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.
Steven Bouma-Prediger, a theology professor at Hope College, often sees students walking between classes with their faces buried in their smartphones. This distraction transfers into the classroom, where Bouma-Prediger takes matters into his own hands: No tech allowed.
That position might seem ironic for a man who started as a computer science major in the ’70s. But with the onslaught of artificial intelligence, professors across the United States are grappling with whether the benefits of technology in the classroom outweigh the costs.
Two decades ago, Southern New Hampshire University was so obscure that most people in New England had never heard of it. It enrolled a few thousand students on its 300-acre campus along the Merrimack River. Many students were from nearby towns looking for practical skills in fields like business, culinary arts, or hotel management.
Today, SNHU is one of the largest universities in the country after a massive expansion of its online degree programs. Enrollment took off as the school plowed $1.6 billion into advertising and reaped more than $1 billion in profit since 2010. Last fiscal year, the nonprofit school estimates that 300,000 students took at least one class for credit.
Think getting into college is all but impossible? Think again.
Certainly, the most selective institutions still take only a tiny fraction of the people who apply to them. But at almost all the rest, the odds of getting in are good—and getting better. That’s because enrollment in higher education is already down by more than 1.5 million since 2010. Now the number of 18-year-old prospective college students is projected to begin a long decline. And federal data show that today's high school graduates are less likely to go straight to college than their predecessors were.
Roughly a million borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans late last year, with millions delinquent on their payments and sliding toward the same fate. That's according to federal data and a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The implications are significant, not only for the borrowers but also for the wider U.S. economy. Americans in default can have up to 15 percent of their disposable pay garnished by the government. The government can also garnish income tax refunds and Social Security benefits. Borrowers' credit also takes a hit, making it much more difficult to buy a car or home or even rent an apartment.
The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education voted this week to allow colleges and universities to offer three-year bachelor's degrees, joining a growing movement toward accelerated undergraduate programs that has sparked debate over educational quality.
The move, which has been under consideration for 18 months, reflects a broader national trend. Many universities nationwide are shifting to 90-credit-hour bachelor's programs as institutions seek to reduce costs and time-to-degree completion.
U.S. Department of Education officials on Tuesday touted several improved performance metrics for the latest Free Application for Federal Student Aid, including low call center wait times, high shares of students and families reporting satisfaction with the form, and the earliest form launch in history.
Officials shared the update during the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' legislative conference this week.
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