die this month, just for Facebook posts about President Kais Saied. He was released after pressure from human rights groups secured a presidential pardon from Saied, but the initial sentence alone is deeply shocking. And it will no doubt be a warning to other government critics within Tunisia that severe punishment may await them — but whether they can count on a pardon is less certain.

AI-altered horror, a campaign against negativity, and more censorship news out of China
- A film censorship first? Cuts and deletions from movies and other media to gain approval for release in China are certainly nothing new, but this may be: the likely use of AI to change the content of a film. The depiction of a same-sex wedding in horror movie Together, featuring Dave Franco and Alison Brie, was edited so that one of the two men being married was altered into a woman. To its credit, the film’s global distributor Neon said it “does not approve” of the Chinese distributor’s changes and “demanded they cease distributing this altered version.”
- Cui Jianchun, from the Hong Kong office of China’s foreign ministry, met with new U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau Julie Eadeh to scold her for associating with pro-democracy activists and provide a list of “four don’ts.” She was warned “not to meet people she ‘shouldn’t meet with,’ not to collude with ‘anti-China forces,’ not to assist or fund activities that might undermine the city’s stability and not to interfere with national security cases in Hong Kong.”
- China’s Cyberspace Administration is warning social media platforms: Limit negative posts, or else. It’s part of a new campaign from the government to crack down on online comments that “excessively exaggerate negative and pessimistic sentiments.” High on the list of targets will be posts, primarily from the country’s youth, expressing dour feelings about their present and future prospects.
China’s censorship goes global — from secret police stations to video games

2025 is off to a repressive start, from secret police stations in New York to persecution in Russia, Kenya, and more.

Read More
- Journalist Zhang Zhan, already jailed once for her early reporting on what would become the Covid-19 pandemic, has been sentenced to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge commonly used to punish government critics. Her newest conviction is based on her human rights activism.
- A massive leak has shed light on the workings of China’s Great Firewall, including its disturbing spread to other nations. The files show that Chinese tech company Geedge Networks “has provided entire network censorship and surveillance systems to internet service providers in countries including Myanmar, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Ethiopia, as well as some unnamed countries, essentially replicating China’s model of digital authoritarianism on a global scale.”
- Exiled Hong Kong activist Nathan Law was not permitted entry to Singapore, a rejection he says is politically motivated. In a statement, a spokesperson for Singapore’s government “noted that Hong Kong police have issued a warrant for Law’s arrest under the city’s National Security Law.”
Blasphemy can be a matter of life and death

Moroccan feminist Ibtissame Lachgar found no relief this month against the blasphemy charge against her, and her 30-month sentence was upheld despite her lawyers’ objections that imprisonment would put her at risk of amputation because of her cancer diagnosis. Lachgar had posted a photo of herself wearing an “Allah is lesbian” shirt with the caption that “like any religious ideology,” Islam is “fascist, phallocratic and misogynistic.” Prosecutors aren’t satisfied with the current sentence and are pushing for an even longer jail term, citing the “spiritual well-being of Moroccans.”

Apurbo Pal, a student at Bangladesh’s North South University, was taken by police after a mob violently assaulted him over viral Facebook posts accusing him of “insulting the Quran.” Pal had to be taken to the hospital, and he is likely to face charges.

And in Nigeria, home to both some of the worst mob violence against and aggressive prosecutions of blasphemers, the Supreme Court is hearing the appeal of musician Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, originally sentenced to death for sharing blasphemous lyrics in a WhatsApp group. Advocates are closely watching the case, as the decision could be significant — for good or ill. A lawyer for the Kano State government, which is pursuing the charges against Sharif-Aminu, said he “made blasphemous statements against the Holy Prophet, which the government of Kano State will not condone” and if the lower court’s ruling is upheld, “we will execute him publicly.”

Thai police arrest Australian writer over Malaysian government’s defamation claims

Australian scholar, writer, and Thailand resident Murray Hunter is alleging transnational repression after his arrest at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. Thai authorities detained him on defamation charges that Hunter says originate from the Malaysian government. Case documents viewed by the Associated Press identified the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission “as the victim in the case but said the complainant was a person staying at a hotel in Bangkok whom it did not name.” He spent a night in prison and must appear in court next month. Hunter warned, “If this can happen to me, any journalists now, where a body in another country makes a complaint against them to the Thai police, could have the same consequences and be picked off a flight and put in a lockup.”

The latest in tech and media
- Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the online safety regulator FIRE has covered before, ordered X and Meta to take down three videos depicting killings or face severe fines. Platforms that fail to take the videos — which show the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska in North Carolina, Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and the beheading of a man in Dallas — face “threats of fines of $825,000 per day for each offending post.”
- The Karnataka High Court rejected X’s legal challenge against the Indian government’s use of a central online tool to order content takedowns, one X called a “censorship portal.” The judge ruling in the case defended the portal, calling it a “public good,” and said social media sites can’t be “left in a state of anarchic freedom.”
- The Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council is on the hunt to defend what it deems “family values,” and streaming services are paying the price. Streamers including Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, and more were issued fines for offering films that allegedly “promote homosexuality,” “disregard family values,” and “conflict with the shared values of society.” All of the films the council objected to were removed from streaming in the country.
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October 22, 2025
Trump plans overhaul of H-1B visa favouring high paid workers

The notice, published in the Federal Register on September 24, proposes an overhaul of the H-1B visa process to establish a “weighted selection process” favouring “higher skilled and higher paid” workers.

If finalised, the proposal would give greater odds of selection to workers with higher wages, if the number of applicants exceeds the 85,000-limit set by Congress, which has been the case every year for over a decade. The system would replace the current lottery selection process.

The changes – initially put forward for White House review in July – follow a major hike in the H-1B visa fee to $100,000 announced last week, triggering widespread panic among US companies and prospective foreign employees.

Prior to the announcement, employers typically paid between $2,000 to $5,000 for H-1B visa applications, with Trump claiming the increase would put an end to employers “abusing” the system by hiring foreign workers at a “significant discount” in comparison to American workers.

As per yesterday’s proposal, prospective employees would be assigned to four wage bands, with applicants in the top band (level four) placed into the selection pool four times, those in level three entered three times, and so on.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said the process would “incentivise employers to offer higher wages or higher skilled position to H-1B workers and disincentivise the existing widespread use of the H-1B program to fill lower paid or lower skilled positions”.

The department said it “recognised the value” in maintaining opportunities for lower wage earners and maintained they would not be precluded from the visa, unlike the Trump’s 2021 proposal which “left little or no opportunity” for lower earners.

But critics argue the proposed weighted system will harm US employers’ ability to build international knowledge and fill jobs.

“By favouring more experienced foreign workers and reducing the number of new job entrants, US companies will find themselves struggling to grow,” Intead CEO Ben Waxman told The PIE News.

The plans now face a 30-day public comment period before they are considered by the administration for a final rule, a process that could take several months.

Extensive feedback to government from US businesses on how the proposal would damage US competitiveness is widely expected, with experts also anticipating possible court challenges against the legislation.

Early reports from Bloomberg have suggested the US Chamber of Commerce has begun polling member companies about a potential lawsuit to challenge the $100,000 fee hike.

DHS itself has estimated that 5,200 small businesses currently employing H-1B visa holders would suffer significant damages due to loss of labour.

“There simply are not enough American computer science graduates to support the decades-long record of US innovation and economic growth. That is the wonder of the US tech sector,” said Waxman.

“Why would the US government want to constrain that engine?” he asked.

With analysis by the Chamber of Commerce forecasting a continued decline in the US labour force participation by 2030, advocacy bodies such as IIE have emphasised the importance of international students to fill gaps in labour markets across the country.

There simply are not enough American computer science graduates to support the decades-long record of US innovation and economic growth

Ben Waxman, Intead

The visa, popular with tech companies, enables US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in “specialty occupations” spanning a wide range of industries from healthcare and teaching to computer science and financial analysis.

Under the current system, there is a statutory annual cap of 85,000 new H-1B visas: 65,00 for regular H-1B visas and 20,000 for individuals with advanced degrees from US institutions known as the master’s cap.

Each year, US employers submit registrations to USCIS for each worker they want to sponsor for a visa. Typically, this number exceeds the cap, in which case, applicants are placed into a random lottery which determines who is awarded a visa.

Since 2012, 60% or more of H-1B workers have held a computer-related job.

Amazon remains the single largest sponsor, with 10,000 out of its total 1.56 million employees holding H-1B visas. Microsoft, Apple and Meta have also expanded foreign hiring through this stream in recent years, according to Newsweek analysis of new federal data.

Commentators have already warned that if the new structure is implemented, the US tech sector will ramp up offshoring facilities and jobs. “Not the outcome anyone in the US wants,” said Waxman.

The visa program has been the subject of much debate in recent months, with Elon Musk, himself once an H-1B worker, coming out in defence of the visa against calls for its abolition from some MAGA hardliners who argued it allowed firms to suppress wages and sidelines American workers.

Denial rates for H-1B visas peaked at 15% during Trump’s first administration due to stricter immigration rules and the tightening of the definition of “specialty occupations”.

India, America’s largest source of international students, is also the top country of origin for H-1B visa holders, with Indian nationals making up 73% of new H-1B approvals in 2023.

China was the second-most common birthplace of H-1B workers, accounting for 12% of skilled workers approved in 2023, while no other birthplace accounted for more than 2% of the total.

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September 26, 2025
California Increased Paid Family Leave Payments. Now More Parents Are Taking Advantage – The 74

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More Californians are using paid family leave benefits to care for a child after a new state law that increased payments for parents went into effect in January, according to new state data.

Claims in the first two quarters this year were up about 16%, compared with the same time period last year, according to data provided to LAist from the California Employment Development Department.

Anne Chapuis, public information officer for EDD, said several factors contributed to the uptick.

“The January 2025 benefit rate adjustment has led to higher benefit amounts for eligible customers. Also, we typically see a higher seasonal number of claims submitted near the end of each calendar year,” Chapuis said in an email.

While claims tend to tick up at the beginning of every calendar year, the uptick in the first quarter of 2025 was nearly 25% higher than the same period last year.

Before this year’s change, most workers got up to 60% of their income when they took time off to care for a new baby. Now, many workers can get up to 90% of their wages.

The changes stemmed from legislation in 2022 that aimed to allow more families to be able to take leave, especially low-income workers. Prior analysis showed that higher-income workers were using paid family leave benefits at much higher rates than workers making less than $20,000 a year.

For those making under $20,000, claims were up about 2%, while claims for those making under $60,000 were up 17%.

How paid family leave works

Currently, moms and dads can get up to eight weeks of paid family leave to bond with a new child. That’s in addition to the paid time off pregnant people get before and after giving birth to a child.

The paid family leave program in California is funded through the State Disability Insurance program, which covers about 18 million employees in the state. Workers pay into this fund with 1.2% taken out of their paychecks (it usually shows up on paystubs as “CASDI”).

Workers who make less than $63,000 a year can get up to 90% pay — workers who make above that get 70%.

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August 1, 2025
University of Michigan paid firm to spy on activist students (News Nation)

Attorney Amir Makled joins “NewsNation Now” to discuss a report from The Guardian that the University of Michigan paid $800,000 to a private security firm to have undercover investigators surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups. Makled called the alleged conduct “really disturbing.”

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June 9, 2025
House Introduces Bipartisan Paid Leave Legislative Proposal – CUPA-HR

by CUPA-HR | May 13, 2025

On April 30, Representatives Stephanie Bice (R-OK-5) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-6) introduced the More Paid Leave for More Americans Act, the result of more than two years of work by the House Paid Family Leave Working Group, which Bice and Houlahan co-chair. The package consists of two parts: the Paid Family Leave Public-Private Partnerships Act and the Interstate Paid Leave Action Network (I-PLAN) Act.

The Legislation

The first bill of the package — the Interstate Paid Leave Action Network (I-PLAN) Act — would create a national framework “to provide support and incentives for the development and adoption of an interstate agreement that facilitates streamlined benefit delivery, reduced administrative burden, and coordination and harmonization of State paid family and medical leave programs.” It is intended to help resolve the confusion and inconsistencies across the state programs, in particular for the distribution of benefits to workers who work across state lines. The network will also work to identify best practices from existing state paid leave programs, help states harmonize their policies and resolve conflicts with other states’ programs, and help employees access their benefits.

The second bill — the Paid Family Leave Public-Private Partnerships Act — would establish a three-year pilot program in which the Department of Labor would provide competitive grants to states that establish paid family leave programs that meet certain criteria. To qualify, states would be required to partner with private entities via Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and participate in I-PLAN. The state programs would be required to offer at least six weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a new child and provide a wage replacement rate between 50% and 67% depending on the income of the individual. Individuals at or below the poverty line for a family of four must receive 67% of their wages, while individuals earning more than double the poverty line for a family of four must receive 50% of their wages. The maximum benefit a worker can receive is 150% of a state’s average weekly wage.

Looking Ahead

Bice and Houlahan are optimistic about the package’s prospects, as both bills do maintain bipartisan support and President Trump has indicated an interest in pursuing a federal paid leave program. That said, it is uncertain if and when the House and Senate labor committees would take up these bills for a markup, which is the first step in getting the bill to a floor vote. CUPA-HR will continue to keep members apprised of updates related to this bill and other paid leave proposals that emerge from Congress.

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May 13, 2025
Equal Pay Day Data: On Average, Women in Higher Ed Are Paid 82 Cents on the Dollar
by Christy Williams | March 5, 2025

Since 1996, the National Committee on Pay Equity has acknowledged Equal Pay Day to bring awareness to the gap between men’s and women’s wages. This year, Equal Pay Day is March 25 — symbolizing how far into the year women must work to be paid what men were paid in the previous year.

To help higher ed leaders understand, communicate and address gender pay equity in higher education, CUPA-HR has analyzed its annual workforce data to establish Higher Education Equal Pay Days for 2025. Tailored to the higher ed workforce, these dates observe the gender pay gap by marking how long into 2025 women in higher ed must work to make what White men in higher ed earned the previous year.

Higher Education Equal Pay Day falls on March 8, 2025, for women overall, which means that women employees in higher education worked for more than two months into this year to gain parity with their White male colleagues. Women in the higher ed workforce are paid on average just 82 cents for every dollar a White man employed in higher ed makes.

Highlighting some positive momentum during this Women’s History Month, some groups of women are closer to gaining pay equity. Asian American women in higher ed worked only a few days into this year to achieve parity on January 4 — an encouraging jump from January 14 in 2024.

But the gender pay gap remains for most women, and particularly for women of color. Here’s the breakdown of the gender pay gap in the higher ed workforce, and the Higher Education Equal Pay Day for each group.* These dates remind us of the work we have ahead.
- March 8 — Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. On average, women employees in higher education are paid 82 cents on the dollar.
- January 4 — Asian Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Asian women in higher ed are paid 99 cents on the dollar.
- March 5 — White Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. White women in higher ed are paid 83 cents on the dollar.
- March 29 — Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Native of Hawaii or Pacific Islander women in higher ed are paid 76 cents on the dollar.
- April 4 — Black Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Black women in higher ed are paid 75 cents on the dollar.
- April 11 — Hispanic/Latina Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Hispanic/Latina women in higher ed are paid 73 cents on the dollar.
- April 24 — Native American/Alaska Native Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Native American/Alaska Native women are paid just 69 cents on the dollar.
CUPA-HR research shows that pay disparities exist across employment sectors in higher ed — administrators, faculty, professionals and staff — even as the representation of women and people of color has steadily increased. But with voluntary turnover still not back to pre-pandemic levels, not addressing pay disparities could be costly.

CUPA-HR Resources for Higher Education Equal Pay Days

As we observe Women’s History Month and Higher Education Equal Pay Days for women, we’re reminded that the quest for equal pay is far from over. But data-driven analysis with the assistance of CUPA-HR research can support your work to create a more equitable future.

CUPA-HR’s interactive graphics track the gender and racial composition of the higher ed workforce, based on data from CUPA-HR’s signature surveys. The following pay equity analyses control for position, indicating that any wage gaps present are not explained by the fact that women or people of color may have greater representation in lower-paying positions:

*Data Source: 2024-25 CUPA-HR Administrators, Faculty, Professionals, and Staff in Higher Education Surveys. Drawn from 707,859 men and women for whom race/ethnicity was known.

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March 5, 2025
Calif. judge rules adjuncts should be paid for nonclassroom work

A superior court judge in California ruled last week that adjunct faculty in the Long Beach Community College District should be paid for work they do outside the classroom, including lesson prep, grading and holding office hours, EdSource reported.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in April 2022 by two part-time professors who argued that they are only paid for time spent teaching in the classroom, and that “failing to compensate adjuncts for out-of-classroom work is a minimum wage violation,” according to the decision by Judge Stuart Rice.

Rice concurred, noting “a myriad of problems” with the district’s argument that minimum wage rules don’t apply, EdSource reported.

Still, Rice stayed the decision pending further proceedings, so it doesn’t go into effect immediately. A similar lawsuit is under way in Sacramento County, brought by adjuncts against 22 community college districts, as well as the state community college system and its Board of Governors.

Adjunct professor John Martin, who chairs the California Part-time Faculty Association and is a plaintiff in the Sacramento case, celebrated the Long Beach ruling.

“It’s spot-on with what we have been saying,” he told EdSource. “We’re not getting paid for outside [the classroom] work. This has been a long time coming.”

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February 25, 2025
CUPA-HR’s Equal Pay Day Data for Higher Education: Women in Higher Ed Are Paid Just 82 Cents on the Dollar, Most Women of Color Are Paid Even Less – CUPA-HR
by Julie Burrell | March 12, 2024

Since 1996, the National Committee on Pay Equity has acknowledged Equal Pay Day to bring awareness to the gap between men’s and women’s wages. This year, Equal Pay Day is March 12 — symbolizing how far into the year women must work to be paid what men were paid in the previous year.

To help higher ed leaders understand, communicate and address gender pay equity in higher education, CUPA-HR has analyzed its annual workforce data to establish Higher Education Equal Pay Days for 2024. Tailored to the higher ed workforce, these dates observe the gender pay gap by marking how long into 2024 women in higher ed must work to make what White men earned the previous year.

Higher Education Equal Pay Day fell on March 5, 2024, for women overall, which means that women employees in higher education worked for more than two months into this year to gain parity with their White male colleagues. Women in the higher ed workforce make on average just 82 cents for every dollar a White male employed in higher ed makes.

Highlighting some positive momentum during this Women’s History Month, some groups of women are closer to gaining pay equity. Asian American women in higher ed worked two weeks into this year to achieve parity on January 14 — not ideal, but by no means insignificant. In fact, during the academic year 2022-23, Asian American women administrators in particular saw better pay equity than most other groups, according to CUPA-HR’s analysis.

But the gender pay gap remains for most women, and particularly for women of color. Here’s the breakdown of the gender pay gap in the higher ed workforce, and the Higher Education Equal Pay Day for each group.* These dates remind us of the work we have ahead.
- March 5 — Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. On average, women employees in higher education are paid 82 cents on the dollar.
- January 14 — Asian Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Asian women in higher ed are paid 96 cents on the dollar.
- March 1 — White Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. White women in higher ed are paid 83 cents on the dollar.
- March 12 — Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Native of Hawaii or Pacific Islander women in higher ed are paid 80 cents on the dollar.
- March 28 — Black Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Black women in higher ed are paid 76 cents on the dollar.
- April 12 — Hispanic/Latina Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Hispanic/Latina women in higher ed are paid 72 cents on the dollar.
- April 22 — Native American/Alaska Native Women in Higher Education Equal Pay Day. Native American/Alaska Native women are paid just 69 cents on the dollar.
CUPA-HR research shows that pay disparities exist across employment sectors in higher ed — administrators, faculty, professionals and staff — even as the representation of women and people of color has steadily increased. But with voluntary turnover rising, not addressing pay disparities could be costly.

CUPA-HR Resources for Higher Education Equal Pay Days

As we observe Women’s History Month and Higher Education Equal Pay Days for women, we’re reminded that the fight for equal pay is far from over. But data-driven analysis with the assistance of CUPA-HR research can empower your fight for a more equitable future.

See our interactive graphics that track gender and racial composition, as well as pay, of administrative, faculty, professional, and staff roles, collected from CUPA-HR’s signature surveys:

*Data Source: 2023-24 CUPA-HR Administrators, Faculty, Professionals, and Staff in Higher Education Surveys. Drawn from 633,020 men and women for whom race/ethnicity was known.

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March 12, 2024