Jay A. Halfond of Boston University and Peter Stokes of Northeastern University recently conducted a non-scientific "pulse" survey of presidents at smaller ...]]>

The global economic recession has caused students, parents and policymakers to reevaluate personal and societal investments in higher education—and has prompted the realization that traditional higher ed “business models” may be unsustainable.

Jay A. Halfond of Boston University and Peter Stokes of Northeastern University recently conducted a non-scientific "pulse" survey of presidents at smaller New England institutions about their views of new models. The presidents generally agreed that to become more sustainable, colleges need to change their financial model, lower discount rates, reach new audiences through online learning and strengthen their institution's competitive differentiation.

Too many institutions each year raise tuition beyond the rate of inflation and look to get more students, despite demographic forecasts promising fewer traditional college-age students.

Predicting a shakeout, most of the presidents expressed confidence for their own school’s ability to adapt, but only 57% agreed that, "the small New England college will remain an important fixture within the academic landscape for many years to come." (It's a bit like Americans voicing disdain for Congress as they reelect their own representatives.) As one respondent put it: "If your institution does not have a well-defined market niche ... that is robust, be that market in or out of New England, it is toast."

Meanwhile, innovators and entrepreneurs are using multiple technologies to make available freely or cheaply, the things for which universities charge significant money. “MOOCs,” free online courses, lecture podcasts, low-cost off-the-shelf general education courses, online tutorials and digital collections of open-learning resources are disrupting higher education’s hold on knowledge, expertise, instruction and credentialing.

Business model vocab

In a sense, everything NEJHE has ever covered over the decades—from classroom teaching to university research to town-gown relations—has been about higher ed business models. Yet the business model concept itself was largely unarticulated in academia until people—mostly business people—started telling higher education to act more like a business (ironically, around the time business meltdowns were fueling the recession).

Even today, elements of business models, including differences in institutional control, segment and mission, are not widely appreciated in higher ed. But there's a perceived need for a common vocabulary and analytical framework to support dialog among diverse stakeholders including students, faculty, staff, administrators and trustees.

Still, “institutional diversity” is a hallmark of American higher education—with institutions ranging from community colleges to global research universities, religious and secular, public and private, nonprofit and, increasingly, for-profit, online, bricks-and-mortar or hybrids. And big differences in institution kind must inform any business model discussion. As Catalogue for Philanthropy founder George McCully noted in a recent NEJHE forum: "The business model is a major challenge for higher ed. At the same time, major institutions which have very large endowments are in a positive feedback loop that is intrinsically inefficient. Harvard earns more from the yield on its endowment in a single year than its development officers can raise in five years."

Among questions that arise:

• What is the future sustainability of higher education institutions (HEIs) in a world where higher learning is free and widely available beyond the academy’s walls?
• How does the issue of “quality” figure in the equation?
• How about social and cultural aspects of college life?
• Do these factors alter what people expect from college and are willing to pay for it?
• Will the accelerating profusion of open-learning opportunities, innovations and new providers displace traditional HEIs?
• Will such forces cause HEIs to reconsider their fundamental business models?
  

Genesis of NEBHE-Davis work

Recently, NEBHE was awarded funding by the Davis Educational Foundation to jointly convene higher education leaders for a frank and compelling conversation about costs and the higher ed business model. An October 2013 Summit on Cost in Higher Education will convene higher ed leaders to discuss costs and, by extension, business models.

One catalyst for this investigation was the Davis Educational Foundation’s November 2012 report, An Inquiry into the Rising Cost of Higher Education. As one New England college president noted in the report: “I think all of us who work in higher education understand that the financial model for most universities and colleges in our region is no longer feasible.”

NEBHE aims to build upon the insights and concerns expressed by HEI presidents in that report and pursue additional research before and after the October summit. Among other things, a multimedia “whitepaper” will synthesize key findings from a literature analysis, survey and interviews with summit participants, Davis grantees and regional and national collaborators.

Costs and prices

There are two main angles to any inquiry about higher ed costs. One is cost-containment by institutions. The other is price affordability for students and families.

The institutional cost angle encompasses everything from the sensationalist stories about spending for luxury dorms and overpaid administrators on the one hand to the eternal fact that intellectual talent (traditionally professors and instructors) costs a lot of money to hire and retain.

In NEJHE, a feature by higher ed policy guru Jane Wellman described ways to increase college attainment by restructuring costs and increasing productivity despite an academic culture that views these strategies as code for budget-cutting.

The student and family angle is told by stories of rising tuition prices, stagnant aid and student loan debt now staggering to the point where graduates are delaying buying homes, cars and other big items and are steered by salary pressures into occupations that help them pay back their loans.

As higher education democratizes, future students are likely to have less means. The Pell Grant program, meanwhile, is unlikely to get richer, and tax credits may disappear in the interest of budget balancing. So how will we make sure students have access to all the newly freed-up content?

The traditional system of students who can afford to pay for college subsidizing those who cannot is thrown off kilter by various forays into merit-based over need-based aid. Institutions know that offering some merit-based aid to students who would probably go to college anyway, leads to more revenue for the institution than offering a full boat to someone who couldn’t pay. As Phil Wick, former financial aid chief at Williams College, wrote in NEJHE (Connection): “Institutions use ‘merit’ scholarships to boost tuition revenue. For example, a college that charges $20,000 in tuition knows that it can realizes $60,000 in additional revenue simply by replacing one $20,000 scholarship, which is need-based, with $5,000 merit awards to four students who could afford the full cost” and will pay what net price remains.

Some money-saving strategies may force students to do things they may not want to, such as trimming unneeded credits. Others would include reverse transfer, in which students en route to bachelor’s degrees get an associate degree on the way, or prior learning assessment, in which college credit is awarded for college-level learning from work and life experience.

One business model phenomenon that colors both institutional cost containment and student price savings is online learning. It's new and improved since the days of being  disparaged as somehow not as real as learning from an in-the-flesh prof lecturing in a bricks-and-morter classroom. In "Rethinking Higher Education Business Models," University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign director of research Robert Sheets, George Washington University professor Stephen Crawford and Center for American Progress senior fellow Louis Soares argue that "information technology’s potential to dramatically improve the performance of higher education will be realized only when new business models arise to harness it." The piece published in 2012 by the Center for American Progress and EDUCAUSE states: "Clearly, the great challenge facing higher education today is to contain costs while at the same time improving outcomes—in short, to increase productivity."

In "University Business Models and Online Practices: A Third Way," Beth Rubin of DePaul University argues: "In the world of higher education, the third way lies between the efficiency-oriented market perspective aimed at adults, as taken by proprietary universities, and the traditional approach that focuses on research and teaching young students."

Containing costs for institutions

Profs to adjuncts

The proposed solutions to making higher ed sustainable sometimes involve dissing professors, taking specific aim at tenure and sabbaticals. And indeed, there has been a move from tenured professors to adjuncts, who are usually paid by the course and don't get benefits. Non-tenure-track faculty account for almost two-thirds of teachers in higher education Their average hourly wage is $8.90 an hour, with 80% of them earning less than $20,000 annually, according to the Adjunct Project. For the institutions, the adjuncts not only save money, but also appeal to career-minded students and families because they are tethered to the "real world" of work, rather than theory.

Competencies not credits

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) President Paul LeBlanc is the closest thing to a rock star in the arena of higher education business model innovation. SNHU became the first university eligible to receive federal aid for a program not based on the “credit hour,” the time-based unit that underlies courses and degrees. As the Chronicle of Higher Education summarized it, “The low-cost, self-paced education lacks courses and traditional professors. Instead, students progress by showing mastery of 120 ‘competencies,’ such as ‘can use logic, reasoning, and analysis to address a business problem.’" SNHU had already pioneered a cheaper, more flexible "no-frills" option for students who get access to the same SNHU faculty but don't want to pay for amenities nor take time away from their jobs.

Resource-sharing

In interpreting their survey of presidents, Halfond and Stokes called for more "practical opportunities for collaboration, alliances, resource-sharing and outsourcing.” NEBHE's flagship program, Tuition Break (the Regional Student Program) allows New England states to share costs of many academic programs not offered in neighboring states in the region. More recently, NEBHE began offering New England campuses a comprehensive property insurance program tailored specifically to higher education at costs that have consistently been below industry trends. Established in 1994 by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, this Master Property Program is based on a no-brainer: use your numbers to drive down prices and get a better deal.

Various consortia have also fought for economies of scale in areas ranging from academics to cell phone services. These groups include: the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges; Hartford Consortium for Higher Education; AICUM; Boston Consortium for Higher Education; Colleges of the Fenway; Colleges of Worcester Consortium; CONNECT-Southeastern Massachusetts Higher Education Partnership; the Council of Presidents of the Massachusetts State Universities; Five Colleges Consortium; the New England Higher Education Recruitment Consortium; Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium; the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island; the Association of Vermont Independent Colleges; and the Cooperating Colleges of Greater Springfield.

MOOCs

In some ways, MOOCs (massive open online courses) are like consortia on steroids. In the past two years, they became everybody’s darling—based at prestigious universities but attracting partnerships with community colleges, rooted in hard sciences but spreading to humanities, originally culminating in certifications but increasingly offering credit toward degrees.

Still, the MOOC idea has felt some growing pains. “It’s time to push the pause button … on MOOC mania generally,” wrote David L. Kirp, professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, in "Tech Mania Goes to College." Kirp's piece published in The Nation warned: “While modified MOOCs like the flipped classroom hold great promise, the pure MOOC model looks like a failure. New technologies have indeed made it possible to reach more students—MIT’s OpenCourseWare materials, free to all, have been visited by 125 million people the world over—and, sensibly used, can improve teaching as well. But there’s no cheap solution to higher education’s woes, no alternative to making a serious public investment, no substitute for the professor who provokes students into confronting their most cherished beliefs, changing their lives in the process.”

Other cost drivers

Though they seem hardly to be dignified as “business models,” a variety of different drivers also enter into the high cost of higher education. These include insurance, electricity, broadband, buildings and grounds maintenance, even paperclips. Plus, sports. At some colleges, appealing to students and donors involves building brand-new stadiums and paying head coaches more than top administrators and faculty. At others, the momentum is to eliminate some sports as Boston University did with its football team in 1997.

Ideally, all these cost containment steps could pass savings on to students in lower tuition and fee prices. But there are other strategies aimed more directly at reducing tuition and fee burdens.

Free tuition

The federal government already spends enough on student aid initiatives and tax breaks to cover the tuition of every U.S. public college student—or almost. Consider “How Washington Could Make College Tuition Free (Without Spending a Penny More on Education),” advanced in The Atlantic magazine by Jordan Weissmann and in “From Master Plan to No Plan: The Slow Death of Public Higher Education” in Dissent magazine by Aaron Bady and Mike Konczal.

Pay it forward

A more recent proposal in Oregon would allow students to pay tuition after they graduate based on income. Under the so-called "Pay It Forward" idea, students would pay tuition only as a share of their salaries after graduation. But critics say the idea would give public colleges an incentive to build up programs likely to attract students who will earn the most money after graduation.

New models are being assembled right now. NEBHE’s exploration of these issues will continue to ask key questions: What is higher education's current business model? What new models will bring access and success to more students. Keep them curious. Employable. And out of debt.

Last week, the Census Bureau reported that three New England states are the oldest in the U.S. in median age: Maine (43.5 years), Vermont (42.3 years) and New Hampshire (42 years). The other states in the region are old too: Connecticut (40.5 years); Rhode Island (39.8 years) and Massachusetts ...]]>

New England is aging ... but gracefully?

Last week, the Census Bureau reported that three New England states are the oldest in the U.S. in median age: Maine (43.5 years), Vermont (42.3 years) and New Hampshire (42 years). The other states in the region are old too: Connecticut (40.5 years); Rhode Island (39.8 years) and Massachusetts (39.3 years), compared with a national median age of 37.4 years.

New England's aging has been rapped before as a threat to regional economic growth. See our Fall 2004 Connection piece (before the journal was rebranded as NEJHE) noting that the region was "perceived as 'old and cold'—and no longer viewed as a major competitive threat by other parts of the United States."

Not everyone is sold on the self-pitying brand of competitiveness. Former Providence Journal editorial page editor Bob Whitcomb commented on our item on aging: "Some might see the aged population of the three northern New England states as an unvarnished drawback. However, the states are notable for their very low crime rates, beautiful natural environments, good healthcare indices and indeed high overall quality of life. I see many advantages to such regions in the fact that the median age is rising there and population growth is slowing to a crawl."

Asked Whitcomb: "Must everything be measured in terms of faster economic growth? And are there really too few people in the world?"

To judge from the congested highways around Boston, the answer is "no."

Still, the prevailing concern is that New England will suffer for lack of educated young workers.

Now, however, comes some vindication for Whitcomb's view that faster growth isn't everything.

This week, the Social Science Research Council published its 2013-14 report, Measure of America, showing that Connecticut and Massachusetts rank first and second nationally in the index measuring not only economic benchmarks but also various measure of health and educational attainment. Rhode Island ranks sixth; New Hampshire, 14th; Vermont, 15th: and Maine 25th.

New England may limp to the top yet. See the interactive maps.

John O. Harney is executive editor of The New England Journal of Higher Education.

America’s largest producer of PBS content for TV and the web, WGBH hired Vermont Public Radio's Kirk Carapezza as managing editor and lead correspondent of the Higher Ed Desk.

The ...]]>

WGBH Boston is creating a Higher Ed Desk to help enrich its award-winning radio, television and online stories with angles from Boston and New England's famed postsecondary education.

America’s largest producer of PBS content for TV and the web, WGBH hired Vermont Public Radio's Kirk Carapezza as managing editor and lead correspondent of the Higher Ed Desk.

The desk is supported through more than $1 million in grants over the next thee years from the Lumina Foundation and the Davis Educational Foundation.

On Tuesday, Kara Miller of WGBH's "Innovation Hub" hosted a conversation at Suffolk University's Modern Theater about the future of higher education.

The New England Journal of Higher Education, meanwhile, has tried to keep a close eye on how media and higher education relate in an age when both are undergoing revolutionary change.

Last fall, the Boston Globe and its affiliated website Boston.com launched 10 Your Campus sites featuring links to bloggers, campus newspapers, websites, Twitter feeds and Globe staff articles

Two bombs exploded ...]]>

As this year began, NEJHE published the thoughtful concerns of Lasell College admissions official Christopher M. Gray about how colleges would need to address applicants who have experienced a traumatic and life-changing event such as 9/11 or the Sandy Hook mass murders. Now such events have visited Boston and so will traumatized applicants.

Two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, killing three and injuring more than 260. The pressure-cooker bombs sent shrapnel at leg-level, leading to amputations for 15 victims.

An immediate concern was how to deal with the feelings of school children whose sense of safety was shattered by the blasts. One of those killed was 8-year-old Martin Richard. His mother and sister were severely injured. Among the responses, the Southern Poverty Law Center posted a new toolkit for educators and community leaders for “When Bad Things Happen.” Psychology Today magazine published a piece on "What to Look for if Your Child is Having Problems."

In a flash, the new diverse Boston was revealed as were myriad connections to higher education.

Another of those killed by the bombings was a Boston University student from China named Lu Lingzi. An only child, her death raised concerns about the future vibrancy of study abroad from China and about China’s one child-per family population control policy. (Another example of a policy that seemed more rational in theory than in real life … and death.)

Another bombing victim Krystle Campbell had a scholarship established in her name at Massachusetts Bay Community College where she had earned an associate degree before transferring to UMass Boston. Candidates for the MassBay scholarships must be business majors, as Campbell was, and must submit an essay about resiliency, making a difference, generosity of spirit, or overcoming obstacles to achieve a goal.” Campbell was also to be awarded a posthumous degree from UMass Boston in May.

Manhunt

Nearly three days after the bombing, the fatal shooting of an MIT police officer on the night of Thursday, April 18, led to a “shelter in place” order for Boston and surrounding communities. Practicing such orders has become as much a part of going to school as fire drills once were. But such lockdowns were new to large metro areas.

One of the bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in a shootout with police on Friday, April 19. Tamerlan’s brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev attended UMass Dartmouth.

UMass Dartmouth was particularly affected.

Two Kazahk nationals Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, who were also enrolled at UMass Dartmouth, were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice. A third man, Robel Phillipos, who also formerly attended UMass Dartmouth was charged with making false statements to investigators.

After news reports raised questions about the students’ grades, UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Divina Grossman told Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker: “We need to review all our policies and procedures. We have to look at everything we did. We owe it to the Commonwealth, we owe it to the people who died, and we owe it to the faculty and students here.”

Walker wrote that Grossman also worried about “the school’s hundreds of international and immigrant students, who might come under unfair scrutiny.”

At UMass Dartmouth's commencement, a moment of silence to honor victims and heroes was pierced by a chant of “USA, USA, USA.”

Healing

As the city healed, Boston businesses, foundations and individual donors worked with Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick to raise more than $30 million for a One Fund Boston. The fund was designed to support the families of those killed and help pay what were sure to be exorbitant medical bills for amputees and other victims.

Bostonians were hailed for their police work and tolerance. But the latter is always fragile. As Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body was moved to a Worcester funeral home, known for handling burials of the poor and unwanted, a hue and cry arose about the appropriate resting place for a terrorist; no one wanted the body. Ultimately, the remains were moved to Virginia, where there was also resistance.

Among campus actions in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings and investigation ...

On April 22, Bridgewater State University President Dana Mohler-Faria invited the university family to participate in a day of reflection, writing:

"Remarkably, we have an opportunity to ensure these days will not be remembered for all that was unthinkable, irrational and frantic.  Instead, this can become a time in our lives defined by astonishing courage, wonderful acts of kindness, extraordinary care and concern for others, and resolve that knows no breaking point.  From the hundreds of law enforcement officials to the thousands of volunteer caregivers, and from the character of both the surviving and the slain, it is plain to see that heroism and selflessness abound.

If we are not diligent, however, time will quickly pass, our routines will return to normal, and we will have failed to seize upon this terrifically inspiring moment.  Just as an unimaginable crisis galvanized our determination to become more compassionate, caring and thoughtful, we must now endeavor—on a daily basis—to demonstrate the same focus and tenacity while marshaling the energies of our university family around the mission of building a better world."

Through the Arts Outreach Initiative, a partnership between the Boston University Medical Campus and BU’s College of Fine Arts, that builds relationships between artistic creativity and health care practices, students are using their talents to help the 23 victims being treated at BU’s affiliated academic hospital.

The week after the bombing, Northeastern University featured a panel of faculty experts for a discussion of the issues that the bombing and the search for the perpetrators raised, including “the motivation for crime, the importance of resilience, the prosecution of domestic terror suspects, the dangers of misreading religious motivations, and the role of social media.” Northeastern also created a website regarding the response to the tragedy at http://neu.orgsync.com/bostonstrong.

At Emerson College. President Lee Pelton reminded students: “We are the story tellers, we are the builders of human hopes and aspirations and yes, of failures. We are the magic makers, the myth makers. We are the truth tellers.”

Boston was naturally hit hardest. But campuses elsewhere in New England were touched too. At Gateway Community College in New Haven, Conn., President Dorsey L. Kendrick wrote: “The college community is deeply saddened by the increased violence that has now cast its shadow on our neighbors in Boston. Our prayers go out to [those] who were injured, and to the loved ones of the three who lost their lives. We especially pray for the misguided souls who believe that acts of violence are the path to conflict resolution. We hope that they, and all who feel disenfranchised will realize that the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. matter more today than ever. He said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” I would also like to assure our community that we are doing everything possible to keep our campus a secure and safe learning environment. In the next few weeks, there will be a series of Safety Training and Security seminars for faculty, staff and students, in an effort to engage everyone in this effort and maximize the systems that are in place.”

An MIT urban planning student named Andy Cook used the tragedy as a way to call for a larger view: “Deciphering the ‘why’ behind the Boston Marathon bombing and subsequent manhunt will be a long and contentious task. For some, it will begin and end with the biography of the bombers themselves. But we should press further, and follow with a close examination of the global systems that foster inequality, breeding hatred and violence internationally,” wrote Cook in the nonprofit Next City’s long-form Forefront series. “We as Americans and as planners especially must never stop considering the unintended consequences of the systems we live by. We must measure impacts and decide when and how to retool those systems that are broken, that allow for days like Monday to occur.”

Tragedy can inform education, educators and public policy, if we are open to change and disciplined and focused in our reactions. If not, it’s likely that more deadly consequences await us in the shadows of Eugene O’Neill’s cautionary words: “There is no present or future, only the past, happening over and over again, now.”

John O. Harney is executive editor of The New England Journal of Higher Education.

Rebecca Onie, cofounder and CEO of Health Leads, will deliver the keynote address at MGH Institute of Health Professions’ 2013 commencement on Thursday, May 9.

Singer-songwriter Annie Lennox will deliver the keynote at Berklee College of Music on Saturday, May 11 at Boston University's Agganis Arena.

Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the ...]]>

Photo of Annie Lennox.

Rebecca Onie, cofounder and CEO of Health Leads, will deliver the keynote address at MGH Institute of Health Professions’ 2013 commencement on Thursday, May 9.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy will keynote Nichols College’s annual commencement on Saturday, May 11, at 10:30 a.m.

Bert and John Jacobs, co-founders of The Life is good Company, the Boston-based lifestyle brand, will keynote Bentley Univesity's commencement on Saturday, May 18, at 10 a.m. on the university's South Campus.

Democracy Now! host and producer Amy Goodman will keynote the 2013 Hampshire College commencement on Saturday, May 18, at 11 a.m., on the Harold F. Johnson Library Lawn.

Patrick Awuah Jr., founder and president of Ashesi University College in Ghana, will address Babson College's undergraduate commencement on Saturday, May 18, at 10 a.m. Kip Tindell, chair and CEO of the Container Store, will address the graduate ceremony at 2:30 p.m.

Jazz and classical musician Wynton Marsalis will address the University of Vermont’s commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 19, at 8:20 a.m., on the University Green.

Naming Names for Spring 2013 NE Commencements

Each year, NEBHE presents Regional Excellence Awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and the ...]]>

Despite a late-winter snowstorm, hundreds of New Englanders braved the snow to attend NEBHE's 11th New England Higher Education Excellence Awards celebration on Friday, March 8, at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel.

Each year, NEBHE presents Regional Excellence Awards to individuals and organizations that have shown exceptional leadership on behalf of higher education and the advancement of educational opportunity, and State Merit Awards to honor the innovative work of organizations, institutions or individuals in each New England state.

NEBHE awarded its Special Award for Lifetime Achievement to University of Rhode Island oceanography professor Robert D. Ballard. In addition to being a National Geographic Society Explorer-In-Residence and a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, Ballard is the president of the Ocean Exploration Center at Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Conn. Attendees were glued to a video of Ballard's underwater adventures, and a slideshow that brought his work back to the down-to-earth goal of spreading educational excellence—as he put it, paraphrasing Captain Kirk, “To Go where no one has gone before on Planet Earth."

Best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic, Ballard also succeeded in tracking down numerous other significant shipwrecks, including the German battleship Bismark, the lost fleet of Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown (sunk in the World War II Battle of Midway), and John F. Kennedy’s PT-109.

Though these expeditions captured the public imagination, Ballard believes his most important discoveries were of hydrothermal vents and “black smokers” in the Galapagos Rift and East Pacific Rise in 1977 and 1979 along with their exotic life forms living off Earth’s energy through a process now called chemosynthesis.

And the ones still to come ... by which he means, preparing future adventurers and scientists. Ballard spent 30 years at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he helped develop technology to create “tele-presence” for his JASON Learning foundation, which allows schoolchildren from afar to accompany him undersea. In 2001, he returned to URI, his alma mater, to join the Graduate School of Oceanography as a tenured professor.

NEBHE's 2013 Governor Walter R. Peterson Award for Leadership went to Thomas D. Ritter, former Connecticut House Speaker (D-Hartford) and University of Connecticut trustee. Because of his commitment to improving higher education and spirit of bipartisanship, Ritter worked with then-newly elected Republican Gov. John Rowland to make 1995 a key year for the University of Connecticut. Working together, they passed the landmark UConn 2000 program which provided $1 billion in funds to rebuild the school's campuses. The legislation also provided a one-on-one match up to $50 million in donations to increase UConn's endowment. In 2002, he worked to pass "Century 21," which provided UConn with another $1 billion in funding, beginning in 2005,

NEBHE’s Robert J. McKenna Award for Program Achievement went to the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Scholarship Program. The foundation distributes more than $5 million annually to nearly 2,000 New Hampshire students. Because of the increasing debt load among New Hampshire students—the highest in the nation—the foundation has increased the average size of its scholarships to $3,500, while increasing the number of students served each year. In addition to scholarships, the foundation has granted more than $3.8 million to community colleges and state universities to launch programs that foster economic and community development, and made numerous grants to increase access to education for the neediest students. In 2013, the foundation plans to bring greater awareness to the urgent need for workforce readiness in science, technology engineering and math (STEM).

NEBHE awarded its 2013 Eleanor McMahon Award for Lifetime Achievement to two recipients.

Ray M. Di Pasquale began serving as president of the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) in July 2006. In January 2010, he assumed a dual role when he was named commissioner of higher education for the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, which became the Rhode Island Board of Education in January 2013. Since Di Pasquale arrived at CCRI, the college has enjoyed near-record enrollments and graduated its largest-ever class in May 2012. CCRI is the largest community college in New England, serving nearly 18,000 students, and its noncredit arm trains more than 30,000 Rhode Islanders annually, making it an important player in the state's workforce development efforts.

The second McMahon award went to Donald R. Vickers, president and CEO of the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation. Vickers was appointed president and CEO of VSAC in 1990 and oversaw growth that turned it into a comprehensive agency serving thousands of Vermonters annually and employing hundreds of people. Among his accomplishments, Vickers advanced outreach programs and career development resources for students of all ages, creating the award-winning Start Where You Are college access program and supporting mentoring initiatives. He helped high school students and parents plan for postsecondary education through the College Pathways program, Paying for College workshops and assistance with financial aid forms.

NEBHE's 2013 David C. Knapp Award for Trusteeship also had two winners.

Louise S. Berry was appointed to the Board of Trustees for Community Colleges in 1991 and became its chair in 2004. She represented the board on numerous presidential search committees as both chair and co-chair to select leaders for the 12-college Connecticut Community College System. At the same time, she served on the board of the University of Connecticut. A former state senator, Berry is currently the superintendent of schools in Brooklyn, Conn. She has been an advocate for early childhood education throughout her career and, in 2006, the Early Childhood Center at the Brooklyn School was named in her honor. She and her late husband  Richard were instrumental in the founding of Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson, Conn.

James J. Karam is the former chair of the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees and president and founder of First Bristol Corp., a 35-year-old regional real estate development and management company focused on developing retail shopping centers, office buildings and hotels throughout Southern New England. He also is co-owner of WSAR and WHTB radio stations, serving the Massachusetts Southcoast region. During his 10 years as a trustee and four as chair, the UMass system experienced strong student population growth and more than $2 billion in capital improvements, as well as the founding of the state's public law school at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Karam's alma mater.

NEBHE presented two special Regional Awards to specifically recognize business collaboration with New England higher education institutions to address New England workforce needs and provide students with enhanced education, training or research opportunities.

The Employee Scholar Program (ESP) at United Technologies Corp. (UTC) was awarded NEBHE's 2013 Connecticut State Merit Award as well as a special Regional Award for Business Contribution to Higher Education. UTC's commitment to learning is embodied in the ESP, which has enabled employees to earn more than 34,000 college degrees. ESP is the premier corporate-sponsored employee education program. It pays for tuition, books and fees for employees enrolled in accredited programs. In addition to prepayment of expenses, employees also receive paid time off each week to study. Unlike more typical tuition-reimbursement programs, ESP places no restrictions on the course of study an employee may pursue, and there is no requirement that coursework pertain to an employee's current job. UTC  has invested more than $1 billion in ESP since the program was established in 1996.

NEBHE presented its other Regional Award for Business Contribution to Higher Education—as well as the 2013 Maine State Merit Award— to Unum, a leader in disability insurance. In Maine, Unum executives were instrumental in establishing both the Maine Compact for Higher Education and the Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education. Among the compact's innovative programs are the College Transition Initiative, which works with adult education programs to encourage people to complete their GEDs and transition directly into college courses, and the Employer Initiative, which encourages companies to provide incentives to their employees to further their education. The compact also helped establish the Harold Alfond College Challenge, which gives a $500 scholarship to any baby born in Maine. Unum also supports programs for underserved and minority students. Other Maine beneficiaries of Unum's support of higher education include the University of Maine (student retention program and Maine NEW Leadership institute for undergraduate women from across Maine), the Maine Community College System (Accelerate ME program), the University of New England Dental School, and the Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute.

NEBHE presented its 2013 Massachusetts State Merit Award to the Massachusetts Community Colleges Experiential Education Committee. With support from the Massachusetts Community Colleges Executive Office, professionals in cooperative education, internship and career service programs at the 15 Massachusetts community colleges worked together in 2011 and 2012 to develop formal guidelines for experiential education, with a focus on cooperative education and internship programs. The handbook they published, called MCC Experiential Education: Internships and Cooperative Education, A Handbook for Practitioners and Administrators, outlines best practices, success factors, federal regulations and legal implications critical for practitioners and program administrators to understand in designing, implementing, supervising and assessing internships and co-ops on each of the Commonwealth's community college campuses.

The 2013 New Hampshire State Merit Award went to Northeast Delta Dental, which administers dental benefits of more than 730,000 people in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Its group customers include individuals and families with no access to employer-sponsored dental insurance. Northeast Delta Dental has many long-term relationships with education institutions and programs. In the past year, its giving included supporting Bow High School, the Community Colleges of NH Foundation, the Concord Community Music School, Early Learning NH, the Manchester Community Music School, the Manchester School System (City Year), New England League of Middle Schools, the New Hampshire Institute of Art, New Hampshire State Scholars, NHTI, Concord's Community College, Plymouth State University, and Southern New Hampshire Services (B.R.I.N.G. I.T.!!! program). In keeping with its oral health mission, its largest investment in higher education was a $2.3 million gift to the University of New England in Maine, which will open its College of Dental Medicine, the first in northern New England, in fall 2013.

NEBHE's 2013 Rhode Island State Merit Award recognized the Rhode Island Foundation and its CEO Neil D. Steinberg. The foundation granted a record-breaking $30 million to more than 1,300 community organizations in 2012. In education, the foundation has supported: efforts focused on middle school and high school retention programs that motivate kids to learn, reach graduation and seek further education opportunities; investments in charter schools and specialty schools where best practices can be learned and shared with larger schools and districts; and programs addressing professional development and peer support for education leaders

The Vermont State Merit Award went to the External Degree Program (EDP) of Johnson State College, Vermont's largest bachelor's degree-completion program. The EDP helps students finish their degrees close to home and in ways that are convenient, affordable and designed to fit with their busy lives. Open to students with 60 or more college credits, the program offers a variety of learning options, making it ideal for those who need to juggle work and family responsibilities with their studies. Because of its flexibility and statewide reach, it's a popular option for veterans. Students can earn credits online or in their own community through a combination of weekend and evening courses taught at various locations in Vermont, including Burlington, Montpelier, St. Albans and Rutland.

The series called “New Directions for Higher Education” will feature interviews with key visionaries by Philip DiSalvio, dean ...]]>

The New England Journal of Higher Education (NEJHE) invites you to be part of a new series examining emerging issues, trends, innovations and ideas that will make a profound impact on higher education in New England and globally.

The series called “New Directions for Higher Education” will feature interviews with key visionaries by Philip DiSalvio, dean of the College of Advancing and Professional Studies at the University of Massachusetts.

We are seeking experts in their respective fields who would be interested in being interviewed by Dean DiSalvio for this new series of articles.

If you would like to participate, please send your contact information, a brief bio and topics on which you’re willing to speak, to me at jharney@nebhe.org.

Recently, NEJHE has featured the following about the transforming nature of higher education ...

University Unbound! Higher Education in the Age of "Free"

Innovators and entrepreneurs are using technologies to make freely available the things for which universities charge significant money. MOOCs ... free online courses ... lecture podcasts ... low-cost off-the-shelf general education courses ... online tutorials ... digital collections of open learning resources ... open badges ... all are disrupting higher education's hold on knowledge, instruction and credentialing. NEBHE convened more than 400 New England educators and opinion leaders in Boston in mid-October to discuss these new opportunities for students and challenges for traditional higher education institutions.

"University Unbound" Rebounds: Can MOOCs Educate as well as Train?

George McCully, founder of the Catalogue for Philanthropy, praises NEBHE's University Unbound conference, even wonders if it should become an annual event. But he worries that the massive open online courses (MOOCs) at the center of the discussion are better suited to training than to development "of personal values, life-experience, qualities of feeling (empathy, sympathy) sensitivity and insight, inspiration and aspiration, interest and concern."

No Stinkin' Badges? Mozilla's Erin Knight on "Open Badges" (Video)

Mozilla's Erin Knight speaks about her "Open Badges" work—an alternative credentialing system allowing learners to control their credentials and move away from seat time.

I Am Not a Machine

If all we have experienced in college classrooms is being lectured at, then Wikipedia, the Khan Academy and MOOCs should replace us, concedes Dan W. Butin, associate professor and founding dean of the school of education at Merrimack College, But Butin says he hopes "MOOCs will prompt us to refashion what we do in the college classroom and how we do it. For we all yearn for that 'dynamic, charismatic' teacher who can rock our world. We want our education to matter." Butin concludes, "MOOCs may indeed transform higher education, but they cannot transform my students."

Coming to Terms with MOOCs: A Community College Angle

Bunker Hill Community College President Mary L. Fifield explains how MOOCs and community colleges share common values. 

And Dean DiSalvio’s NEJHE articles on:

Pardon the Disruption ... Innovation Changes How We Think About Higher Education

Ventures such as edX, Coursera and Udacity may be catalysts that displace established ways of thinking about higher education institutions. How these innovations could move higher ed from an "instruction paradigm" to a "learning paradigm."

Shifting Landscapes, Changing Assumptions Reshape Higher Ed 

MIT and Harvard's collaboration to offer online courses free of charge points to something much deeper within the higher education fabric. A convergence of forces driving change in higher education is forcing us to ponder such fundamental questions as what a university is, what a course is, what a student is and what is the meaning of a college credential.

Degrees of Durability and the New World of Credentialing

Is the "college degree" an artifact ... an outdated higher education credential?

Bubble Wrap: Higher Ed and the Value Gap

There are many roads to an educated life, and higher education institutions may be the perfect incubators for non-degree credentialing and expanded learning options.

Will MITx Change How We Think About Higher Education? 

MITx is lowering the existing barriers between residential campuses and the millions of learners around the world by making MIT educational content accessible and providing those learners with an opportunity to earn an MIT-related credential.  

It should go without saying that data is tricky (or is it are tricky?).

Take the issue of student aid as one example. Some states have annual budgets; some have biennial. Some states report all kinds of aid in one place; others leave it to observers to patch together the ...]]>

Introducing NEBHE's new Trends & Indicators ...

It should go without saying that data is tricky (or is it are tricky?).

Take the issue of student aid as one example. Some states have annual budgets; some have biennial. Some states report all kinds of aid in one place; others leave it to observers to patch together the hodgepodge of merit and need-based programs from the state’s general fund and various state agencies. Different people have different definitions of “grant” and “scholarship.” And all know that this state gift aid is dwarfed by federal sources and by “loans.”

As musician David Byrne once sang, "Facts don’t do what I want them to/Facts just twist the truth around.”

For more than half a century, NEJHE has been publishing tables and charts exploring "Trends & Indicators” (T&I) in New England’s demography, high school performance and graduation, college enrollment, college graduation rates and degree production, higher education financing and university research.

In the past, we have drawn the data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the College Board, the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems and NEBHE’s own Annual Survey of New England Colleges and Universities.

It’s a pleasure to join this year with NEBHE colleague, Director of Policy & Research Monnica Chan, to expand our sources and inaugurate a more robust T&I feature.

As part of the plan, we will post short trend-related Newslink items within our T&I section. So, for example, if a new report is issued on net tuition, we’ll connect our brief coverage of the report to the T&I sidebar on our homepage—adding a bit of color to our valuable, but sometimes gray, tabular T&I data and better connecting similar topics via searches.

Ultimately, we seek to build a substantive back and forth among readers to create a vibrant living T&I whose figures, with your help, will be as accurate and useful as possible.

Click here for our latest relevant Newslink items.

For the full charts and figures for each of our T&I topic areas, please use the tabs at the top of the newly formatted T&I page.

Check back periodically as we continue to update new trend data. And many thanks,

John O. Harney is executive editor of The New England Journal of Higher Education.