Never before has a college degree been more essential to an individual's prosperity in the United States. Nor have colleges ever been asked to play a more crucial part in preparing citizens for a global economy. Yet finding a way to erase persisting inequities in who earns a college degree has proved difficult. With a new generation that is more…

Public colleges often blame their tuition increases on state lawmakers who the colleges say have not given them enough extra money to keep up with rising costs. This year, many states' public colleges received sizable infusions of public money and still raised tuition. In nearly half of the states, both state appropriations for higher education…

The important contributions that community colleges make to American society are well known and documented, but many people may not be aware of the huge influence that community colleges are having overseas. The U.S. model of the two-year college with a vocational emphasis is being exported, and foreign institutions that focus on career education…

This article focuses on the "missing class," the near poor whose incomes place them above the poverty line, but well below the middle class. Near-poor families with two parents and two children subsist on $20,000 to $40,000 a year, which disqualifies them for virtually all public subsidies, but is a far cry from what they need to be…

We have reached a critical juncture in the history of women and men in higher education. Today--decades after the women's movement started what became monumental gains for female students in terms of access, equity, and opportunity--the popular notion is that gender equity has been achieved. Some higher-education statistics do paint a rosy picture…

A survey last year by the consulting firm Eduventures Inc. asked development officers at 72 public and private research institutions what their primary challenge was: 86 percent said recruiting, training, and retaining staff members. According to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), 32 percent of fund raisers stay in their…

Too often, conversations and policy debates about higher education ignore a key group of students, the forgotten majority: adult, "nontraditional" learners. In particular, the author argues, community colleges have lost some of their initial edge in the adult market, and are not growing to meet the needs of nontraditional students. She explores…

Five years ago, the National Institute of Certified College Planners, an organization that licenses college-planning professionals, did not exist. This year the organization has 1,200 registered members. Professionals in college financial planning say business is booming, and the bulk of demand for their services is coming from families with…

This article profiles Harvard professor Stephen Greenblatt's new course, "Travel and Transformation in the Early 17th Century." The product of an intense, months-long collaboration between computing specialists, graduate students, librarians, and scholars, the course makes innovative use of all the tools and technical know-how a major university…

When Robert W. Van Kirk released a study in January about selenium contamination in trout streams in southeastern Idaho, he expected some flak from the influential phosphate-mining industry. He did not expect to feel pressured by the administration of his own institution, Idaho State University, where he is an associate professor of mathematics.…

A new report assessing the state of doctoral education in Europe says that, even as 47 European nations enter the final phase of harmonizing their degree programs, Ph.D.-level education across Europe suffers from a lack of coordination and cooperation. "There is an urgent need for greater consultation and coordination at the regional, national,…

Saudi Arabia has been developing at breakneck speed since the end of World War II, when oil production transformed this country of Bedouins into one of the richest polities in the world. Its higher-education system, however, has not kept pace. The Ministry of Higher Education was not established until 1975, and its task was to educate a population…

Many professors, staff members, and even administrators see campus computers and e-mail accounts as their own private property--a type of employment benefit provided with no constraints on use. The fact is, universities "assign" computer equipment to personnel as tools to help them perform their jobs more effectively and efficiently, in the same…

In its new report, "Freedom in the Classroom," the American Association of University Professors responds to critics of the university like the author who have questioned what they see as a growing tendency among faculty members in the liberal arts to "indoctrinate" rather than educate their students. In fact, the author contends, the association…

In this article, the author traces the development of community colleges, from their ignominious beginnings in the middle of the 20th century to their current status as a valuable part of the higher education community. Likening this development to the progress made by the civil rights movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and…