#higher-education

#higher-education

Middlesex University Needyanand Raya arrived in London from Mauritius in 1999 to complete his master's degree. He was bearing a promise he made his father - to continue his studies "until there will be no examination beyond that to take". More than two decades later, he's now Dr Raya, having completed a doctorate in social policy at the age of 69 at Middlesex University. When asked how he felt about it? "Well, nothing much. It's just an achievement of a lifetime."

When London Breed was still mayor of San Francisco, she tried to lure some historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to set up satellite campuses here in SF. Of course, she also attempted to get the University of California to build an SF campus (she was rebuffed), and new Mayor Daniel Lurie has set his sights on attracting a Vanderbilt University SF campus (those negotiations may be promising). Maybe Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee has been watching.

Societal divisions and seismic shifts in technology make this "an enormously consequential time for our university, for all of higher education and for our country," President Michael I. Kotlikoff said Oct. 24 in the annual State of the University address. "Every university president now finds themself seeking, with fresh urgency, new answers to old questions around higher education in America: How can the university best prepare its students for the future they will inhabit - and build the best future for our nation?" said Kotlikoff, Cornell's 15th president.

Aaron Krall, president of UIC United Faculty, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors, said the UI system circumvented shared governance. "This was a directive that came down and surprised everyone," Krall said. The system implemented a policy saying it and its universities don't consider race or the other factors in determining eligibility for need- or merit-based financial aid.

Sofia Corradi, the creator of the EU's Erasmus program which has sent millions of young people abroad throughout Europe to study, died in Rome aged 91, Italian media reported Saturday. Her family, who announced her death according to media reports, described the academic as a woman "of great energy and intellectual and emotional generosity". The professor of education at Rome's Roma 3 University, Corradi -- known as "Mamma Erasmus" -- in her 20s won a prestigious US Fulbright scholarship, which took her to Columbia University in New York where she received a master's degree in law.

The California Faculty Association has sued the California State University after the university system handed over the personal phone numbers and email addresses of 2,600 Los Angeles campus employees to the federal government in response to an antisemitism investigation. The lawsuit filed last week seeks a court order prohibiting CSU administrators from disclosing any faculty members' personal information in response to federal subpoenas without first providing notice to the impacted employees and giving them the opportunity to object.

"We exist to serve our region by providing an excellent, accessible education that equips students to succeed in college, career, and life," Teniente-Matson said in a statement.

Under the Department of Education's proposed Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement, institutions would have to submit applied, admitted and enrolled student data broken down by test score quintiles, grade point average quintiles, income ranges, Pell Grant eligibility and parental education levels, as well as data regarding aid and student outcomes. Institutions would also be required to send historical data going back to 2020.

It's enormously disruptive to the students who are reliant on these services to answer questions and get the information they need about college enrollment and financial aid as they apply and student supports once they enroll,

When Stephanie Burt decided to carry a pink and blue Taylor Swift tote bag to class one day in fall 2023, she just thought it would be a fun way to transport her books and laptop, and let her students know she was a Swiftie. The Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English had no idea that just one semester later she would be teaching a Taylor Swift lecture course to 200 undergraduates

Tell Us We want to hear from job seekers in Massachusetts about how long you've been looking - and what your experience has been like in today's market. Recent layoffs, tough competition, and slow job growth rates have made this one of the most challenging job markets in years for Massachusetts residents. If you're actively looking for a job right now, we'd like to hear from you. How long have you been on the hunt - weeks, months, a year or more?

The global challenges of today, from climate-fuelled floods, droughts and heatwaves to food insecurity and health disparities, are felt intensely in Africa. To tackle those, universities on the continent must strengthen their research and innovation capacity. On average, African countries spend around 0.5% of their gross domestic product on research and development. That's less than one-quarter of the global average of 2.7%.

Academic Integrity Concern,

In a blog post, Redmond said a cybercrime crew it tracks as Storm-2657 has been targeting university employees since March 2025, hijacking salaries by breaking into HR software such as Workday. The attack is as audacious as it is simple: compromise HR and email accounts, quietly change payroll settings, and redirect pay packets into attacker-controlled bank accounts. Microsoft has dubbed the operation "payroll pirate," a nod to the way crooks plunder staff wages without touching the employer's systems directly.

"However, it's important to note that any SaaS systems storing HR or payment and bank account information could be easily targeted with the same technique," Microsoft researchers said. "These attacks don't represent any vulnerability in the Workday platform or products, but rather financially motivated threat actors using sophisticated social engineering tactics and taking advantage of the complete lack of multifactor authentication (MFA) or lack of phishing-resistant MFA to compromise accounts."

As the Supreme Court begins its new term this week, legal experts predict that higher education will be a frequent subject for the justices. Yet only two college-related cases-both of which center on transgender rights-are currently listed on the main docket. That's in large part because of a less formal but increasingly popular second list of cases known as the shadow docket. Historically, the shadow docket, also called the emergency docket, was used on rare occasions for just that-emergencies.

"Phoenix Education Partners, parent company of the for-profit University of Phoenix, which announced its IPO plans one day before the shutdown began, said on Wednesday that it has priced its shares at $32. That's the midpoint of its earlier targeted range of between $31 and $33 a share. The company intends to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the "PXED" ticker symbol. Selling shareholders will offer roughly 4.3 million shares of its common stock,"

The impetus is clear: Texas A&M University fired a professor, demoted two administrators and pushed out its president after conservative politicians lambasted the institution for a lesson on gender identity in a children's literature class. Their criticism hinged on the fact that the topic was not reflected in the brief course catalog description for the class. Before he resigned, Texas A&M president Mark Welsh ordered an audit of all courses at the flagship campus,

Doctors predicted Wayne Frederick, the president of Howard University, wouldn't live past 8. Now he's 54. Frederick came to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago with a dream of finding a cure for his disease, sickle cell anemia, but detoured into higher ed administration. At an event hosted by the American Council on Education at Howard University this week, Frederick said CRISPR gene editing, a technology developed in academia, made his dream a reality.

The fee, the complaint states, "will result in significant and potentially catastrophic setbacks to research that benefits the American public and ensures the United States remains a leading source of innovation and expertise. For example, the fee will likely result in sharp cutbacks in the employment of highly talented foreign workers and severe setbacks for university research, graduate programs, and clinical care, compounding an anticipated shortfall of 5.3 million skilled workers over the next decade."

"Everything seemed to be going according to plan," Herrmann said.

WashU chancellor Andrew Martin announced last month that the private university had cut 316 staff positions and closed another 198 vacant roles as part of an effort to restructure or reduce budgets. He wrote that the cuts, which extend to WashU's Medical Campus, total "more than $52 million in annual savings." The chancellor cited both external and internal pressures.

This year's Banned Books Week (Oct. 5-11) comes at a moment when the threat of censorship is reaching alarming heights. According to a new report issued last week by PEN America, " Banned in the USA, 2024-2025," there were 22,810 instances of book banning in U.S. public schools from 2021 to 2025. As the coordinator of Chicago Banned Books Week, I can see a growing climate of fear where even some librarians are wary of promoting banned books.