universities

Davenport University offers 25 percent off tuition for the unemployed

On 07/13/2010, in career development, colleges, cost of getting a degree, new business models, universities, by Daniel Christian

Davenport University offers 25 percent off tuition for the unemployed — from mlive.com

Davenport University is helping the unemployed prepare for new careers by offering them a 25 percent reduction in tuition, the school announced today.

“Current economic environments across the state of Michigan have created challenges for many,” said Larry Polselli, Ed.D., executive vice president for enrollment and student development. “With 14 campuses across the state and programs tied to today’s jobs, Davenport University is uniquely positioned to help students by extending this tuition discount when people need it most.”

From DSC:
Kudos to DU for their creative, innovative thinking here.

Tagged with: career development • colleges • cost of getting an education • creativity • innovation • new business models in he • universities

Universities at a Crossroads — InsideHigherEd.com

On 06/24/2010, in future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, universities, by Daniel Christian

Universities at a Crossroads — InsideHigherEd.com

WASHINGTON – Given the influence of rapid globalization and the emergence of knowledge-based societies, the universities of the future will bear virtually no resemblance to those of today. Or so argued a group of American and Asian education leaders who gathered here Monday to speculate on how the sector may evolve to meet future challenges.

The academics on the panel, presented by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, seemed to agree that the universities of the future will have to become more entrepreneurial to meet the needs of young people with new learning styles and older people who may need continuing education throughout their life. Given this, most of the discussion among the panelists focused on how the current model of higher education should adapt.

…

William Pepicello, president of the University of Phoenix, the largest for-profit education provider in the United States, argued that “the next generation of students is expecting that higher education is going to be as accessible as the rest of the world,” which, he noted, is increasingly available at students’ fingertips via commercial devices that access the Internet. He noted that the universities of tomorrow should be able to adapt to their students and not vice versa, much as Google and Yahoo can customize Web searching to personal preferences.

“Is there any reason why higher education platforms shouldn’t be able to adapt to the people, to the students who come there for help?” Pepicello asked. “And in a variety of ways, not just in consumer ways but in learning style, for instance, and in preferences of learning materials?”

James J. Duderstadt, president emeritus of the University of Michigan and a member of former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education, told educators in the audience that their universities would have “to consider entirely new paradigms” to survive and stay relevant in the future. He was particularly complimentary of the adaptability of the for-profit college sector.

Tagged with: future of higher education • game-changing environment • higher education • innovation • universities

Interesting, potentially-powerful vision for a college or university — from Jay Collier via Mr. Joseph Byerwalter

On 06/21/2010, in colleges, engagement / engaging students, lifelong learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

Online Engagement at Bates — from Jay Collier via Mr. Joseph Byerwalter

Same images/visions:

…

Tagged with: alumni • colleges • engagement • Lifelong learning • universities

Colleges not training students for careers that are growing — from ASTD

On 06/16/2010, in career development, colleges, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Colleges not training students for careers that are growing — from ASTD

(From USA Today) WASHINGTON — The United States economy is in serious danger from a growing mismatch between the skills that will be needed for jobs being created and the educational backgrounds (or lack thereof) of would-be workers. That is the conclusion of a mammoth analysis of jobs data being released today by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

From the article at USAToday:

Colleges may like much of the rhetoric surrounding the report, which will be released officially today at an event scheduled to feature representatives of the Obama administration and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The clear implication of the report is that the United States needs to spend much more on higher education — and in particular on the educations of those who are not on the fast track to earning degrees at elite institutions. But the lead author of the report said in an interview that the report should also shake up colleges — and challenge most of them to be much more career-oriented than they have been and to overhaul the way they educate students, to much more closely align the curriculum with specific jobs.

The colleges that most students attend “need to streamline their programs, so they emphasize employability,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown Center.

From DSC:
Regarding the highlighted sentence immediately above….when it costs a significant amount of money — per student — to get them through college, can todays’ students afford to look at their college investments in any other way?

Really, come on…if things don’t change, can we expect our students to pursue a love of learning for learning’s sake? Or will the ever-growing debt on their backs continue to influence how they view their learning experience? Their expectations? The classes that they take and the programs that they pursue?

It’s one thing to graduate in 1970 with a $1,000 on your back…it’s another, to graduate in 2010 with $65,000 on your back.

Tagged with: career development • colleges • universities • workplace

From DSC: This is the type of degree that needs to grow in availability

On 05/04/2010, in colleges, digital storytelling, multimedia, universities, by Daniel Christian

NOTE:
These types of classes would be highly engaging to students even. More colleges and universities need to be offering these types of courses.

Tagged with: colleges • digital storytelling • multimedia • universities

From DSC: Morgan Stanley’s findings raise some important questions

On 04/22/2010, in colleges, IT in HE, mobile learning, mobile technologies, telecommunications, universities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Morgan Stanley’s findings — as found within their Internet Trends presentation — raise some important questions such as:

If mobile is going to overtake desktop in 5 years , what does that mean for the networking infrastructures on our campuses?
How does that affect the work of instructional technologists? Faculty members?
Does this trend carry with it any implications for pedagogy?
Other?

Tagged with: colleges • IT • Mobile learning • mobile technology • pedagogy • telecommunications • universities • web-based collaboration

Moving the cliff — from InsideHigherEd.com

On 04/15/2010, in budgets, funding / grants, higher education, legislatures / government / legal, universities, by Daniel Christian

Moving the cliff –– from InsideHigherEd.com

As state legislators around the country craft their budgets for the 2011 fiscal year, public college officials are afraid that they are about to be thrown off “the cliff” — the steep drop in available funds once the tens of billions of dollars that the federal government made available through last year’s economic recovery legislation run out.

But like a movie character whose vehicle magically grinds to a halt just before it goes over the edge, public higher education could catch a break, in the form of legislation introduced Wednesday by several Democratic senators that essentially move the cliff. The none-too-subtly titled “Keep Our Educators Working Act of 2010,” sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and others, would provide $23 billion to extend for a year the fund in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act that gave states money to ward off budget cuts and tuition increases.

Tagged with: budgetary • higher education • legislation • universities

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