There are many issues and challenges facing international and first-generation college students in the college admission process and as they work to earn their degrees.
But one student is taking those challenges and using them as the basis for her new education tech start-up.
Continue reading International, First-Generation Student Experience Inspires Online Platform
“Free college” programs eliminate one of the biggest barriers to a college degree, but for adults returning to school, tuition isn’t the only stressor.
About 13,000 adults enrolled last fall in Tennessee Reconnect, a state program that gives free community college tuition to people over age 25 who haven’t yet earned a college degree.
Mike Krause, head of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission that oversees Tennessee Reconnect, told NPR they need to do more to prevent students from dropping out because their reasons for leaving school aren’t always financial.
Continue reading Adults Returning to College Face Barriers Beyond Tuition Cost
Colleges and universities are working to recruit more diverse populations. But a new book finds that these marginalized populations often don’t have the resources and support they need as they work toward a degree.
“There’s a difference between access and inclusion,” explains Anthony Abraham Jack, author of the new book The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students.
“Universities have extended invitations to more and more diverse sets of students but have not changed their ways to adapt to who is on campus.”
Continue reading Author: ‘Bias Toward Privilege’ Prevalent on College Campuses
A new effort to raise graduation rates for single moms enrolled in community college is officially underway.
Single moms are among the fastest growing populations on college campuses – more than 11 percent of college students – but only 28 percent of single moms graduate within six years.
Former second lady Jill Biden announced the Community College Women Succeed initiative in late February. The initiative will start with regional roundtables, actually talking with these single mothers, and building a support system from there.
Continue reading Effort Underway to Support Single Moms in College
In 2009, then-President Barack Obama announced a $12 billion initiative with a goal of returning the US to first in the world in the proportion of the population with degrees.
Ten year later, however, this goal seems even further out of reach.
The Hechinger Report recently looked at the goals and plans set by the American Graduation Initiative (AGI) and found that the US has fallen way behind. Continue reading US Fails to Reach Obama-era Targets for College Degree Holders
National college completion rates have increased for the third consecutive year, according to a new report.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has been tracking this data for the past six years and the latest numbers are an all-time high. According to the report, the overall national six-year completion rate increased by 1.5 percentage points this year, reaching 58.3 percent.
Continue reading Report: College Completion Rates on the Rise
Food insecurity among students is finally getting recognized by the federal government.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that there are at least 2 million students who are at risk of being food insecure and who qualify for SNAP benefits but did not receive them. This number could be significantly higher, but the data available at this time is inconclusive.
This report is the first time the federal government has significantly acknowledged food insecurity on college campuses.
Continue reading US Recognizes Campus Hunger for the First Time
It’s no secret that switching majors can increase the time and money a student spends earning a degree. But college officials say it’s a scenario more and more undergrads are now facing.
According to federal data, a third of all college students change their major at least once. Ten percent of students switch paths two or more times.
Carol Jean Vale, president of Chestnut Hill College (PA), attributes the shift to a rise in college access. As more first-generation students enter college, they need different types of support, she told The Hechinger Report.
Continue reading Could Enhanced Advising Help More Students Find a Right-Fit Major?
The statistics are stark when it comes to college access and success for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
On some reservations, the college-going rate for high school grads is as low as 18 percent, according to data from the American Indian College Fund. And US Census Bureau data shows that only 14 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives hold college degrees.
Yet when given support and curriculum that affirms their culture, Native students excel, Carrie Billy, president and CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), told attendees Thursday at NACAC’s 74th National Conference in Salt Lake City.
“A lot of our students don’t know who they are,” she said. “They’ve been through the K-12 system — a lot of them on reservations — and still haven’t learned their culture and their identity.”
Georgia State University has reinvented itself.
“By focusing on retaining low-income students, rather than just enrolling them, the college raised its graduation rate to 54 percent from 32 percent in 2003,” according to a recent New York Times article. “And for the last five years, it has awarded more bachelor’s degrees to African-Americans…than any other nonprofit college or university in the country.”
Officials from the university — a NACAC member institution — say data analysis and targeted supports have helped boost student success. Advisers monitor the daily progress of the school’s 40,000 undergrads and act quickly to provide assistance at the first sign that a student is struggling.
Continue reading Georgia State Lauded for Student Success Initiative
