...Two initiatives announced this month give us hope that institutions of higher learning will improve their ability to meet the needs of the workplace, connecting employer with potential employees during a time when some companies are having difficulty finding qualified job applicants...While we vigorously support the idea of giving adults flexibility in returning to school or getting credit for knowledge they've attained through their life, as well as a program that allows high school students to earn college credits, we'd like the state to spell out the funding for the programs and the cost to the students.

Ray Cross readily admits that for-profit online colleges grew rapidly because traditional universities missed the boat. They weren't flexible and affordable enough for adults who wanted to earn a degree, but couldn't sit in a classroom while juggling a full-time job, family or military duty...

The news that Gov. Scott Walker and UW System leaders are launching an online "flexible degree" should make Wisconsinites uneasy. The new degree program is for "adults" who will receive prior credit for "what they know already" and will then work at their own pace. While I am sympathetic that Wisconsin lags behind the national average in bachelor degrees, this is not the solution...

The announcement last week of the University of Wisconsin System's new "flexible degree" is a worthy start. The program, to be rolled out over the next year, will allow students to learn online at their own pace and provide college credit for proving they've mastered skills learned at work. It's about time the public education establishment started really shaking up the standard high school-to-college-to-career path. Economists and education-reform types have been saying for years that a changing world requires changing education models...

Since the early 1900s, the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension has served the people of the state with research-based knowledge and information...

Starting a business is not the usual course of action for a budding doctor, pharmacist or scientist. But a UW-Madison program is trying to change that. Nearly 70 graduate students attended the weeklong Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Bootcamp at Grainger Hall last week, setting aside academics to learn the basics of the business world. "We're trying to teach creativity, generating ideas, and different applications for their research," said Dan Olszewski, director of the UW School of Business' Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship...

Seventy-five faculty and staff members at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will receive a salary increase, designed to make earnings more competitive, officials announced today. But even with a $2,000 bump, the employees still will fall well short of median salaries at other Midwestern colleges, college officials say. "We reached a point where it's becoming a real morale issue," UW-L Chancellor Joe Gow said...

The Office of Naval Research has given researchers at the University of Wisconsin $2 million to create a tool that can model the performance of various biofuels as part of the military's ongoing interest in using alternative energy sources to reduce dependency on traditional fossil fuels...

When Yi Fuxian spoke out against China's one-child policy three years ago, he says local officials in his home town in Hunan called him a "national traitor." On his latest visit, they bought him lunch. "At first only Chinese peasants were on my side, now an increasing number of Chinese intellectuals are with me," Yi, 43, now a University of Wisconsin scientist, said in an interview in Beijing. He gave 23 talks at universities and forums in China in May and June opposing the policy...

...Often, what people need to enjoy star gazing is an understanding or explanation of what they are looking at, said Randy Olson, director of the Allen F. Bloch Planetarium and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Observatory. The planetarium can provide the explanations...

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside Alumni Association (UWPAA) invites area alumni to march in this year's Kenosha and Racine Independence Day parades...

Right now, work crews are in the process of removing asbestos from portions of the old Davies that are uninhabited... (video clip)

Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) have identified a catalyst that provides the same level of efficiency in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as the currently used platinum catalyst, but at 5% of the cost...

In a lot of ways, there isn't much different about the former City Center Hotel now compared to when it was still in operation...The ownership group, which includes Batley, John Pfefferle and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Foundation, continues to push ahead not only with renovations, but with behind-the-scenes efforts to finance the project and ramp up staffing...

Camp Lloyd, which once was jokingly referred to as "the camp with no name," has become a well-known bereavement camp for children throughout Green Bay. Illene Cupit, a human development professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, started the effort to help young people grieve the loss of loved ones with a small, half-day camp made up of nine campers. This year, 49 campers attended...

...There is a private island for sale off the west coast of Florida between Sarasota and Naples -- yes, the asking price is $29.5 million -- that was originally inhabited by an Oshkosh native who made his fortune in Madison...The scientist referenced by the Journal was Charles Burgess, who graduated from UW-Madison in 1895 and taught chemical engineering there from graduation to 1913, when he resigned to devote his energies to a private laboratory he'd started in Madison in 1910. Early on, Burgess' lab produced batteries for Madison's French Battery Co., soon to be renamed Rayovac...

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created cells with the qualities of those that form the protective barrier between the blood and brain...

Mary Beth Nienhaus, 69, remembers the barriers she faced trying to play sports before Title IX, the piece of legislation that forbid gender discrimination in schools, passed through Congress...Victoria Stimac, assistant director of athletics at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh said she will always be grateful to the women that forged the path for female student-athletes...

Green Bay and a yet-to-be-determined location in central Wisconsin have been chosen by the Medical College of Wisconsin board of trustees as sites for new medical education campuses, the school announced Monday morning...

Green Bay will be the site of a new Medical College of Wisconsin campus that will bring medical students here to study in perhaps all four local hospitals...

The Medical College of Wisconsin has chosen Green Bay and central Wisconsin as the two locations where it will open community-based satellite campuses as early as summer of 2015. The goal is to train more physicians in rural Wisconsin to meet the growing demand for primary care doctors...

The announcement isn't going to silence all of the NCAA's many critics. But after years of tough talk without meaningful action, it appears college sports' governing body is gradually getting more intentional about ensuring athletic programs take academics seriously..."When a university as prominent as Connecticut is sanctioned due to low rates of academic progress, it's a signal to all universities that the NCAA is serious about this and that colleges need to ensure that their students are making academic progress," says Adam Gamoran, co-chair of the UW Athletic Board's academics and compliance committee, and the director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research...

As state officials eye ways to improve the pension system serving hundreds of thousands of public employees and retirees in Wisconsin, a national study is singling out the state's retirement fund as the strongest in the nation. The Pew Center on the States last week found that only Wisconsin out of the 50 states has enough money set aside to meet its current obligations to pay the pensions that have been promised to public employees...

When James Perucho opens his Rutgers University tuition bill in the fall, $200 of it will go toward the construction of academic buildings that he may never use but will add to the educational debt he will pay for years to come...

When Brad R. Simpson visited the University of Connecticut for a job interview in February, he was struck by a vibe that he finds increasingly rare on college campuses. People, he says, were optimistic. At a time when he encounters many demoralized professors, as campuses across the nation slash budgets and freeze hiring, the University of Connecticut is one of a few that have recently announced plans to significantly expand their faculty ranks...

...Board members at most universities regularly seek information from chief administrators to inform decision-making about the university's direction. Former chief financial officers, presidents, and university governing board members say there are few communication practices that are standard across all institutions. At some institutions, all information between chief officers and board members is funneled through the president. At others, the flow of information is less regulated, with board members and administrators regularly interacting. The one rule that should be etched in stone, these people say, is that there should be no surprises...

The nation's public flagship universities in recent months have seen a remarkable exodus of presidents -- some by choice, most not -- revealing a sometimes fractious relationship between campus leaders and the governing boards they answer to...Last June, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's chancellor voluntarily stepped down after a controversial proposal failed that would have given her campus more autonomy...

...In a letter to the Board of Visitors on Friday afternoon, (Virginia Governor Robert F.) McDonnell called on the board to come to a unified decision about the future of leadership at the university and gave board members an ultimatum. "Let me be absolutely clear: I want final action by the board on Tuesday. If you fail to do so, I will ask for the resignation of the entire board on Wednesday. Regardless of your decision, I expect you to make a clear, detailed and unified statement on the future leadership of the university"...

The multiyear saga of dwindling state budgets has shown no sign of changing course, yet states still awarded about 2.5 percent more financial aid to students in 2010-11 than they did the previous year, according to a report released today...

A 25% tuition break first offered three years ago by Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., paid off this spring for a dozen new graduates. All they had to do was squeeze four years of study into three...

Minority students who major in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics -- the "STEM" disciplines -- go on to earn more money than their peers who major in other fields, but disparities in pay emerged among STEM graduates of different racial groups, according to a new study published in the journal Research in Higher Education...

...Ms. Everett, 18, is one of a growing number of young Australians from regional areas or disadvantaged backgrounds who enrolled in university this year after the government removed a cap on the number of students in government-subsidized places. The change is part of a plan to increase the number of citizens with higher education qualifications, in order to ensure that Australia has a skilled population able to compete in the global economy...