Massive open online courses (MOOC's) are the latest development in online education. Over the past decade, millions of students have taken free online versions of existing courses at well-known universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but such courses often offered little more than reading lists and lecture notes. MOOC's are…

This article reports that Princeton University has settled a long-running dispute with the heirs of a major donor by agreeing to pay $50-million to the heirs' foundation and approximately the same amount for their legal fees. The case has been closely watched as a test of how strictly institutions must adhere to donors' wishes. The settlement…

The crunch in the student-loan market, a weak U.S. economy, and declining home values are all conspiring to make this an unpredictable year for college enrollment. Some middle-income families have found it cheaper in recent years to borrow against their home equity to help pay for college, rather than take out private student loans. However, this…

Nationwide, minority and female faculty members were trailblazers in the 1960s and 1970s. Only in the past generation have most colleges adopted large-scale plans to diversify their faculties. This article revisited ambitious plans announced at five universities during the past two decades to see how they have fared. They are Duke University,…

New administrative offices for diversity are popping up at universities around the country, and one can usually count on them to cast minority-recruiting efforts in a favorable light. There is still, however, a role for the old-school rabble-rousers, as a new report from a faculty committee at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor makes clear.…

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to spend several hundred million dollars over the next five years to double the number of low-income young people who complete a college degree or certificate program by age 26. Foundation officials described the ambitious plan to an exclusive group of education leaders, citing 2025 as a target goal. If…

College admissions essay coaches have been hanging out shingles since the early 1990s. The business has grown sharply over the past decade thanks to the ease of editing via the Internet and students' desire to gain any possible edge as many colleges have become more selective. The companies, with names like Cambridge Essay Service, EssayEdge,…

The dreaded personal essay used to be the toughest part of the college-admissions process for the applicant. These days it's admissions officers who fret about student writing--and not just because they fall asleep reading endless takes on "overcoming adversity." They've got weightier concerns--plagiarized essays, students who receive excessive…

In 2005, 109,964 U.S. minority scholars held full-time faculty positions at American colleges and universities, up from 69,505 in 1995, according to the Education Department--a 58-percent increase. The proportion of minority scholars in the overall professoriate also rose, but not as much. The department found that 16.5 percent of scholars were…

The US colleges are struggling with soaring tuition costs as state support is unable to keep up with enrollment growth, and college officials are becoming more creative in finding ways to reduce expenses. Higher education institutions are increasingly outsourcing non-academic activities, collaborating with other institutions to share goods and…

Students at many public universities often have a substantial say in what they will pay for the construction of non-academic facilities usually through referenda in which they vote to enact fees to cover the debt service on the building. However, some students are reluctant to vote in any new fee, given that tuition regularly increases at…

Describes how, as colleges' fundraising declines amid economic hardship in the San Francisco Bay area, anxiety at local institutions is rising. (EV)

Provides descriptions of the policies and practices that enabled six colleges, once in danger of closing, to achieve turnarounds and regain financial health. The institutions profiled are: (1) Rocky Mountain College, Montana; (2) Bellevue University, Washington; (3) Muskingum College, Ohio; (4) University of the Ozarks, Arkansas; (5) University of…

Describes how, with budgets tightening, the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University at College Station are among the elite public institutions wondering if they should trade state money for greater autonomy. (EV)

Describes how a new approach to setting standards for colleges, the Academic Quality Improvement Project, follows principles from manufacturing and industry. (EV)