Tag: University

  • Elon University AAUP demands larger faculty role in Queens University combination

    Elon University AAUP demands larger faculty role in Queens University combination

    Dive Brief:

    • Elon University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors is seeking more faculty involvement in the merger process as the institution looks to take over Queens University of Charlotte.
    • In a statement Wednesday, the group described faculty as being blindsided by the merger announcement in September and left out of the planning process. They called for faculty to elect representatives on integration teams and for officials to formally include of the universities’ faculty councils in merger advising. 
    • The Elon AAUP also said faculty should have a role in deciding whether to formally approve the merger. The two private nonprofits expect their boards to approve final parameters in November.

    Dive Insight:

    Elon and Queens, about 115 miles away from each other in North Carolina, said last month that their combination “creates new advantages of scale, bringing together resources, faculty expertise, research capacity and student services across both universities.”

    They also said their merger would accelerate the creation of new programs meant to address the Charlotte area’s workforce needs, such as a growing shortage of nurse practitioners, physician assistants and lawyers and a rising demand for graduate offerings.

    Since that announcement, Elon has said hundreds of employees, students and other stakeholders have attended town hall events about the combination and listening sessions and that officials are using their feedback to shape the plan. It has also seen public pushback from faculty, students and alumni.

    Faculty feedback has been “important to the extensive work of a team with representatives of both campuses discussing questions related to the academics, operations, and programming of a merged institution,” the university said Thursday in an emailed statement.

    But the university’s AAUP chapter said faculty need a larger, more formal role in the process.

    “Shared governance is not a courtesy; it is a cornerstone of higher education and a safeguard for academic quality,” the faculty group said in its statement, which was published by Elon’s student news organization. “It only functions when faculty are partners in major institutional decisions.”

    The chapter said officials didn’t consult with Elon’s academic council before the merger announcement. That’s despite stipulations in the university’s faculty handbook for the council to “advise the President on the setting of priorities and the planning of long-range goals for the University.”

    Going forward, Elon’s AAUP called for a “meaningful” advisory role for the full council and its Queens counterpart on the combination. They acknowledged scheduled meetings that included the chairs of those bodies, but the Elon AAUP pushed for the full involvement of the councils.

    With a fleshed-out merger plan still to be approved, the Elon AAUP is pressing for faculty to have a say in the ultimate decision. 

    “If faculty will be called upon to help make the merger a success, then faculty should be included in the decision of both institutions to move forward with the merger,” the group said. 

    In its Thursday statement, the university said, “There have been, and will continue to be, opportunities for Elon faculty, in their individual capacities and through involvement with Elon’s Academic Council, to participate in strategic conversations as work progresses toward a final decision by the boards of trustees of Elon and Queens.”

    Elon is the larger institution of the two, with 7,207 students in fall 2023, an increase of 3.1% from 2018. Queen’s fall 2023 headcount of 1,846 students was a 27.2% decline from five years earlier.

    Elon is also on firmer financial footing. It had $1.2 billion in assets in fiscal 2024, more than three times that of Queens. That year, Elon logged a $70.4 million operating surplus while Queens reported an $8.7 million deficit. However, in a FAQ page on the merger, the universities said that the combination plan is “not driven by crisis.”

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  • University of Pennsylvania rejects Trump’s higher education compact

    University of Pennsylvania rejects Trump’s higher education compact

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    The University of Pennsylvania on Thursday became the third institution to publicly reject the Trump administration’s sweeping higher education compact that promises priority for federal research funding in exchange for policy changes. 

    In an online message, Penn President J. Larry Jameson said he informed the U.S. Department of Education that the university “respectfully declines” to sign the compact. 

    “At Penn, we are committed to merit-based achievement and accountability. The long-standing partnership between American higher education and the federal government has greatly benefited society and our nation. Shared goals and investment in talent and ideas will turn possibility into progress,” he said. 

    Jameson also provided the agency feedback, as requested by the Trump administration, “highlighting areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns.” But he did not expand on why the university rejected the compact in his message. Penn did not provide more information about the concerns he mentioned in responding to a request for comment Thursday.

    The Ivy League institution follows the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University in rejecting the administration’s offer. Those institutions raised concerns that the proposed compact would infringe on their independence and freedom. 

    The compact’s wide-ranging terms include freezing tuition for five years, placing caps on international enrollment, changing or eliminating campus units that “purposefully punish” and “belittle” conservative viewpoints, and requiring undergraduate applicants to take standardized tests. 

    Although federal officials initially invited nine high-profile institutions to sign the compact, President Donald Trump appeared to extend that invitation to all colleges in a recent social media post. Neither the White House nor the U.S. Education Department immediately responded to a request for comment Thursday. 

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro praised Penn’s move in a statement Thursday, saying the university “made the right decision to maintain its full academic independence and integrity.”

    “The Trump Administration’s dangerous demands would limit freedom of speech, the freedom to learn, and the freedom to engage in constructive debate and dialogue on campuses across the country,” Shapiro said.

    As governor, Shapiro is a nonvoting member of Penn’s board, but he has wielded that influence at the private university as few of his predecessors have, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

    He said Thursday that he had “engaged closely with university leaders” on the Trump administration’s compact.

    Shapiro isn’t the only Democratic lawmaker in Pennsylvania who has raised concerns about the compact. Two state representatives have also moved to bar colleges that receive state funding from signing the proposed agreement.

    Penn’s rejection of the compact comes after the university cut a deal with the Trump administration earlier this year to restore some $175 million in suspended research funding. Federal officials had cut off the funding over Penn’s prior policies allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports. 

    Under that deal, struck in July, Penn agreed to adopt the Trump administration’s interpretation of Title IX, the civil rights law barring federally funded institutions from discriminating on the basis of sex. 

    The university also agreed to award athletic titles to cisgender women on Penn’s swimming team who had lost to transgender women, according to the Education Department. And the university said it would send personal apology letters to affected cisgender women.

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  • Court temporarily blocks overnight ban on expression at University of Texas System

    Court temporarily blocks overnight ban on expression at University of Texas System

    Dive Brief:

    • A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked University of Texas System officials from enforcing a state law that bans free speech and expression on public campuses between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
    • The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued leaders of the UT system in September on behalf of student groups who argued the law violated their First Amendment rights.
    • U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra, a Reagan appointee, found that plaintiffs raised “significant First Amendment issues” with the law and its application, and he granted a preliminary injunction on enforcement while the case plays out.

    Dive Insight:

    Texas passed SB 2972, earlier this year in the wake of 2024’s wave of pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses.

    “In April 2024, universities across the nation saw massive disruption on their campus,” state Sen. Brandon Creighton, the primary author of the bill, wrote in a statement of intent. “Protesters erected encampments in common areas, intimidated other students through the use of bullhorns and speakers, and lowered American flags with the intent of raising the flag of another nation.”

    In late September, Creighton, was named chancellor and CEO of the Texas Tech University System. 

    Along with specifically prohibiting First Amendment-protected activity overnight, the law also bars the campus community from inviting speakers to campus, using devices to amplify speech and playing drums or other percussive instruments during the last two weeks of any term. 

    In its complaint, FIRE called the law “blatantly unconstitutional.” 

    “The First Amendment doesn’t set when the sun goes down,” FIRE senior supervising attorney JT Morris said in a September statement. “University students have expressive freedom whether it’s midnight or midday, and Texas can’t just legislate those constitutional protections out of existence.”

    Ezra agreed in his ruling. 

    “The First Amendment does not have a bedtime of 10:00 p.m.,” the judge wrote. “The burden is on the government to prove that its actions are narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental interest. It has not done so.”

    In his ruling, Ezra wrote that the law’s free speech restrictions were not content-neutral and so must survive a strict legal test for the government to show that the law is the least restrictive possible to achieve a “compelling” goal. 

    The judge pointed to public posts by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the bill’s statement of intent, both decrying the pro-Palestinian protests. Abbott described the protests as antisemitic and called for the arrest and expulsion of protestors.

    “The statute is content-based both on its face and by looking to the purpose and justification for the law,” Ezra wrote. 

    Ezra also highlighted that the statute carved out an exception for commercial speech in his ruling. 

    “Defendants betray the stated goal of preventing disruption and ensuring community safety by failing to expand the Bans to commercial speech,” he wrote. “Students can engage in commercial speech that would otherwise violate the Bans simply because it is not ‘expressive activities,’ no matter how disruptive.”

    In response to the law, the University of Texas at Austin adopted a more limited version of the policy that only banned overnight expressive activities in its common outdoor area that generate sound to be heard from a university residence. 

    However, Ezra concluded the pared-down policy wasn’t enough to protect students’ constitutional speech rights, as UT-Austin could change it or enforce it subjectively. 

    “The threat of prosecution arises not only from UT’s adopted policy but also from the legislative statute,” the judge wrote. “As adopted, UT Austin is not currently in compliance with the statute, and at any point could change or be instructed to change its policies to comply with the law.”

    FIRE cheered the injunction on Tuesday. 

    “We’re thankful that the court stepped in and halted a speech ban that inevitably would’ve been weaponized to censor speech that administrators disagreed with,” FIRE Senior Attorney Adam Steinbaugh said in a statement. 

    In its lawsuit, the free speech group has asked the judge to permanently block the law’s enforcement.

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  • Brown University Rejects Trump’s Higher Ed Compact

    Brown University Rejects Trump’s Higher Ed Compact

    Brown settled with the Trump administration earlier this year, but the compact doesn’t offer the same protections, the university president wrote in her rejection of the deal.

    Wolterk/iStock/Getty Images

    Citing multiple concerns, Brown University on Wednesday rejected an invitation to join the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that the Trump administration proposed.

    The compact, initially sent to nine institutions, would require universities to make a number of far-reaching changes, including suppressing criticism of conservatives on campus. Of the original nine, Brown is now the second to reject the deal after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    The administration has promised preferential treatment on federal funding for those that sign on, though the document itself doesn’t detail those benefits. Higher ed experts and observers have warned against signing, arguing that it threatens institutional independence and give the federal government much more power over universities.

    Following MIT’s rejection, the Trump administration said the compact was open to all colleges. But of the original nine invitees, there are no takers so far, though officials at the University of Texas system have indicated they view the proposal favorably. The system’s flagship in Austin was part of the nine.

    “President Trump is committed to restoring academic excellence and common sense at our higher education institutions,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement. “Any university that joins this historic effort will help to positively shape America’s future.”

    Brown president Christina Paxson released her response to federal officials Wednesday, arguing that while Brown agreed with some of the aims of the proposal—such as keeping tuition costs down and maintaining a vibrant exchange of ideas across the ideological spectrum—other issues, including academic freedom concerns, prompted the university to reject the compact.

    She also pointed to the settlement Brown and the Trump administration reached in July to restore more than $500 million in frozen federal research funding amid an investigation into alleged campus antisemitism. She noted that the agreement “reflects similar principles” to the compact. But while the settlement did not wade into campus curriculum or programs, the compact would impose much greater restrictions on academic offerings for signatories.

    “In return for Brown signing the July agreement, the federal government restored the University’s research funding and permanently closed three pending investigations into shared ancestry discrimination and race discrimination. But most important, Brown’s existing agreement with the federal government expressly affirms the government’s lack of authority to dictate our curriculum or the content of academic speech—a principle that is not reflected in the Compact,” Paxson wrote.

    A White House official said that the settlement was aimed at “rectifying past harm and discrimination,” whereas the compact is more “forward looking.”

    Paxson also echoed concerns raised by MIT president Sally Kornbluth—who wrote in her letter to the Education Department that “scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone”—and other higher ed groups such as the Association of American Universities, of which Brown is a member.

    Paxson wrote, “A fundamental part of academic excellence is awarding research funding on the merits of the research being proposed.”

    ”The cover letter describing the compact contemplates funding research on criteria other than the soundness and likely impact of research, which would ultimately damage the health and prosperity of Americans,” she added. “Our current agreement with the federal government—beyond restoring Brown’s research funding from the National Institutes of Health—affirms the University’s ability to compete fairly for new research grants in the future, a doctrine of fairness and a commitment to excellence that aligns with our values.”

    The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

    Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, celebrated the decision on social media and in a statement, highlighting efforts by Brown employees to push back against the compact, including a campus protest last week that called on administrators to reject the deal.

    Both the national AAUP and Brown’s AAUP chapter have spoken out against the compact, and faculty at other universities along with students have also urged their leaders to reject the compact.

    “By declining to compromise its core mission, Brown University has affirmed that no amount of federal inducement is worth surrendering the freedom to question, explore, and dissent,” Wolfson said in the statement. “In rejecting the Compact, Brown stands as a bulwark for higher education’s sacred commitment to academic freedom and institutional self-governance.”

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  • One Aus university in top 50 THE rankings – Campus Review

    One Aus university in top 50 THE rankings – Campus Review

    Australia’s universities have charged up the global leaderboard in a year where many of their international peers lost ground, according to a world-renowned tertiary rankings list.

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  • U.S. Continues Decline in THE World University Rankings

    U.S. Continues Decline in THE World University Rankings

    The 2026 rankings overall show that “East Asian nations, led by China, continue to thrive,” said THE’s chief global affairs officer, Phil Baty.

    Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | bingdian, cbarnesphotography and DNY59/iStock/Getty Images

    Even before U.S. universities lost billions of dollars in federal research funding and international students struggled to obtain visas, America’s dominance in research impact and global reputation was waning. According to the latest rankings from Times Higher Education, the U.S. has continued to cede influence to universities in Asia.

    For several years, the rankings from Inside Higher Ed’s parent company have documented a steady decline in the U.S.’s leadership in global higher education. The 2026 World University Rankings reflect that ongoing trend: Just 102 universities from the United States cracked the top 500—the lowest figure on record, down from a high of 125 in 2018. (The rankings started in 2004.)

    The downward trend is less apparent in the overall top 10, where seven U.S. institutions appear. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the highest-ranking American institution, coming in at No. 2, just behind the top-ranked University of Oxford. According to THE, Princeton University recorded an institutional best score to tie for third.

    But institutions farther down the list have slipped. Twenty-five colleges logged their worst-ever scores while 62 dropped in the rankings, which uses 18 measures to judge institutions on five areas including teaching, research quality and international outlook.

    The 2026 rankings of more than 2,100 institutions are based on data collected from 2022 and 2023 and don’t reflect the Trump administration’s push to reshape American higher education. They don’t show what impact cuts to research funding and the crackdown on international students might have on U.S. institutions’ position on the global stage. Those changes could lead to a further decline for U.S. institutions in the rankings, though Ellie Bothwell, THE rankings editor, said what future rankings might show is hard to predict.

    “Any country that cuts research funding, that limits internationalization of higher education, would be in danger of declining in the ranking,” she said. “Those are key things that we measure. Those are important things that universities do. There’s always going to be a risk if you cut those. There’ll be a decline, but it’s all relative, so it does also depend what goes on elsewhere.”

    Looking at the overall 2026 rankings, Bothwell called the decline for the U.S. “striking,” adding that the drop reflects increased global competition. American institutions on average received lower scores on measures related to research, such as citation impact, as well as research strength and reputation.

    Meanwhile, Asian universities continue to climb the rankings. Five universities from China are now in the top 40, and 18 achieved their highest ranks ever, according to THE.

    THE’s chief global affairs officer, Phil Baty, said in a statement that the latest data suggests higher ed is moving toward a new world order with an Eastern center of gravity.

    “This year’s rankings highlight a dramatic and accelerating trend—the shift in the balance of power in research and higher education excellence from the long-established, dominant institutions of the West to rising stars of the East,” Baty said.

    He predicted that U.S. institutions and those in Western Europe would continue to lose ground to their East Asian counterparts in the rankings. “This clear trend is set to persist as research funding and international talent attraction continue to be stymied in the West,” he added.

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  • New Jersey City University and Kean University sign official deal to merge

    New Jersey City University and Kean University sign official deal to merge

    Dive Brief:

    • New Jersey City University has signed a definitive agreement to become part of nearby Kean University, the institutions announced in a joint press release Wednesday. 
    • The agreement — approved unanimously by both universities’ governing boards — is subject to accreditor approval by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education as well as by state and federal regulators. Officials expect the merger to be completed by July. 
    • Once complete, NJCU will become “Kean Jersey City.” The two public institutions signed a letter of intent to merge in May after recent years of financial and governance turmoil at NJCU.

    Dive Insight:

    The agreement marks a major milestone for NJCU, which a state-appointed monitor directed to find a financial partner early in 2024. 

    Under the merger terms, Kean will take on NJCU’s assets and liabilities. It will also honor NJCU students’ academic credits, need-based financial aid commitments and merit scholarships if they transition to Kean. Once they do, students will pay Kean’s tuition and fee prices, which amounted to $15,300 for full-time undergraduate students in the 2025-26 academic year.

    A steering committee will oversee the next steps of the merger, including the complicated work of academic and operational integration, as well as navigating regulatory and governmental reviews. 

    As part of the agreement, NJCU students will gain access to Kean’s student services, clubs and organizations after the merger. 

    As for student sports, the agreement establishes a separate advisory committee to look at athletic programming at NJCU post-merger. The university currently competes in more than a dozen NCAA Division III sports, including men’s basketball, women’s softball, and men’s and women’s volleyball and track and field. The committee is expected to make its final report to Kean’s president in December.

    As part of the fiscal 2026 state budget, New Jersey lawmakers lined up $10 million for Kean to help fund its merger with NJCU. The money is to help with feasibility studies, planning and legal work as the two institutions integrate. 

    NJCU’s board voted in March to pursue a merger with Kean. The move came after years of financial distress followed by recovery and turnaround work led by Andrés Acebo, who joined NJCU as interim president in January 2023 before being named permanent president this September. 

    About six months prior to his appointment, NJCU had declared a financial emergency.  Declining enrollment and funding shortfalls led the university to increase scholarships, add academic programs, and spend more on student services and real estate expansions. Those moves failed to turn enrollment around and “instead served to dramatically increase NJCU’s expenses,” New Jersey’s comptroller said in 2023. 

    But by fall 2024, Fitch Ratings lifted the NJCU’s outlook from negative to stable, with analysts citing “significant progress toward achieving fiscal balance despite continued pressure on student enrollment.” The improvements were the product of both state aid and cost cutting at the institution. 

    In fall 2023, NJCU’s student headcount stood at 5,833 students, down 27% from 2018 levels, according to federal data. By fall 2024, the university’s total enrollment fell another 6% year over year, though first-year, full-time students grew by 3% and transfers surged 28%,  NJ.com reported.

    In a statement Wednesday, Acebo said the merger with Kean represents “a significant milestone in a process designed to secure the future of our institution and the communities we have proudly served for nearly a century.”

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  • Washington University lays off over 300 employees

    Washington University lays off over 300 employees

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    Dive Brief:

    • Washington University in St. Louis has laid off 316 staffers and eliminated another 198 unfilled positions since March, Chancellor Andrew Martin said in a community message Tuesday. 
    • Leaders made the cuts to the private university’s main campus as well as to its medical center. In all, the reductions are expected to save about $52 million annually, Martin said. 
    • The chancellor cited several budget pressures driving the cuts, including “drastic reductions in federal research funding,” the changing needs of students, and “ineffective processes and redundancies in the way we operate.” 

    Dive Insight:

    Martin framed the workforce cuts overall in terms of mission and financial sustainability. “If we want to be great, and not just good, we must focus our resources where they will have the most impact and ensure that we’re positioned for success in the long-term,” he said.

    He said the current round of reductions were finished but hinted that there could be more changes down the line. “We must continue to evaluate how we work and identify additional ways to operate more effectively in support of our mission, if we are to be successful,” Martin said. 

    Nonetheless, WashU is in a much stronger position than many of its peers in the private college world. 

    For fiscal 2024, the university logged $20.5 billion in assets on its balance sheet and an operating surplus of $150.3 million. 

    Still, that surplus has been steadily shrinking in recent years. Just between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, the figure fell by 58%. Over the same period, total expenses rose by nearly 25%, or about $1 billion, to $5.1 billion in fiscal 2024.

    For fiscal 2025, the university broke even on its budget thanks to “prudent financial management and thoughtful work,” Martin said in late July. Among other actions, WashU paused new construction projects such as a planned arts and sciences building and green space upgrades.

    In the same July message, Martin pointed to long-term “structural budget challenges that WashU must address” and announced that the university would skip annual merit raises for its employees for fiscal 2026. 

    “I know this is disappointing news,” he said. “Please know it is not a reflection of your hard work and contributions, which I deeply value, but a necessary step as we prioritize long-term institutional stability and strategic investment in our core mission.” 

    As WashU looks ahead to future fiscal years, Martin noted in his July message that the university will face a heightened endowment tax bill of roughly $37 million after Republicans’ massive tax and budget bill passed this summer takes effect. 

    In fiscal 2024, the university’s endowment was worth $12 billion, or about $797,600 per student, according to the latest study from the National Association of College and University Business Officers and asset management firm Commonfund.

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  • University of Maine Cancels Wind Power Summit

    University of Maine Cancels Wind Power Summit

    The University of Maine cancelled its annual summit on floating offshore wind power as federal support for renewable energy wanes, Maine Public reported.

    The university decided against holding the American Floating Offshore Wind Technical Summit, or AFLOAT, “in recognition of changing federal policies and priorities,” university spokesperson Samantha Warren said in a statement. The university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center has hosted the summit since 2020.

    The state of Maine came out with an energy plan this year that includes offshore wind as a pivotal part of meeting renewable energy goals. But the Trump administration has shown opposition to such projects—the federal government suspended a $12.5 million grant to the University of Maine’s floating offshore wind power program this spring. The university nonetheless moved forward with the grant project, launching an experimental floating wind turbine a month later.

    The university has no plans at this time to revive AFLOAT in the future, Warren told Maine Public. But the university plans to hold private meetings with relevant parties, like industry, research and government leaders, “given growing interest in commercializing its cutting-edge technology, which has promising applications that advance the nation’s economy and security well beyond ocean energy.”

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  • Beyond the First Response: Prompting with Purpose in University Classrooms – Faculty Focus

    Beyond the First Response: Prompting with Purpose in University Classrooms – Faculty Focus

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