A recent Department of Education study, developed with the assistance of the Internal Revenue Service, found that of 2.3 million Pell Grants in 1995-96, 102,000 went to students who failed to report or underreported family income. More than 300 recipients had each underreported income by over $100,000. The report comes when the Clinton…

Pennsylvania State University will turn 14 of its two-year campuses into four-year colleges, changing the face of higher education in the state and raising concerns for competing institutions. Three campuses will retain two-year status. The change is due to overcrowding at the University Park flagship campus, and because too few two-year campus…

In recent years, 21 law firms have each donated $1 million or more to law schools for new buildings, programs, and professors. Before 1984, million-dollar donations from law firms were unheard of. While legal educators are delighted, some vocal critics warn that law firms may want to influence curricula, and that donations could undermine the…

Carleton College (Minnesota) no longer ignores a family's ability to pay in making admissions decisions, because in recent years, financial aid was consuming one-fifth of the college budget. The policy angers many parents and counselors. The policy has worked well for Carleton, allowing construction of new facilities. In general, faculty and…

A confidential national survey of Division I athletics departments (n=87 universities) conducted by the University of Texas (Austin) found men's basketball coaches the highest-paid, with football coaches second. The report contains blind lists of salaries and compensation packages paid to each of 70 employee categories (administrators, coaches,…

In 18 years, over 260,000 Chinese students have left China to study abroad, and only about one-third have returned. Their flight is compounding the devastation of China's knowledge and talent pool that began with Mao Ze-dong. China is encouraging study abroad, to rectify the loss of a generation of academics, and is most interested in science and…

Several colleges and universities have been accredited by the relatively new American Academy for Liberal Education, but at Rhodes College (Tennessee), faculty are concerned that a connection to the group might introduce unwanted conservative political ideology into the campus culture. The Academy has 16 traditional liberal arts standards,…

Based on the idea that the current framework for organizing electronic data does not take advantage of the mind's ability to make connections among disparate pieces of information, several projects at universities around the country are taking new approaches to classification and storage of vast amounts of computerized data. The new systems take…

South Carolina is planning to base all appropriations to higher education on performance indicators rather than enrollments and facility needs. The new law gives financial incentives to improve, and outlines 37 criteria for judging institutional performance. Institutions fear the system will be biased against them or not take into account their…

Merrimack College (Massachusetts) has abandoned conservative strategies for investing its $16-million endowment, investing more in international stocks and bonds, real estate projects, and small companies to raise annual returns and increase endowment value. The small, Catholic college is heavily dependent on tuition. The diversification plan…

Many private colleges are reporting the lowest percentage tuition increases in a decade or more, four to five% at many institutions, but most increases still outpace inflation. A major reason for increasing tuition is to meet rising demand for student aid. Also, many institutional expenses are higher than for the average consumer, and facilities…

This study found that students who use college rankings are more likely to earn top grades, come from wealthy families, and be Asian-American than any other ethnic group. The survey (n=221,897 students at 432 colleges) found that only 11% of respondents saw rankings as a very important factor in college choice; 60% found them "not at all"…

Higher education associations representing hundreds of colleges and universities have filed briefs asking the Supreme Court to reverse an appeals court ruling that Brown University (Rhode Island) discriminated against female athletes in cutting support for their gymnastics and volleyball teams, in violation of federal Title IX regulation. The…

Across Scandinavia, higher education institutions are acknowledging incidents of sexual harassment and developing policy and procedures to address them. The issue emerged after a University of Stockholm survey found 12% of all female employees on campus, including many graduate students, had experienced some harassment on the job. Initiatives…

American academics planning to attend an international conference on operations research in Cuba, including the keynote speaker, had to cancel plans when the Treasury Department did not approve licenses they needed to spend money in Cuba. They claim the lack of approval was for political reasons, but the government claims the application was…