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Full Content of Journal Issues, 1998 to 2010, Now Available!

John O. Harney — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:55:05 +0000

Looking for a thoughtful recent history of higher education and New England life? Check out our archives of The New England Journal of Higher Education and Connection. Please visit our Journal Archives via the pull-down menu under The Journal.

From Noted Neurosurgeon to Newark, N.J. Mayor, More Grad Speakers Announced

John O. Harney — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:59:05 +0000

Neurosurgeon Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine will keynote Southern Vermont College’s 84th commencement on Saturday, May 7, at 1 p.m. Ethiopian-born, Swedish raised, award-winning chef and food activist Marcus Samuelsson will also address graduates.

Oscar-nominated screenwriter and scholar of communications ethics Richard LaGravenese will keynote Emerson College’s 131st commencement exercises on Monday, May 16, at 11 a.m., at Boston's Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre. Clifford Christians, professor emeritus in the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and former director of the university's Institute of Communications Research, will address the graduate ceremony at 3 pm.

Frank G. Cousins Jr., sheriff of Essex County in Massachusetts, will deliver Northern Essex Community College's 49th commencement address on Saturday, May 21, at 11 a.m., on the quadrangle on the college's Haverhill campus.

Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory A. Booker will deliver the University of Rhode Island's 125th undergraduate commencement address on Sunday, May 22, at 12 noon, on the URI quadrangle.

Jorja Fleezanis, the former concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra and professor at Indiana University, will deliver the commencement address at New England Conservatory on Sunday, May 22, at 3 p.m., in NEC’s Jordan Hall.

Worcester State U Taps Westfield State Exec as Prez; Former Boston Fed Chief to Head Simmons Biz School

John O. Harney — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:22:19 +0000

Worcester State University trustees voted to recommend Barry Maloney be the university's next president, starting July 1. Maloney, currently vice president for student affairs at Westfield State University, will succeed Janelle Ashley, who will step down at the end of this academic year after 13 years on the job in Worcester.

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Cathy E. Minehan, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston for 13 years, was named dean of the Simmons College School of Management, beginning Aug. 1. Since leaving the Fed, Minehan has served on a number of corporate and nonprofit boards and chaired the Massachusetts Governor's Council of Economic Advisors and the Massachusetts General Hospital board. In 1998, she wrote for NEBHE's journal about how to reinvent New England's economy.

Tuition Fees and Student Financial Assistance: 2010 Global Year

John O. Harney — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:00:36 +0000

Since the start of the global financial crisis a little over two years ago, many concerns have been raised on how it might affect funding to higher education and whether or not it might hasten moves toward greater cost sharing. While, globally, some steps have been taken in this direction, in most countries, hard decisions have yet to be taken on this issue.

Our inaugural annual survey of global trends, in tuition fees and student financial assistance, examined the “G-40” of higher education—that is, 40 countries that, combined, account for 90% of global university enrollments and 90 percent of global scientific research production. Though G-40 is obviously not an exhaustive list, comprehending the main lines of policy in these countries provides an essentially comprehensive global picture without the need to examine policy in all the world’s 200-plus states.

Policy Stasis in Many Countries
Roughly half the countries in the survey—namely, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—saw no change in policy for either tuition fees or student aid for domestic students. A few countries—notably, Hong Kong, Finland and Sweden—did, however, see increases in fees for foreign students.

In most of Canada and in some parts of the United States, Korea, and Vietnam, students were in a situation somewhat similar to the “no-change” countries because tuition increases were offset by concomitant increases in financial assistance. Vietnam, in particular, was notable for large tuition rises (or at least, in the maximum allowable tuition charge) offset by significant increases in student assistance.

No country in the survey reduced its rate of tuition. An exceptional case involves Brazil. No change has occurred in the country’s student aid or tuition policies; fees are essentially free in the public system, but roughly two-thirds of students are taught in private institutions where fees are often very high. However, a scheme is moving the country in the direction of expanding the public system. As a result, even with no change in fee policy, a greater proportion of students are paying lower fees. This trend could be thought of as equivalent to a reduction in tuition.

Students in Chile, China, Germany, India, Japan, Nigeria, the Russian Federation and Spain all saw no change in tuition but improvements in student financial assistance. However, in most cases these improvements were quite marginal. For example, the new loans program introduced in Russia is intended to serve just 10,000 students out of a population of roughly seven million; in Nigeria, the new merit scholarships are similarly expected to reach just a few thousand of more than a million students. The only country to have really significantly improved affordability by enriching student assistance is Australia, where the Youth Allowance scheme was substantially enriched, in particular for students who have to move away from home in order to attend school. Vietnam also saw improvement in student assistance, but this was offset by increases in tuition.

The Asian Trio and Major Student Aid Cuts

Significant decreases in affordability probably occurred in Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines. Though these countries held the line on tuition, all experienced major cuts on student financial assistance—on the order of 30% to 45%. It is neither unheard of nor impermissible for governments to reduce support to higher education in times of fiscal stress. However, the decision of these governments to hold the line on tuition, while reducing direct aid to the poorest, is in fact a highly regressive policy that above all benefits the affluent.

In the developed world, the Netherlands and the Canadian province of Alberta both introduced cuts to student assistance and allowed tuition to rise. However, given the high levels of personal income in Alberta, the effects may not be too severe, even though the aid cuts were about at the same level as in Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the changes in tuition apply only to the fourth year onwards and the reductions in student assistance are at the master’s level, which suggest that the impact on access of the new policy is likely to be negligible.

Other jurisdictions involving reductions in affordability have taken place in parts of the U.S. with large increases in tuition but only a slight offsetting increase in student assistance. The most notable example is California, where automatic increases in the availability of aid through federal programs such as Pell grants, Stafford Loans, and work-study programs fall well short of compensating for substantial increases in tuition.

Status Quo Minus

In sum, the global situation for tuition fees and student financial aid in 2010 and 2011 is largely status quo, despite the economic crisis. Faced with a looming public sector squeeze, most countries simply made no moves on either tuition or student assistance. Nevertheless, to the extent that states did make policy changes, the more significant ones increased, rather than reduced, net prices.

The most notable diminution of affordability occurred in Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and some US states (most notably, California). As mentioned earlier—the Netherlands and Alberta, in Canada—increased tuition and reduced student aid but seem unlikely to pose any threats to accessibility. The only state to take a major step forward in terms of affordability is Australia, with its significant expansion of student aid programs. A number of other countries combined tuition freezes with increases in student aid, but the growth of support in many instances was marginal, at best. Our best estimate is that this trend will intensify somewhat in the near future.

While improvement of student aid in Colombia and the elimination of tuition in North Rhine-Westphalia will possibly exist, policy trends in the rest of the G-40 suggest that the overall trend is headed in the negative direction. As stimulus funds to states dry up in the U.S,, as inflation in China begins to feed through into tuition, and as European and North American governments adapt to the realities of deficit reduction and an ongoing demographic shift, the balance of probabilities is for increased costs to students and their families. The only issues will be the extent to which this cost sharing will be practiced in a manner in which student aid will rise to partially offset increased costs (as in Vietnam) or not (as in Pakistan and some other countries), and whether or not access to higher education will consequently be affected.

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Pamela Marccuci is director of Global Initiatives at Higher Education Strategy Associates. Alex Usher is president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, Toronto, Canada. To download the full version of this paper, click here.

This piece originally appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of International Higher Education, the newsletter of the Boston College Center for International Higher Education.

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Pattenaude Emphasizes Higher Ed as Key in Maine

Shoshana Akins — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:00:16 +0000

Pattenaude presenting at NEBHE's 2011 Excellence Awards

University of Maine System Chancellor Richard L. Pattenaude emphasized the confluence of economic development and higher education in a joint session of the Maine state Senate and House of Representatives in his "State of the University" biennial address on March 30.

“Historically, higher education has meant personal growth and discovery, creating and preserving knowledge, and helping our students become lifelong learners and better citizens,” Pattenaude noted. “Today, however, the new ‘normal’ in higher ed is all about rebuilding our economy and creating opportunities for our students to live and work in Maine.”

To steer a path to this "new normal," the chancellor outlined three initiatives already underway to improve: remediation rates, transfer issues and the University System’s responsiveness to business needs. He noted:

UMS is partnering with the Maine Community College System and Maine Department of Education commissioner Stephen Bowen to prepare a “Complete College America” grant which will focus on college preparation, remediation and retention.

Maine’s universities and community colleges will work to solve transfer problems among public institutions. “We are committed to working collaboratively to make the transfer experience smooth, seamless and effective,” Pattenaude said.

The University System is working to help address the state’s need for graduates in information technology and computer science programs.

Pattenaude said the University System has made significant progress since his 2009 biennial address, which kicked off the New Challenges, New Directions initiative to focus on achieving long-term financial stability, keep education affordable and meet Maine’s changing educational and research needs.

For a complete text of Pattenaude's speech, click here.

Doing Good and Doing Well: Performance-Based Funding in Higher Ed

Shoshana Akins — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:53:29 +0000

The New England Board of Higher Education released a policy brief that encourages states to tie a portion of higher education appropriations to institutional outcomes. Currently, New England states tend to apportion institutional funding based on enrollment levels—a practice that rewards quantity, but not necessarily student success and degree attainment.

From President Obama to private foundations like Lumina and Gates, higher education stakeholders increasingly stress the significance of college persistence and degree completion to the national education agenda. If the U.S. is to thrive in a knowledge-based economy and remain globally competitive, American institutions must retain and graduate more students.

NEBHE—in its report entitled “Catalyst to Completion: Performance-Based Funding in Higher Education”—suggests that performance-based funding strategies can encourage student success. States should earmark at least 5% of higher education appropriations to reward institutional improvements in areas like: remediation, retention, degrees conferred, research and service dollars, and six-year graduation rate.

To make its case, the report examines performance-based funding strategies at work in three states: Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. Each state, in consultation with institutional leaders and in light of state-specific goals, overhauled its enrollment-based funding model in favor of a formula inclusive of outcomes.

While not a silver bullet, performance-based funding stands to improve college persistence and completion in New England, especially among low-income students and other “at risk” populations. States should consider such funding strategies alongside college access initiatives, increased aid and financial literacy programs, partnerships between education and industry, and other student success efforts.

NEBHE unveiled this research in a webinar held by its Policy and Research Department late last week.

Winter 2010 Journal: Admissions Innovation; Ways to Close Achievement Gap Facing Boys

NEBHE Admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:20:40 +0000

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News from The New England Board of Higher Education

Winter 2010 NEJHE Articles Explore: Admissions Innovation to Help Applicants Flaunt Creativity, Ways to Close Achievement Gap Facing Boys, Tips on Finding Price and Value in College, Swirling Students and More Forum features Under Secretary Kanter, Jane Wellman, Jay Halfond on higher ed after the crash

Winter 2010 will be final print issue as NEBHE's journal will go all-digital

Contact:
John O. Harney, Executive Editor
New England Journal of Higher Education
617-357-9620 ext. 101 or jharney@nebhe.org

Boston, Feb. 1, 2010 - The New England Board of Higher Education unveiled the Winter 2010 issue of The New England Journal of Higher Education packed with bold articles on innovative admissions policies, the achievement gap facing boys, ways to understand college prices and value, and more, as it announced that the Winter 2010 edition will be its final print issue before its comprehensive move into digital journalism. NEBHE announced that after 24 years as a print quarterly, the journal will move completely online starting in March 2010 in keeping with changing reader preferences. NEBHE pledged that its relaunched website--anchored by NEJHE-style commentary and analysis and supported by social media--will be the hub for all things related to New England higher education.

The Winter 2010 NEJHE features:

Kaleidoscope
"The Spam Filter" "No Whip Half-Caf Latte" "The Eleventh Commandment" What if you were asked to write a short story on one of those topics? Or given a sheet of paper and asked to create something, say a blueprint of your future home or a cartoon strip? Robert J. Sternberg, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, and Lee Coffin, Tufts dean of undergraduate admissions and enrollment management, explain why the university is hoping such questions will move applicants to flaunt their creativity.

Failure to Launch
Young American men are leaving high school at higher rates than women, attending college at lower rates, earning fewer degrees and swelling the ranks of the under- and unemployed. Lane A. Glenn, vice president of academic affairs at Northern Essex Community College, and Suzanne Van Wert, an English professor at the college, trace the male achievement gap and offer ways to help close it.

Price and Value
Higher education consultant C. Anthony Broh and Dana Ansel, former research director with MassINC, now with connect.edu, warn that families are navigating a series of complicated financial decisions about how to save and pay for college--and they often make these decisions with incomplete or late information.

The Good Business of Transfer
Academic and career entry and exit points now span a lifetime for "swirling, dropping in, dropping out, and moving on" learners, according to Florida-based higher education consultant Chari Leader, who herself began her college education at a community college at age 27, then went on to earn a bachelor's, master's and doctorate at three different universities.

The New England Nonprofit Workforce
Despite the nonprofit sector's size and importance to the nation's economy and life, higher education in New England and nationally has had a spotty record in addressing this growing sector's education and professional development needs, writes David Garvey, director of the University of Connecticut Nonprofit Leadership Program.

A Different Path Forward
How can Native peoples use their good relationships with higher education institutions to develop better ones with New England state legislatures? J. Cedric Woods, director of the new Institute for New England Native American Studies at UMass, explains how the insitute aims to answer that question and others.

Students at the Center
Nellie Mae Education Foundation President and CEO Nicholas C. Donohue explains how New England's future demands student-centered learning that is based on a learner's needs and interests and acknowledges that learning can happen outside "traditional" school hours and settings. Student-centered models assess both a learner's mastery of content and skills using a combination o demonstration and traditional measures. They take into account the many ways and rates at which students learn and are focused on a broad set of essential an relevant skills.

A Lasting Legacy
An increasingly suburban and culturally diverse generation of New Englanders--many with limited access to outdoors--must get serious about land conservation. Richard Barringer, research professor at the University of Southern Maine and senior fellow at the U.S. EPA's Environmental Finance Center, highlights the recommendations of the New England Governors Blue Ribbon Commission on Land Conservation.

FORUM: AFTER THE CRASH

Higher Ed in the Obama Years
U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter explains why higher education faces both danger and extraordinary opportunity, as America aims to boost attainment of college degrees ranging from one-year certificates to Ph.D.s.

Recession Amnesia
Lacking an agile and responsive governance structure--and with fixed costs mounting in a massive physical plant and labor-intensive enterprise--the modern university is brittle when confronted with changing realities. Jay A. Halfond, dean of Metropolitan College and Extended Education at Boston University, jogs our memory.

Making It Real
To increase college attainment, we need to restructure costs and increase productivity: difficult concepts in an academic culture that views these strategies as code for budget-cutting, writes Jane Wellman, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity, and Accountability.

In his Message From the President, on Getting to the Core: Higher Ed's Opportunity and Responsibility, NEBHE President and CEO Michael K. Thomas explores opportunities for higher education and K-12 to work together on the Common Core Standards taking shape in the states.

In her Message From the Chair on Recognizing New England's Excellence, assistant majority leader of the Massachusetts state Senate. Joan Menard hails individuals and organizations being cited in 2010 for advancing education in New England.

Final Print Issue: A New Chapter
In his Editor's Memo, Executive Editor John O. Harney explores NEJHE's paperless future, noting that the revamped NEBHE website to be anchored by the journal's content and supported by social media, will feature:

Expert commentary and analysis of issues facing higher education
Happenings on the region's campuses and beyond
Links to sources of data and trends
Reader perspectives
Robust regional dialogue and roundtable discussions
Video of NEBHE conferences and other events
Key policy reports and links to all other NEBHE programs and partners
Current and past NEJHE articles

For more than 20 years, NEBHE's journal on higher education and economic issues was known as Connection: The Journal of the New England Board of Higher Education. In 2007, NEBHE "re-branded" the quarterly as The New England Journal of Higher Education or NEJHE.

For more information on The New England Journal of Higher Education, visit www.nebhe.org.

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) is a nonprofit, congressionally authorized agency established in 1955. NEBHE's mission is to provide greater education opportunities and services for New England residents. Its core functions include programs and services focused on cost savings and affordability and college access and success. It also provides policy leadership on key issues related to education and the economy.

Fall 2009 Journal: Community College and Students with Disabilities

NEBHE Admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:35:13 +0000

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Fall 2009 New England Journal of Higher Education Unveils New Findings on Community Colleges and Students with Disabilities

Forum features New England college presidents on higher ed cooperation

Selected articles available to view and download from NEBHE website

Contact:
John O. Harney, Executive Editor,
New England Journal of Higher Education
617-357-9620 ext. 101 or jharney@nebhe.org

Boston, Oct. 9, 2009 - President Obama's strategy to increase degree attainment will require increased graduation by community college students, many of whom have disabilities, according to a new study by Northeastern University economists Neeta P. Fogg and Paul E. Harrington to be published in the Fall 2009 issue of The New England Journal of Higher Education.

Fogg and Harrington's article "Paternalism to Self-Advocacy" notes: "In high school, students with disabilities are in a protected environment compliant with IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) legislation, where their disabilities are diagnosed, IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) are designed and services specific to their disabilities are provided. In college, the responsibility for disclosing disabilities and seeking services falls squarely on the student."

"Community colleges are in the business of serving large numbers of students with a variety of disabilities, but their knowledge of these students--who they are or even how many of them are enrolled--is often quite limited," write the Northeastern economists.

In addition to the article by Fogg and Harrington, the Fall 2009 NEJHE features:

Why the Student Experience Matters
Most conversations about education reform reflect the perspective and agenda of the institutions that provide educational services, rather than the needs of the students they serve. Melissa Withers explains how the Providence-based Business Innovative Factory that she directs plans to use its proven brand of deep research to change that.

A Modest Invitation
How can colleges advance secondary school reform? David Ruff and Stephen Abbott of the Great Maine Schools Partnership explain that the first step forward is to acknowledge that the two systems are deeply and inextricably connected.

Looking for Dialogue
University System of New Hampshire Chancellor-emeritus Stephen J. Reno warns that in order to develop a shared language of expectation with business and professional constituencies, academics need to check their "attitudes" at the door.

From Silicon Valley to Phoenix Industries
Pursuing a regional agenda is a tough challenge for research-intensive universities with their focus on national and international excellence. But Jaana Puuka of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development explains how a thriving regional economy benefits the universities in innumerable ways.

Success and Failure in the College Presidency
Stephen J. Nelson, assistant professor of Educational Leadership at Bridgewater State College and senior scholar, Leadership Alliance at Brown University, shares observations after this third book on college presidents.

Forum: NEJHE asks New England College Presidents to Explore Topics in Collaboration

Crossing State Lines
University of Southern Maine President Selma Botman notes that New England can play a nationally important leadership role by placing the student at the center of higher education's work, not only within universities or university systems, but across the whole region.

Interstate Collaboration: Is Everybody a Winner?
Rhode Island College President Nancy Carriuolo warns that when considering a long-distance relationship, everyone should first determine the stakeholders and then ask what the benefits are to each.

NEASC: A Clearinghouse
Eastern Connecticut State University President Elsa M. Nuñez says all members of the New England higher education community should consider how we can further leverage local successes on the regional stage.

A Whole New U
NEBHE President and CEO Michael K. Thomas calls for a new attitude among higher education leaders, students and faculty to increase efficiency and productivity.

Waging War on Illiteracies
NEBHE Chair and Massachusetts state Sen. Joan Menard explains how demands for new kinds of literacy have exploded with the increased complexity of tasks.

Campus Visiting
In his quarterly Editor's Memo, NEJHE executive editor John O. Harney relates some new lessons in college visiting.

For more than 20 years, the New England Board of Higher Education's journal on higher education and economic issues was known as Connection: The Journal of the New England Board of Higher Education. In 2007, NEBHE "re-branded" the quarterly as The New England Journal of Higher Education or NEJHE.

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) is a nonprofit, congressionally authorized agency established in 1955. NEBHE's mission is to provide greater education opportunities and services for New England residents. Its core functions include programs and services focused on cost savings and affordability and college access and success. It also provides policy leadership on key issues related to education and the economy.

Summer 2009 Journal: Obama’s Goal

NEBHE Admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:13:13 +0000

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BOSTON—The Summer 2009 issue of The New England Journal of Higher Education features a Forum on President Obama's goal to make the U.S. the world leader in college degree attainment as well as commentaries exploring policy journalism in the new media age.

Authors in this Forum include U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; Capitol Hill education expert Terry Hartle; Muriel Howard, the first minority woman to lead one of the big D.C. higher education associations; and Nellie Mae Education Foundation President Nicholas C. Donohue.

NEJHE also explores the future shape of education policy-related publishing in an age of blogging and Twitter with articles by social technology guru Brian Reich and two NEJHE editorial advisors: Robert Whitcomb, vice president and editorial pages editor at the Providence Journal, and Ralph Whitehead, a journalism professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Among articles in the Summer 2009 NEJHE:

Educators Without Borders · Since teaching is a highly mobile profession, the New England states would benefit from a common licensure test and reciprocity policy. Salem State College education professor R. Clarke Fowler explains how.

Learning to Eat · Many college students reared on fast food miss out on the benefits of healthy, local food and the intellectual exposure of a broad palette and good conversation. "For many students, college offers development of a sometimes-overlooked asset: taste buds," writes Bowdoin College associate director of dining services and executive chef Kenneth Cardone. "How can they not become more adventurous when everyone at their table is enjoying the sweet and sour tofu and the kimchee, especially if their Korean roommate helped the chef perfect the recipe?"

Double-Teamed · Amherst College athletic director Suzanne R. Coffey says college coaches and faculty share a joint interest: the development of student-athletes. "Faculty colleagues covet the passion plainly exhibited in the eyes of an athlete attentively taking in every word during a 30-second time-out. They begrudge the voluntary extra workouts. They envy the edge-of-the-chair eagerness athletes demonstrate in team meetings," writes Coffey. "It's up to the athletics community to create the bridges between two educations, to move faculty friends from dismissive to collaborative."

The Dark Ages of Education and a New Hope · A law requiring Maine schools to teach about Native American history is leading us out of the "dark ages" of education, according to Donna Loring, who served in the Maine Legislature as a tribal representative of the Penobscot Nation for 12 years. Loring is the author of the 2008 book, In the Shadow of the Eagle: A Tribal Representative in Maine.

Re-engineering Engineering Education · Too often, U.S. engineering is not cost-effective because the majority of today's engineering graduates do not have the broad background necessary to understand, take charge of and drive large-scale projects to completion in an economic fashion, write Bernard M. Gordon, chairman of Neurologica Corp. and founder of Analogic Corp, and Michael B. Silevitch, director of the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program at Northeastern University.

Education Policy Communication in a New Media Age

Prepare for Impact · As media digitizes, information and experiences become more a reflection of the community than a product delivered to the audience. Brian Reich, who recently created a new venture called "little m media" borrowing from his 2007 book, Media Rules! Mastering Today's Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience, explains.
Policy Publishing in a New Media Age · Readers in academia are probably the most "Interneted/World Wide Webbed" group of all, according to Robert Whitcomb, vice president and editorial-page editor of The Providence Journal. But warns Whitcomb, "using an old-fashioned library with books and periodicals on paper can be a more disciplined and orderly way to research than using the Internet. And reading and putting things on paper tends to encourage more intellectual rigor than using the attention-deficit-disordered computer world."
An Educated Audience · "A typical reader of a hard-copy publication belongs to a mere audience. A typical reader of a website can belong to a community," notes University of Massachusetts Amherst journalism professor Ralph Whitehead Jr. The former political writer at the Chicago Sun-Times explains the distinction.

FORUM: Higher Education Attainment: The Obama Benchmark

NEJHE asks the U.S. secretary of education and others to offer a prognosis on President Obama's pledge to help the U.S. achieve the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.

Historic Opportunity for Action · In a single generation, the U.S. has fallen from second to 11th place in the percentage of students completing college. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlines President Obama's goal to make the America No. 1 in the world in the percentage of adults with college degrees.
Driving American Economic Renewal · Muriel A. Howard, president of Buffalo State College, State University of New York since 1996, who begins in August as president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, calls for bold actions to make the U.S. first in college attainment, including expanding Pell Grants and education tax credits, streamlining the federal student aid process and facilitating college access for undocumented students.
Ambitious Goal· "There's no way to produce 700,000 more college graduates a year if we keep cutting funding," writes Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president of government and public affairs at the American Council on Education."We will need to increase higher education's capacity, and that will require more money."
Our Most Valuable Population · Currently, 22% of 25- to 29-year-olds are unemployed and out of the labor force nationwide. These disconnected young adults are at high risk of spending the rest of their lives as members of the working poor. Nellie Mae Education Foundation President and CEO Nicholas C. Donohue describes some of the model programs that are trying to engage New England's disconnected young adults with postsecondary opportunities.

Strategy to Maintain New England's Education Advantage · NEBHE President and CEO Michael K. Thomas lays out ways to capitalize on the region's historical leadership in education. Among them: require rigorous statewide curricula and adopt graduation requirements aligned with entry standards of colleges; use statewide longitudinal data systems; engage low-income students and their families in making an early commitment to college readiness and success; and articulate statewide targets to expand postsecondary attainment.

Readiness in Brief · With support from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, NEBHE has published two new briefing papers with its partners in the College Ready New England initiative spotlighting innovative practices, policies and key steps to increase educational attainment for underserved students. NEBHE Chair and Massachusetts state Sen. Joan Menard explains.

Inspiration · How are campus dining, college athletics and Native American history related? In his quarterly Editor's Memo, NEJHE executive editor John O. Harney discusses how mentor Bob Woodbury sees them as chapters in the eclectic story of New England higher education and economic development.

Spring 2009 Journal: Trends & Indicators 2009

NEBHE Admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:11:19 +0000

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BOSTON—New England's population continues to grow more slowly than the rest of the United States and though the region outperforms the nation on most indicators of "college readiness," New England's college costs still take a bigger bite out of family incomes than those in other regions, according to data in the Spring 2009 issue of The New England Journal of Higher Education (NEJHE).

The Spring 2009 issue features NEJHE's annual special report on "Trends & Indicators in Higher Education," which includes 60-plus updated tables and charts exploring New England's demography, high school performance and graduation, college enrollment, college graduation rates and degree production, higher education financing and university research.

The annual trends data are complemented with a thought-provoking typology of "multiple pathways" to success and measures of college readiness from the College Board, among other features. Supplemental College Board data is available online here.

The Spring 2009 issue also features a Forum on the internationalization of higher education. NEJHE asked Forum authors to explore angles such as foreign enrollment in the United States, study abroad and critical issues in international partnerships.

Among articles in the Spring 2009 NEJHE:

Thriving Through Recession · 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 outlook. Moody's Investors Service VP Roger Goodman explains how good financial management can help colleges and universities survive the downturn, emerge more nimble and fuel overall economic recovery.

Many Sizes Fit All · To increase the number of young people with skills to succeed in the 21st century, New England needs "multiple pathways" to high-quality postsecondary options, according to independent education consultant Ephraim Weisstein and David Jacobson, senior education specialist at Cambridge Education. The two authors of a Nellie Mae Education Foundation research paper, "Building Multiple Pathways: Approaches, Relevant Programs and Implementation Considerations," offer a typology of pathway options.

Needed in School Teaching: A Few Good Men · The number of male teachers is at a 40-year low for reasons ranging from fear of abuse allegations to low pay. Valora Washington, president of the CAYL Institute, explains how her Cambridge, Mass.-based outfit aims to close the gender gap in teaching.

Urban Interventions · Joseph Cronin, the former Massachusetts secretary of education and past president of Bentley University, who is the author of the book Reforming Boston Schools: Overcoming Corruption and Racial Segregation 1930-2006, explains how universities have contributed thousands of hours trying to help city schools to improve and asks, "With what effect?"

New England's State of College Readiness · Roxanna P. Menson, Thanos Patelis and Arthur Doyle of the College Board paint a picture of college readiness in New England by assembling the national organization's indicators of academic knowledge and skills, success in college-level courses, SAT performance and college and career planning.

Creating a Retention Quilt · Southern Vermont College President Karen Gross and her colleagues Albert DeCiccio and Anne Hopkins Gross explain how the Bennington, Vt., college uses tools ranging from discussion of Robert Frost to fireside chats to create a learning community and boost retention.

First Generation, Low-Income Students · Lyndon State College President Carol A. Moore and colleagues Donna Dalton and Robert Whittaker advance strategies to bolster the first- to second-year retention rate of first-generation, low-income students.

The Spring 2009 Forum on internationalization includes the following articles:

Campuses Abroad: Next Frontier or Bubble? · Madeleine F. Green, vice president for international initiatives at the American Council on Education, weighs recruiting foreign students to home campuses in the United States vs. setting up off-shore operations. Among Green's questions: "Do campuses abroad represent a form of cultural imperialism? ... Do they contribute to the internationalization of the home campus?"

Reaching Beyond Elite International Students · Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, describes how the university is trying to reach those in the teeming middle rung of the international student population to help them compete for good-paying jobs and enjoy greater social and professional standing in their countries.

Academic Culture Shock · Kara A. Godwin, a doctoral student at the Boston College Center for International Higher Education, warns that while international students and scholars face day-to-day cultural adjustments, the stark differences they encounter in the classroom and academic system are of more concern.

MOUs: A Kyoto Protocol? · Michael E. Lestz, director of the O'Neill Asia Cum Laude Endowment at Trinity College, holds out Japan's Kyoto University as a model for forging international partnerships.

Water of Life · Anthony Zuena, president of S E A Consultants Inc., an engineering and architecture firm headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., explores how the nonprofit organization Engineers Without Borders has dispatched engineering students and faculty to developing countries such as Honduras to help build water-distribution systems.

Extra Step for Study Abroad · Kerala Taylor and Nicholas Fitzhugh of Glimpse.org explain how students serving as overseas correspondents to the user-generated website "have done everything from exploring gay nightlife in Jordan to visiting a prosthetic foot factory in India to voyaging with Maori fishermen in New Zealand."

New England 2025 · NEBHE President and CEO Michael K. Thomas calls on the six New England states to be more innovative, efficient and productive in order to meet an anticipated need for 665,000 additional college degrees by 2025, though the region will produce 20,000 fewer high school graduates during the same period due to demographic shifts.

The Community's Colleges · Interest in relatively lower-cost state colleges and universities, and especially in community colleges, is surging as a result of the economic downturn, writes NEBHE Chair and Massachusetts state Sen. Joan Menard. In her Message From the Chair, Menard celebrates the multiple valuable roles of New England community colleges.

Spring in Our Step · In his quarterly Editor's Memo, NEJHE executive editor John O. Harney discusses the journal's annual special report on "Trends and Indicators" and the issue's Forum on internationalization.