NAICU News Room

NSSE changes how colleges judge success, identify weaknesses (USA Today)

In the 10 years since it was first administered, NSSE has developed into something of a movement. Nearly 1,400 four-year colleges and universities have participated at least once, and about four out of five have done so multiple times. More than 2.4 million students have completed the survey, giving researchers a treasure-trove of data about how students spend their time in college. The survey also has provided a road map to help hundreds of campuses around the country pinpoint both potential strengths and trouble spots.

Pittsburgh’s mayor says he’ll pursue 1 percent higher-ed tax (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl plans to propose a 1 percent college-education privilege tax to council today, in a move that's likely to set off a fight with the city's schools of higher learning. College and university representatives met with the mayor on Wednesday and argued against the tax, which would be assessed on a college student's tuition. It technically would not be a levy on the students or their schools, but rather on the privilege of getting a higher education in Pittsburgh.

Engagement: It’s different at every institution (USA Today)

What does engagement look like' USA TODAY asked Indiana University researchers who administer the National Survey of Student Engagement to examine the performance of 443 schools that participate in USA TODAY's database of NSSE schools to find schools whose scores suggest they do a good job of engaging different kinds of students based on a number of different factors.

More Engaged (Inside Higher Ed)

Although budget cuts have many educators this year worried about the quality of education students receive, an annual survey being released today suggests that institutions -- large and small, public and private -- can achieve significant gains. The National Survey of Student Engagement doesn't measure learning per se, but a series of qualities of student engagement that are widely believed to correlate with learning.

Engaged or Confused? (Inside Higher Ed)

With today's release of the National Survey of Student Engagement, hundreds of colleges and universities will be studying their results, and considering whether they should change policies or approaches to better reach students. But a new study released Friday argues that NSSE (pronounced "nessie") is seriously flawed, lacking validity for its conclusions and asking questions of students in ways that are sure to doom the value of the data collected.

The Long Talk Continues (Inside Higher Ed)

During the final two sessions of the TIAA-CREF Institute's Higher Education Leadership conference, panelists suggested colleges will have to rethink longstanding traditions if they hope to reach an increasingly diverse and nontraditional student population that is now falling through the cracks. That means considering three-year degrees, creating greater flexibility for when students take classes, and borrowing some techniques, like course standardization, from the for-profit sector.

Institutional Interests, Statewide Concerns (Inside Higher Education--Opinion)

Several higher education associations have joined forces to oppose channeling the money through the states. These associations represent colleges and universities, so it is understandable that they would prefer the funds to go directly to institutions. But some would argue that over the long run institutions would be better served by a robust state policy analysis and planning capacity that would try to slow down the "mission creep" by which regional institutions aspire inappropriately to become research universities, and would promote programs that better assure student access and retention through new and innovative funding approaches.

Are Too Many Students Going to College? (Chronicle of Higher Education)

With student debt rising and more of those enrolled failing to graduate in four years, there is a growing sentiment that college may not be the best option for all students. At the same time, President Obama has called on every American to receive at least one year of higher education or vocational training. The Chronicle Review asked higher-education experts to weigh in.

A Way Out of the Deep Freeze (New York Times)

For many holders of auction-rate securities - investments that Wall Street once peddled as safe, sound and as fully liquid as cash - life in the frozen zone drags on. Municipalities, student loan companies, closed-end funds and tax-exempt institutions like hospitals and museums all issued auction-rate securities as either preferred shares or debt instruments to companies and individual investors. The interest rates that issuers paid investors were supposed to reset periodically, usually every week, in auctions overseen by the brokerage firms that sold the securities.

Transfer Students Are Less Likely to Take Part in High Impact Activities (Chronicle of Higher Education)

The latest National Survey of Student Engagement, found that both sets of transfer students tended to lag behind "native" students, as it calls those who did not transfer, in terms of campus engagement. But the horizontal-transfer students were likelier than their vertical-transfer counterparts to participate in "high impact" activities, like studying abroad, participating in internships, doing research with a faculty member, and partaking in a culminating senior experience, like a capstone course or senior seminar.

What Do Parents Think? (Chronicle of Higher Education--Opinion)

A recent survey found that nine of 10 parents said, despite the toughest economic climate in decades, they still view sending their kids to college as an essential part of the American dream-as important as having a comfortable retirement or owning their home. Most parents said they hadn't put saving for college on hold, reduced their savings, or withdrawn funds from college-savings plans.

BofA suspending federal student loan program (Reuters)

Bank of America Corp will suspend its federally-backed student loan program by December 5, the company said in a letter to colleges and universities on Friday, as the U.S. gets ready to end the program entirely. The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 would replace the FFELP program with direct government loans. It has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is awaiting a Senate vote, but it strongly supported by President Obama and widely expected to become law.

Analysis: College students need lessons in failure (Associated Press)

Disgraced ex-New York Times reporter Jayson Blair talking to college students about ethics' Perhaps this could also prompt colleges to think more seriously about something they often shy away from: the value of exposing students to, and preparing them for, failure.

Managers cut fees to retain lucrative college plans (Reuters)

Money management companies, anxious to hang on to lucrative contracts to manage college savings plans, are making concessions to keep the business from slipping away. To keep the business, fund firms have launched a price war. In Vermont, for example, TIAA-CREF slashed fees on its popular Managed Allocation option to 53 basis points from 80 basis points.

Report blasts student health plans (Boston Globe)

Insurance companies rack up much higher profits on health coverage sold to nearly 100,000 Massachusetts college students than on plans available to the general public, according to long-awaited data released late yesterday by the state. The figures also show that college-student plans also have higher administrative costs. The report shows that, on average, 30 cents of every premium dollar goes toward profits and administrative costs, compared with 12 cents for plans sold to the general public.

Do college presidents need a pay czar? (Christian Science Monitor)

Between 2007 and 2008, the top 25 highest paid college presidents saw their total compensation rise roughly 25 percent while the top 25 highest-paid CEOs receiving government bailouts saw their's fall nearly 17 percent. What accounts for the discrepancy' First, college presidents didn't engineer the near collapse of global commerce. Second, the argument is often made that many university presidents could be or have been executives at much higher compensation levels and gradual pay increase make universities more competitive against the private sector.

Best Values in Private Colleges (Kiplinger’s Personal Finance)

A year ago, private colleges were struggling to navigate rough economic waters. But here's the surprise: In many cases, students who applied to college for the 2009-10 academic year actually received more financial help than the previous year's applicants. Independent colleges boosted financial aid by 9% while keeping tuition increases -- an average of 4.3% -- to their lowest levels in four decades.

Applying for college - Forum (Cincinnati Enquirer)

For the next two months, colleges and high school students are going through academia's version of speed dating. The largest senior class in high school history is applying for college. Like the housing field, college admission keeps shifting between a buyer's and a seller's market. No one knows this better than the 12 high school students The Enquirer is following through the college admission process.

In Search of the Big Idea (Inside Higher Ed)

Gathered for the TIAA-CREF Institute's Higher Education Leadership Conference, some of the nation's most prominent figures in postsecondary education wrestled with the future of this thing called college. What became quickly and painfully obvious in their deliberations is that the center will not hold. In something of an irony, higher education leaders acknowledged that the very system that put them in the position to run the nation's colleges and universities is no longer fit to groom their successors or the rest of the U.S. work force.

Catching Up to Canada (Inside Higher Ed)

Forty-seven percent of Canadians have a postsecondary degree of some kind, compared to 39 percent of Americans, and the numbers look worse (or better, if you're Canadian) when you look at citizens aged 25 to 34, as 55 percent of Canadians and 39 percent of Americans in that group have degrees (placing the U.S. 10th). Why is that so'