...Like Ms. Martin, more than a million college freshmen across the nation must take remedial courses each year, and many drop out before getting a degree. Poorly run public schools are a part of the problem, but so is a disconnect between high schools and colleges...So the stimulus law that Mr. Obama signed in February requires states receiving stabilization money to work to improve courses and tests so that high school graduates can succeed in college without remedial classes. Experts called the new requirements an important shift in federal policy, which until now has focused on promoting college access and financial aid...
...Though most college students who go abroad -- nearly 250,000 in the 2006-07 academic year -- return home without serious incident, nobody knows exactly how many students end up hurt because nobody is required to keep track on a national level. Nor are most programs required to disclose incidents to the public...
Except for a dip in the first few years after 9/11, the number of students receiving credit for study-abroad programs has been rising steadily. It jumped nearly 150%, to 241,791, between 1996-97 and 2006-07, the latest year for which data is available, says the Institute of International Education, a New York-based non-profit. The House and Senate each have introduced a bill this year that aims to boost that figure to 1 million in a decade. As more students consider study abroad, international education experts say, a confluence of trends could lead to more risks for students...
A group of University of Chicago students think it's time the campus focused more on its men. A third-year student from Lake Bluff has formed Men in Power, a student organization that promises to help men get ahead professionally. But the group's emergence has been controversial, with some critics charging that its premise is misogynistic. Others say it's about time men are championed, noting that recent job losses hit men harder and that women earn far more bachelor's and master's degrees than do men...
One of the much debated trends in higher education in the last generation or so is the increasing emphasis on research. Of course the very concept of the research university is based on faculty members who view research as central to their jobs. But research expectations have grown at many institutions where the missions -- at least until recently -- have been primarily focused on teaching. And as Dahlia K. Remler and Elda Pema note in a provocative new paper, the emphasis extends beyond research that pays for itself...
It's not just Congress and the Obama administration that are pondering how to pay for health care. As the American College Health Association's annual meeting got underway here Wednesday, officials from Wisconsin private colleges reported on significant health and financial gains they have achieved by requiring all full-time undergraduates not only to have health insurance, but to participate in a common plan financed by a small part of their tuition dollars...
