U.S. colleges and universities are reeling from one of the most challenging years in recent memory. In 2025, institutions laid off more than 9,000 faculty and staff amid enrollment volatility, shrinking budgets and growing skepticism about the value of a college degree. As a result, institutions are under increasing pressure to find efficiencies through new […]
The post OPINION: In this moment…
Higher education is under siege, with many students and parents balking at high costs. In a series of op-eds, university leaders lay out their efforts to keep college affordable. This is the first in the series. For many people across the country, paying for college is the largest investment they will ever make. Increasingly, it’s […]
The post OPINION: If higher education wants to rebuild public…
Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, the White House and Congress have worked aggressively to overhaul federal student financial aid. On July 1, many of those efforts will come to fruition. Student borrowers will begin to see different options for loan repayments and forgiveness, while current students will face new limits on […]
The post Five big changes coming to higher…
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On a late February afternoon, a dozen or so Sacramento State students, all current or former foster youth, filed into the office of the university’s Guardian Scholars Program for a financial aid workshop that promised to teach them how to “get that bread and get ahead.” When program coordinator Gina Bryan projected […]
The post Former foster youth face very low odds of…
There’s a tectonic shift underway that most Americans may not think about, but see every day when they take their pets to the vet or their kids to the dentist, need a lawyer or an eye exam, see a therapist or pick up a prescription: More and more of the highly educated specialists who provide […]
The post Women rule (in college and graduate and professional schools) appeared first on The…
MIDLAND, Texas — Dylan Ruiz sat in front of a nearly 6-foot-tall structure, a jumble of pumps and valves that simulate the flow of liquids and pressure changes. He was working through a training scenario on preventing oil leaks during his class on pumps, compressors and mechanical drives at Midland College in Texas. In the oil […]
The post In Texas, high schools bet on a bright future for oil…
AMHERST, Mass. — Crowding around a fire pit outside the Amherst College campus center, earnest-looking high school seniors offered fire-building suggestions as intently as if they were taking a final exam. “This is our test of how rural you are, is how good you are at making a fire,” the college’s assistant dean of admissions, […]
The post As more rural students apply to college, attention turns…
Online shopping. Smartphones with 5G. Meal delivery. Instantaneous access to information. So much of the world has speeded up. But college seems to take forever. Now change may be coming to long-standing practices that slow students down. Some colleges and the accreditors and states that oversee them are adding and approving three-year bachelor’s degrees that […]
The post Putting college on the…