Top Higher Education News for Thursday
Lumina

Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.

August 28, 2025

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Colleges Struggle to Make Manufacturing Training Hot Again

Jeffrey R. Young, The Hechinger Report/Signal Cleveland

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Nationally, more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs are going unfilled, many of them in advanced manufacturing, which requires the sort of high-tech skills and postsecondary credentials that 18-year-old Nolan Norman is working toward.

 

Yet as it is, colleges have struggled to add and revise their training based on employer input and prepare students for tomorrow’s jobs, not just today’s. However, one Ohio institution appears to be bucking that trend: Lorain County Community College.

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How Scammers Are Siphoning College Financial Aid With Stolen Student Identities

Ali Rogin, PBS NewsHour

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There's a rising threat U.S. colleges have to deal with: sophisticated criminal networks using stolen identities to disguise themselves as students. They flood colleges with applications to siphon off tens of millions of dollars in financial aid. What's more, they're taking up seats that real students need.

 

A series of recent reports reveal that these so-called ghost students even go as far as turning in homework assignments so they don't get dropped from classes. As colleges begin a new academic year, Amanda Gerut of Fortune magazine reports on this growing scam.

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The US Used to Be a Haven for Research. Now, Scientists Are Packing Their Bags.

Ira Porter and Colette Davidson, The Christian Science Monitor

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This isn’t the first time James Gerber and Lisa Hilbink, two professors from Minnesota, have packed up their things and left. But this time feels different.

 

A recent survey of U.S. professors found that 75 percent were seeking employment outside the United States. This exodus is unprecedented since European scientists sought refuge on U.S. shores during World War II. For the researchers who are choosing to leave, it is bittersweet—and professionally risky. But they say the future of science depends on it.

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Addressing the Student-Housing Crisis

The Different Voices of Student Success

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Rising tuition isn’t the only obstacle preventing students from meeting their full potential. A recent survey from the Hope Center for Student Basic Needs at Temple University shows that 48 percent of students nationwide are experiencing housing insecurity, and 14 percent are experiencing homelessness.

 

In this interview, five higher education leaders share their thoughts on what colleges can do to empower students with affordable and accessible housing.

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An AI Tool Says It Can Predict Students’ Grades on Assignments. Instructors Are Skeptical.

Aisha Baiocchi, The Chronicle of Higher Education

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Students looking for feedback on their assignments typically go to office hours, join study groups, or share drafts with classmates for peer review. Now there’s a new artificial-intelligence tool that says it can do the same thing.

 

According to its creator, Grammarly, the “AI Grader” can provide students with an estimated score, a rubric review, and even predictions on how a particular instructor might assess a draft. Some instructors, however, are far from enthusiastic. They believe the tool could reduce important interactions that students have with their professors.

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George Mason U. President Won’t Apologize for DEI Policies, His Lawyer Says

Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, The Washington Post

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Facing mounting pressure from the Trump administration, a lawyer for George Mason University President Gregory Washington told the board this week that the leader had done nothing unlawful and would not apologize for his diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, despite a call from the U.S. Department of Education to do so.

 

Douglas Gansler, Washington’s lawyer, called the singling out of GMU from the Education Department bordering on the “absurd,” saying in his letter to the George Mason Board of Visitors that the department’s investigative process had been “cut short” after a “very incomplete fact-finding process.” 

HUMAN WORK AND LEARNING

Signing Days Are for Youth Apprentices, Too

Alexandra Simon, New America

Training Gaps Contribute to Idaho’s Chronic Doctors’ Shortage

Kevin Richert, Idaho Education News

Kids Are Catching ‘Ivy League Fever’ and the Pressure to Succeed Is Leaving Many Overwhelmed and Burned Out

Najay Greenidge, WHYY

Top Three Faculty Uses of Gen AI

Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

EQUITY IN EDUCATION

Where There Is No Equity Engine: Unequal Geographies of College Success for Low-Income Students

Becca Spindel Bassett, American Educational Research Association

Student Affairs Staff Face Widespread Racism, Survey Finds

Jamal Watson, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

New Mexico Could Stand to Lose More Than Most States in National Battle Over Hispanic-Serving Colleges

André Salkin, Santa Fe New Mexican

Dems Defend HSIs

Matthew Dembicki, Community College Daily

STATE POLICY

Utah’s Bar Exam Is Changing. Law Schools Say it Will Improve Access to Justice

Elle Crossley, KUER

Opinion: Massachusetts Can’t Afford to Overlook the Power of Its Hispanic/Latino Workforce

Eneida Román and Pablo Suarez, CommonWealth Beacon

FEDERAL POLICY

Financial Aid Advisers Raise Questions About Trump’s Identity Verification Efforts

Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed

Fulbright and Other Global-Education Programs Are Spared From Trump's Cuts

Karin Fischer, Latitudes

Higher Education: What Trump Hath Wrought

Kevin Carey, Washington Monthly

Trump Says He Welcomes Chinese Students, as His Administration Blocks Them

Anemona Hartocollis, The New York Times

NEW REPORTS AND EVENTS

Live Podcast: Lessons From a Year of College Admissions Redesign

Lumina Foundation

How Should Colleges Collect Parenting Student Data? (Version 2.0)

Urban Institute

Webinar: The Growing Role of the Humanities at Community Colleges

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Randomized Controlled Trials in Rural Colleges

MDRC

luminafoundation.org
Daily Lumina News is edited by Patricia Brennan.

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