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    The law school once boasted bar-passage rates of more than 90 percent but has seen its percentages drop to about 25 percent among first-time test takers. A for-profit law school in downtown Phoenix that is struggling with falling bar-passage rates is moving to affiliate with one of the country’s historically black colleges and universities. Arizona Summit Law School has signed an affiliation agreement with the private, nonprofit Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. The law school, founded in 2004, once boasted bar passage rates of 97 percent but has seen its percentages drop to 25 percent among first-time School officials said they have made several changes aimed at improving bar passage, and that the affiliation with Bethune-Cookman will enable them to benefit from the university's academic support services and marketing. A university official also will serve on Arizona Summit's board of trustees. The deal would allow both schools to pursue their objectives of diversifying the legal profession, officials said. "This enables us to take it to a much higher level sooner, swifter and with greater impact," Arizona Summit President Donald Lively said. Bethune-Cookman President Edison Jackson said in a statement, “Together, we aim to be a leading force in disrupting a legacy of exclusion that has persisted into the 21st century.” The affiliation needs the approval of several accrediting bodies, including the American Bar Association and the Arizona Board of Private Postsecondary Education. The agreement doesn't make Arizona Summit a nonprofit school. However, Lively said the school is working toward nonprofit status. Summit’s owner, InfiLaw Corp., also owns law schools in North Carolina and Florida, and the parent company has been controversial in legal circles. A sister school, the Charlotte School of Law, was put on probation by the American Bar Association last year for two years because of concerns over its bar-passage rates, and the U.S. Department of Education in December yanked the C
    7 years ago by @prophe
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    BOND University at Robina has been listed in the prestigious global top 20 universities in the Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings of the Best Small Universities in the World. The private, not-for-profit university placed number 20 in the global ranking thanks to its personalised teaching philosophy and outstanding student experience which translates to extraordinary student satisfaction ratings. The Best Small Universities list acknowledges universities with an unparalleled reputation for delivering personalised learning and creating an environment that fosters a strong sense of community. It is topped by the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) which is also ranked this year as the second best overall university in the world, behind Oxford. Bond University is the only university in the southern hemisphere to be included in the global top 20. Bond University Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Tim Brailsford, said the ranking was recognition of Bond’s never-ending and priority focus on the students and their learning experience. “Our point of difference has always been creating an environment that focuses on a personalised approach to learning and a student’s education, so that each and every student has the opportunity to realise their ambition; and this global ranking is recognition that we are delivering on our promise,” he said. “There are some truly outstanding universities in this list and we are quite humbled to be included in such company. “For one of Australia’s youngest universities we have come a long way in a very short period of time.” Bond was also recently ranked as Australia’s number one university for student experience for the 11th consecutive year in the 2017 Good Universities Guide. Business student Alice Ringelstein said she chose to study at Bond because of its smaller size, which enabled her to spend more one-on-one time with her teachers and gain the most out of her experience. “The small class sizes at Bond have given me the opportunity to participate in stimula
    7 years ago by @prophe
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    The government has suffered further defeats in the House of Lords on plans in England for the teaching excellence framework and the opening up of the sector to new private providers. Earlier in the week, peers defeated the government by passing an amendment that ensures the results of the TEF should not be used to determine the fees that an institution can charge. On 8 March, the House of Lords – where the government does not have a majority – inflicted further defeats. The government now has the choice of accepting the amendments, or bidding to force through its proposals with the backing of MPs. An amendment, proposed by crossbencher Baroness Wolf, Labour peer Lord Stevenson and Liberal Democrat Lord Storey, was passed that would severely limit the government’s flagship plans to bring in new providers to compete with universities. Critics backing the amendment had warned of risks from for-profit providers gaining degree awarding powers and university status. The amendment would ensure new providers either remain subject to the same requirement to pass through four years of validation before they can gain their own degree awarding powers, or had been granted permission to use such powers by a quality assessment committee. The government had wanted private providers to be able to award degrees on a probationary basis from the start of their operation and for England’s new regulator, the Office for Students, to take over the granting of degree awarding powers. The OfS would also have to be “assured that the provider operated in the public interest and in the interest of students” to gain degree powers, says the amendment, passed by 201 votes to 186. On the TEF, peers also backed an amendment that would ensure the government still creates “a scheme to assess and provide consistent and reliable information about the quality of education and teaching”, but prevents such an exercise from being used “to create a single composite ranking of English higher education providers”, as well as ensuring that its data a
    7 years ago by @prophe
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