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Section: Blogs/Opinion

Debt to Military Spouses

November is Military Family Appreciation Month. Of course, our nation owes military families a debt of gratitude: Their sacrifices and stressors should not go unnoticed. We do try to honor them, with thanks and praise, but during this month set aside to appreciate military families, we should consider practical ways we can do more to […]

November 7, 2017

Where Are the Adults?

Usually, when a demographic group is significantly underrepresented on elite college campuses, we consider it a problem. But there is one such problem that almost no one seems to notice or care much about. Nearly 30 percent of college undergraduates are adults, defined by the United States Department of Education as 25 years old or […]

November 3, 2017

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Punitive Rankings

Every year around this time U.S. News & World Report issues its ranked list of America’s “best” colleges. And every year an inevitable handwringing ensues – among academics, anyway – about what the rankings mean, and whether they’re of any use at all. Pose this question to most professionals in higher education, and you’ll likely […]

November 2, 2017

Julian Castro’s Stump Speech

Julian Castro is among three dozen or so Democrats considering running for president in 2020. Maybe that’s why his 24-minute keynote address Saturday at the Florida Democratic Party’s statewide conference sounded like a stump speech, one ready-made for a national road trip. The charismatic former San Antonio mayor and Housing and Urban Development secretary under […]

October 31, 2017

Accommodating “Nontraditionals”

The number of “nontraditional students” enrolled in college courses is on the rise, accounting for approximately 40 percent of all undergraduate and graduate students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. “Nontraditional” students are defined as those students only enrolled part-time, those over the age of twenty-four and those filing as independent on their […]

October 27, 2017

Rethinking MOOCs

Coursera, Udacity, Udemy and EdX: these were some of the names behind the proliferation of education technology startups that led The New York Times to dub 2012 “The Year of the MOOC” (Massive Open Online Courses). Amidst a flurry of high investment and enrollment rates, these startups were touted as the “new public Ivies” that […]

October 26, 2017

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Opting for Online Learning

A few weeks ago I ran across a Twitter post that read, “1998: Don’t get in strangers’ cars. Don’t meet people from Internet. 2017: Literally summon strangers from the Internet and get into their car.” So true, isn’t it? It’s astounding how technology can cause major shifts in behavior. What we will and won’t do, […]

October 24, 2017

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Can Online Training Maintain Quality?

Today, we have access to high-speed internet in most parts of the world. Resultantly, we are seeing mainstream adoption of various trends, including the adoption of online training for students and employees around the globe. While text portals were popular for information consumption online in the past, there is increasingly a shift towards other forms […]

October 20, 2017

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Do You Need a Degree or Will a MOOC Do?

We all know that in the modern economy, we can’t just stop learning. But how to keep educating ourselves is a complicated question. Is it a worthwhile investment to get a formal degree, like an MBA or PhD? Should you take a more targeted approach, with a short-term executive education program? Or perhaps DIY it […]

October 19, 2017

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Are Good Loans Going to Bad Schools?

Unless they are pressed by the government to do otherwise, as they sometimes are in considering mortgage loan applications, private lending institutions look hard at two factors before making loans. First, the borrower’s ability to repay the loan is considered. Second, the value of the product or service the applicant intends to buy is considered. […]

October 17, 2017

Reevaluating Your Online Degree Program

When it comes to selecting an online degree program, not everyone makes the right decision the first time around. Justin North, a current online MBA student at the Temple University Fox School of Business, transferred in after two semesters at a different online public university. Among his reasons: North, who at the time lived near […]

October 13, 2017

Absurd Audit

A recent report from a federal auditor from the U.S. Department of Education grabbed headlines by proffering the opinion that Western Governors University should repay more than $700 million in Title IV aid received by the University via attending students. The report, titled “Western Governors University Was Not Eligible to Participate in the Title IV […]

October 12, 2017

To Protect Veterans, Keep The VA Ban On Employees Working With For-Profit Colleges

On Sept. 14, the Department of Veterans Affairs quietly announced that it will waive a common-sense ethics law for all of its employees. For over 50 years, the VA has prohibited employees from receiving payments or having other financial relationships with for-profit colleges that receive GI Bill funds. In announcing plans to scrap this ethics […]

October 10, 2017

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Rethinking Higher Education

The ways in which the nature of work is changing beyond our control necessitate a more flexible education system, with “students” no longer being defined just as 18-to-22-year-olds on college campuses. In this era of Netflix subscriptions and Blue Apron dinner deliveries, it’s high time we embrace an education system that’s flexible, accessible and affordable, […]

October 6, 2017

Hindering Higher Education

The nonprofit Western Governors University is either a great experiment in higher education that has hit a bump in the road, or a flawed institution that is not providing its 83,000 enrolled students — 2,455 of whom live in Missouri — with the education they deserve. The first viewpoint comes from educators and many university […]

October 5, 2017

“You Need to Get Out”

The nation, especially our commander-in-chief, just got a lesson on how to talk about race and racism, especially when it comes to written racial slurs directed at African-American students. You face the public immediately and directly. You don’t play politics. You don’t say there were many fine people on both sides. Heaven forbid, you don’t […]

October 3, 2017

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Spouses as Students

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a lunch-time presentation by two local higher education institutions, Central Texas College and Texas A&M University–Central Texas. The two institutions spoke about the unique challenges that military families face and the desire to pursue educational and professional goals while supporting a spouse’s military career. They understood the […]

September 29, 2017

Divider in Chief

One would think that with all the urgent matters on Donald Trump’s presidential plate, he would have precious little time for throwing racist red meat to his base. Just consider some of the major challenges facing this nation right now: A battle over Americans’ health care. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — both […]

September 28, 2017