In April 2013, "NEJHE" launched its "New Directions for Higher Education" series to examine emerging issues, trends and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs, and practices. In this installment, Philip DiSalvio interviews U.S. Department of Education Deputy Under Secretary Jamienne S. Studley, who…

Nearly a year ago, "NEJHE" launched its "New Directions for Higher Education" series to examine emerging issues, trends, and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs, and practices. In this installment, DiSalvio interviews Muriel A. Howard, president of the American Association of State Colleges and…

Mature higher education markets are drifting headfirst into the perfect storm. The convergence of shifting demographics, increased competition, decreased government funding, and the reality of a global marketplace has become the new normal in Canada, like in many other parts of the world. Most within the academy have come to accept this reality,…

New England's long winter and seemingly interminable wait for spring has this author thinking about what colleges could do with their campuses during the summer. The options are almost infinite, although the cost-benefit analysis clearly varies. For some students, being on campus in the summer is preferable to going home, where the…

This article presents a sampler of notable developments in the world of higher education. Among them are: (1) At the University of Southern Maine, faculty leaders and President Theo Kalikow are working together to address the challenges that stand in the way of economic sustainability. In the spring, after announcing a plan to fire a dozen tenured…

Now that members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) have voted to approve a sweeping, if not radical, proposal giving the five largest athletic conferences "autonomy" to establish new governance rules regarding a compensation pay package for the recruitment of athletes, some important public policy concerns need to be…

The recent midterm elections brought New England two new governors. Rhode Island elected its first woman chief executive in Gina Raimondo (D). Massachusetts elected Charlie Baker (R), a former Harvard Pilgrim CEO and official in the Weld and Cellucci administrations. Otherwise, the New England corner offices cautiously welcomed back incumbents:…

Today's global economy requires a highly skilled labor force that is prepared to compete on the world stage. Studies from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Brookings Institution, and the Conference Board have all identified building and maintaining a highly skilled workforce as a national and local imperative. If America is…

The author has spent much of his working life studying and promoting student loans. As a good liberal Democrat, he spent years arguing for the expansion of the old Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) which had its roots in Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. His professional life included stints working for one of the nonprofit FFELP…

Since 1964, the federal government has had two successful programs that have helped Americans from low-income and first-generation college backgrounds (whose parents never enrolled in higher education) prepare for and earn their college degrees, helping to stop the cycle of poverty. The federally funded TRIO programs (Upward Bound, Veterans Upward…

Even before the international financial crisis, the University of Maine System was looking at a $42.8 million projected annual shortfall between revenues and expenses within four years if it continued business as usual. In this article, the author describes the approach used to deal with a rapidly growing structural gap in the finances of the…

Universities are organized to assume uninterrupted growth in enrollments and endowments, steady public funding, an annual ability to inflict tuition hikes on students and their families, everlasting degree programs, vast building operations and permanent commitments to a senior professoriate. Lacking an agile and responsive governance structure,…

Higher education is being challenged to increase access and degree attainment for all student groups--a tall order under any circumstances, but particularly daunting in the current economy. To do this, institutional and policy leaders will need to find ways to reduce costs and permanently reduce spending demands while they maintain access. This…

The constant flow of alarming economic and business news, rapidly declining endowments and potential disruption to the student-loan industry have all beaten down optimism about higher education's financial and strategic outlook. Universities large and small have announced budget cuts, layoffs, salary freezes, capital spending slowdowns and other…

When President Barack Obama took office, he pledged to revitalize an economy in the midst of the deepest recession in a generation. Working with Congress, he acted quickly to enact an $878 billion package to stimulate the economy in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). More than $100 billion of that will be for education, spanning…