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Higher Education News

World & Nation
The vast majority of undergraduate students at American colleges and universities received financial aid for the 2004–05 academic year, and almost half of all undergraduates took out educational loans, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The Department of Education report found that 85 percent of students at private four-year institutions were receiving some type of financial aid, including grants and loans, and 59.8 percent took out loans. At four-year for-profit institutions, 80 percent of students received financial aid, including 73.6 percent who took out loans. And at four-year public institutions, 75 percent of students received financial aid, and 44 percent took out loans. The proportion of students at community colleges receiving financial aid was lower, at 60 percent, but only 17.5 percent took out loans.

Minority enrollment at the nation’s colleges and universities rose by 50.7 percent to 4.7 million students between 1993 and 2003, according to the Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-second Annual Status Report (2006) released today by the American Council on Education (ACE). Students of color made up 27.8 percent of the nearly 17 million students on America’s college campuses, up from 21.8 percent in 1993.

The report also noted that the high school completion rate for African-Americans age 18 to 24 rose two percentage points from 75.6 percent in 1992–94 to 77.8 percent in 2002–04, while the rate for Hispanics showed the largest increase, up from 56.6 percent in 1992-94 to 64.4 percent in 2002–04.

The University of Phoenix must defend itself against charges that it violated federal law by paying its recruiters based on how many students they enrolled, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled.

The unanimous decision overturns a lower court's ruling in Phoenix’s favor, and could cost the for-profit institution billions of dollars because of the amounts of the federal funding alleged to have been misused.

Faculty & Staff
When a unit of 2,000 or so midlevel administrative workers at the Rutgers University system in New Jersey conducted their drive to create a union this spring, they didn't have to put up with the usual employer interference. Instead, they chose union representation by the card check method. A New Jersey law requires an employer to recognize a union based on cards signed by employees. That statute is a model for the Employee Free Choice Act recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought against Temple University by a former student who alleged that his professors retaliated against him for his political views.

The student sued the university and two of his professors, contending that the professors had thwarted his efforts to finish a master’s degree in history after he complained about receiving “antiwar” e-mail messages that were circulating in the history department.

Professional News
One-quarter of all states have now put in place tougher graduation requirements, and virtually every state has taken steps to ratchet up expectations for high school students, according to a national survey conducted by Achieve Inc.

Closing the Expectations Gap 2007 updates the efforts of all 50 states to align their high school standards, graduation requirements, assessments, and accountability systems with the demands of college and work. Achieve reports that at least 48 states are now actively engaged in reform efforts of some kind, creating more momentum in the states now than at any time since education reform became a national priority with the release of A Nation at Risk in 1983.

One example from the report: 13 states, up from just two in 2004, now require high school students to complete a college- and work-ready curriculum in order to earn a diploma, while 16 additional states are taking steps to implement similar graduation requirements. Find out more at www.achieve.org.