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    Punjab Higher Education Minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani has said the role of private sector in promotion of education is equally important. It has been given conducive atmosphere to grow and extend learning opportunities to students. According to a handout, the minister was addressing an intermediate students’ science exhibition of a Gulberg-based private college here on Thursday. Raza Gillani commended the scientific understanding of the students, which they exhibited in the shape of models showing solution to different problems. In his address, he vowed that improving standard of higher education was the key concern of the government; and said that both public and private sectors could improve access to education of students. He reiterated that the Punjab government was committed to improve the standard of higher education, as it was the backbone of the economy, and produced best professionals for different fields. “We live in a knowledge-based society which is driven by information technology,” he added. Punjab Schools Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmed said revolutionary steps had been taken for improving the overall standard of schools education in the Punjab. “No child would be left outside schools as the government is fully committed to ensure hundred percent enrolment in schools by 2018,” he added. Both the ministers also inspected the science exhibition and lauded the students for their scientific intellect.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Generally, prestigious private universities with hundreds of students don't get shut down over fairly minor, six-month-old technical issues that have since been resolved. But that is precisely the predicament facing the two-decade-old European University at St. Petersburg, a bastion of Western liberal arts, which has been ordered closed by a district court after a furious conservative assault against it. What appears to be on full display is a hallmark of the Vladimir Putin-era: a new brand of domestic "lawfare," in which state-run courts enforce political conformity through legal pretexts. Unlike blatant Soviet-style repression, outcomes are shaped through complicated, often years-long court battles that seem to lead inexorably to the politically desired verdict. One illustrative recent example is a local court's upholding of an embezzlement conviction against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which has the collateral effect of barring him from running in presidential elections that are about a year away. Kremlin supporters will denounce such a description as an example of Western arrogance, aimed at defaming Russian courts and rule of law. It's a debate that cannot be easily settled. 'Fake studies'? But consider the case of the European University, a private post-graduate school that currently has about 260 students – many of them from abroad – and whose main campus occupies the magnificent Small Marble Palace in St. Petersburg's historic heart. The school was founded in a different political era, in 1994, with support from the city's then-mayor, reformist Anatoly Sobchak, and substantial donations from a range of international organizations, including the Soros, MacArthur, and Spencer foundations. It's one of the few private universities in Russia that is fully licensed to issue graduate degrees by the Ministry of Education, and has been consistently rated among the top universities in Russia. The school's curriculum is heavy on political science, sociology, history, and economics. Many classes are tau
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Chestertown, Md. — The moment Isaiah Reese set foot on the idyllic campus of Washington College, a private liberal arts school on Maryland’s eastern shore, he knew he didn’t want to go there. At the time, he was a high school senior on a school tour. “I told myself I was not going to this school, no matter what,” Reese, who is now a freshman at the college, said over a slice of pizza and a spinach wrap burrito in Washington College’s polished cafeteria overlooking one of the school’s greens. Though Chestertown, Md., where the college is located, is just 75 miles from Reese’s native Baltimore, the quaint, roughly 5,000 person boating town struck Reese as almost a different universe from the mostly African-American high school he was attending at the time. “They gave us a tour of the school and I’m still saying nope, nope, this town is old, it’s boring,” he said. But then Reese had a conversation with a Washington College staffer that started to make him change his mind. “As soon as he said ‘full ride’ I was like, ‘Uh-huh, okay,’” Reese recalled at his cafeteria table in a hat emblazoned with Washington College’s logo. The 19-year-old is now one of 14 students in the inaugural year of George’s Brigade, a prestigious scholarship program and the brainchild of Sheila Bair, president of Washington College and the former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The program, which is named for George Washington — also the college’s namesake — offers promising students from low-income backgrounds a full-ride to the school, including room and board, and caps their student loan borrowing for any other incidentals at $2,500 year. Just tuition at the school for the 2016-2017 academic year was more than $42,000 a year. But George’s Brigade is about more than meeting students’ financial needs. It’s also about ensuring they enjoy and make it through school, according to Bair. She first came up with the idea shortly after arriving at the college and researching some of the challenges low-income and first generat
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    WHEELING – Who and what is Nova Southeastern University, and where can it be found on a map of the United States? Those were the popular questions when it was announced last week that highly successful West Liberty men’s basketball coach Jim Crutchfield was leaving the hilltop and making NSU his destination. For starters, Nova Southeastern is not in any way affiliated with Villanova University. Secondly, you won’t find any hills or snow on campus, but you are likely to encounter palm trees and bikinis. Located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Nova Southeastern’s main campus is minutes away from Fort Lauderdale’s beach, South Beach, Los Olas night life and the Everglades. It’s home to a diverse student enrollment of 25,000, with 1,200 being international students that come from 116 countries on five continents. Currently NSU, a private non-profit university, consists of 18 colleges and schools offering more than 175 programs of study with more than 250 majors. The school, which has an annual tuition cost of $27,660, has produced more than 170,000 alumni. The university was founded in 1964 as the Nova University of Advanced Technology on a former Naval Outlying Landing Field built during World War II. In 1994 the school merged with Southeastern University of the Health and Sciences and assumed its current name. Its endowment is listed as $102.7 million. Nova Southeastern is classified as a Doctoral/Research University Carnegie Foundation and was ranked by the Washington Monthly as the 259th-best national university. In 2000 and again in 2014, Nova was ranked third for the highest debt burden amongst its students. In 2014, NSU carried the highest debt load compared to all other students at non-profit universities. “You have to have a 3.0 grade-point average just to get in,” Crutchfield said. “Under grad is about 9,000 students and there are 16,000 in the various graduate programs — they pretty much have one for anything you want to do.” NSU boasts a vibrant campus life and only “highly credentialed” professors teac
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The Pt B D Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak will also conduct combined counselling on the basis of merit of National Eligibility and Entrance Test NEET PG 2017. The Haryana government on March 28 announced that no private medical or dental college, including those under private or deemed university, are authorised to carry out their own counselling for admission to post graduate courses. The NEET post graduate admissions will be conducted in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses have to be done on the basis of NEET scores. The Pt B D Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak will also conduct combined counselling on the basis of merit of National Eligibility and Entrance Test NEET PG 2017 and NEET MDS 2017 for admission to post graduate courses for academic session 2017-18 in all the government, government-aided, private medical and dental institutes including those under private and deemed universities in the state. Applicants can choose among various subjects which include MD, MS, PG Diploma and MDS, a spokesman of Haryana Directorate of Medical Education and Research. He also stated that the candidates desirous of seeking admission to MD, MS, PG Diploma and MDS courses would apply online for registration on the web portal — uhspgadmissions.in. ALSO READ: JIPMER Exam 2017: What you need to know about JIPMER MBBS entrance exam For the candidates seeking admissions need to know that the final allotment of seat/specialty/institute will be done by the admission committee after physical verification of eligibility criteria and original documents. Another important point that the aspirants must note that they should be personally present of the candidate in front of the admission committee at the time of counselling would be compulsory, he said. It is also While referring to the counselling schedule for admissions, the last date for submission of online application forms is April 8. The main counseling registration, choice filing & indicative seat allotment for NEET PG 2017 has commenced at
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The Minister of State-designate in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has defended the four-year Senior High School (SHS) curriculum, saying students who went through that system performed better than their counterparts who went through the three-year course. He, however, proposed a window to be opened for well-endowed schools that could complete the three-year system with the hope of posting good performance without restrictions. Prof. Yankah shared his views on the matter when he appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament last Monday. Answering questions on a wide range of issues, he described the complaints that private universities were much more expensive than public ones as a myth, contending that the gap between public and private universities was narrowing. Prof. Yankah, who is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the Central University, noted that many universities had evolved, leaving their core mandate behind. He submitted that tertiary institutions had moved away from their original courses and programmes and cited the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as one such institution running many non-science programmes that did not encourage the younger universities to carve a niche for their own programmes. Culture of reading Touching on the need to improve the reading culture among schoolchildren, Prof. Yankah underscored the need for parents to read to their children to sleep, to imbibe in them a good reading culture. According to the university don, two per cent of primary schoolchildren could hardly read and write English and any other Ghanaian language and called for enough reading books to be supplied to schools, especially the deprived ones, to help change the situation. Asked whether he supported the compulsory retirement of 60 years in respect of teachers and lecturers who still had the drive to impart knowledge, Prof. Yankah indicated that there was a considerable number of youth out there who needed to be mentored to take up the mantle
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The Trump administration is delaying implementation of one of the signature policies of the Obama-era crackdown on for-profit colleges. The Department of Education announced Monday night it was targeting the Obama administration rule aimed at holding career-training programs accountable for getting students decent jobs and earnings. To be in compliance with the regulations, career-training programs, which are largely at for-profit colleges, need to graduate students whose loan payments don’t exceed 20% of their discretionary income or 8% of their total earnings. Programs that don’t fit this criteria for multiple years could lose access to federal financial aid. Career-training schools will now have until July 1 to file appeals to the program debt-to-earnings ratios published by the Department earlier this year, as part of the enforcement of the gainful employment (GE) rule. Originally, their appeals were due Friday, March 10. The schools will also now have until July 1 to publish disclosures about their debt-to-earnings ratio that are required by the new law. Before this decision, the programs had until April 3 to post those disclosures. The gainful employment rules were a long fought victory for the Obama administration in its quest to crack down on for-profit colleges, which officials and advocates have accused of loading students up with high debt loads for questionable outcomes. The for-profit college industry fought the regulations in court and the Obama administration ultimately prevailed. But the Trump administration’s embrace of an increased role for the private sector in education has had supporters of efforts to crack down on for-profit colleges worried that the new rules could be in jeopardy — and investors betting on for-profit schools. The delay is the first signal that that speculation may be correct. “This is a sign that does nothing to dispel concerns that this administration will be sufficiently aggressive in protecting students,” said Ben Miller, the senior director of postsecondary educati
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Many for-profit colleges are accused of broken promises, high prices and not preparing students for the workforce. The federal government has increased its regulation of them. It's sparking a big debate in Washington, and two of the main players are North Carolina politicians. The new chair of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-- N.C., District 5) already said the rules need to go. The way she sees it, the Obama administration "intentionally targeted and sought to dismantle career colleges and universities with unnecessary regulations." She praised for-profit schools, calling them "responsive higher learning institutions." Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke found her biggest donor is a for-profit college, Full Sail. Full Sail is based in Florida and focuses on entertainment and media, offering degrees up to master's. When Stoogenke asked Foxx whether that's a conflict of interest, she emailed, "When an individual or industry offers me their support, they're endorsing my views, not the other way around." On the other side, 18 attorneys general, including North Carolina's Josh Stein, are urging the federal government not to go easy on for-profit schools. They sent the federal government a letter, saying undoing the regulations would mean "open season" on students. "We're very concerned," he said. "They're preying on people's dreams." LETTER When students can't pay back debt, taxpayers get stuck with the bill. Some wonder how much debt students rack up at for-profit colleges. The Brookings Institution created a list of 25 colleges where students are the most in debt. More than half are for-profit schools. Charlotte School of Law, DeVry, ITT Tech, Brookstone and Kaplan have all had problems in recent years, either financial, legal, or both. "It's been really hard," Charlotte Law student Stefanie Quinde said. "I understand it's a business. But at end of day, the interest of the students, it's, it's a big priority." "I think the regulat
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Dive Brief: Career training programs will have until July 1 to appeal the U.S. Department of Education for reconsideration of compliance under current gainful employment and revenue reporting guidance enacted by the Obama administration, a signal that the Trump administration is holding to promises of massive deregulation in the federal education agency. The extended review period will allow schools the chance to prove they were unfairly assessed in previous years, under rules requiring that graduates' loan payments do not exceed 20% of their discretionary income or 8% of total earnings, metrics that many for-profit college advocates say was an unfair rule designed to disrupt for-profit impact in higher education. For-profit leaders applauded the extension, but opponents say the delays will allow more students to potentially be defrauded by predatory recruitment schemes and false information about postgraduate outcomes. Dive Insight: The extended review of the gainful employment policies will have impact throughout the higher education sector, as community colleges and schools which disproportionately serve poorer students will now have time to provide more context about graduation rates and employment outcomes which previously may not have been possible due to time constraints. Additionally, the extension signals the first sign of regulatory repeals for higher education, one of the only signature details of President Trump's higher education platform during the campaign season, and a recurring theme shared by Congressional higher education leaders. For most institutions, this is a positive sign towards reducing costs and manpower committed to compliance efforts, but for smaller institutions with missions to serve underrepresented populations, it may be a lifeline.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    A report released Thursday highlights the potential impact Gov. Andrew Cuomo's free public college tuition proposal could have on New York's independent and private colleges. The Commission on Independent Colleges & Universities in New York estimated that 54,079 fewer students would enroll in the state's private institutions if Cuomo's plan is adopted. The organization also estimates that 44,693 jobs would be lost due to the student reductions and communities would lose more than $224 million in tax revenue because of the ensuing job cuts. At private colleges in central New York, enrollment would decline by 4,067 students and 2,269 jobs would be cut. The surrounding communities would lose a projected $9.8 million in tax revenue, according to the study. Mary Beth Labate, a former State University of New York official who once served as Cuomo's budget director, is the president of the commission. She said the negative effects of the free tuition discussion are already being observed. "Words move markets," she said. "Enrollment is in jeopardy, capital projects have been put on hold and campuses are making plans for a series of layoffs in the coming months to close potential gaps." Abbey Fashouer, a spokeswoman for Cuomo, touted the state's support for private colleges — more than $2.4 billion in aid since 2011 — claimed that the independent institutions haven't agreed to cap "out-of-control tuition costs" at least than $500 a year for state support. "New York leads the nation in providing support to both low-income and private college students through our already robust $1 billion tuition assistance program and loan forgiveness initiatives," Fashouer said. "With private school tuition in New York averaging $34,000 a year compared to $6,400 at SUNY and CUNY — the numbers speak for themselves." Private college leaders have expressed concerns about Cuomo's proposal since it was first unveiled in January. The governor wants to provide free tuition at SUNY and City University of New York institutions for st
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Nearly 15,000 Syrians are enrolled in Turkish universities as of the 2016-2017 academic year, Higher Education Board (YÖK) head Yekta Saraç has said. One thirds of Syrian university students are women and the rest are men, while 3,473 Syrian students in the country are receiving education as a part of the special “Turkey Scholarship” program, Saraç added. “Among the overall Syrian student population, 1,149 are postgraduate and 352 are doctorate students. Around 2,000 are receiving education in foundation universities,” he said at a conference on Syrian participation in higher education at Mustafa Kemal University in the southern province of Hatay on March 9. “The fact that the number of Syrian students receiving education in universities [in Turkey] rose to 15,000 this year from 5,000 in 2014-15 and from 10,000 in 2015-16 shows a rapid increase … There are students receiving education on every spot of the Turkish map,” Saraç also stated. Noting that Gaziantep University in the southeastern province of Gaziantep tops the list with 1,680 Syrian students, Saraç added that Istanbul University and Karabük University in the Black Sea province of Karabük are second and third on the list. “Istanbul University follows Gaziantep University with 1,000 students and Karabük University follows it with 927 students. Mersin University, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, İnönü University, Çukurova University, Istanbul Aydın University, Yüzüncü Yıl University and Sakarya University are next on the list,” he said. “The example of Karabük University shows that the number of students can be high even in provinces where Syrians are not densely populated. This is related to the number of Syrian lecturers the university employs,” Saraç said. There are currently Syrian students in 35 state and eight private universities across the country, he added. He also referred to the YÖK’s new system for foreign academics launched last year, noting that this system will make it easier for the “eligible Syrian population to participat
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Students who were scammed by a for-profit college back in the '80s could get their money back under the Trump administration. The Wilfred American Education Corp. used to run beauty and secretarial schools that primarily attracted low-income students, usually women. In 1988, Wilfred had 58 schools and more than 11,000 students, making it one of the largest for-profit college chains in the country. Many of those students used federal loans to pay for their education. But in 1991, Wilfred was found guilty of fraud in two different federal court cases. By law, the Department of Education should have canceled the student loans after the school was shut down. That didn't happen. Seven former Wilfred students sued President Obama's Education Department, demanding their student debt be canceled and the loan payments they made over the years be reimbursed. They were among 60,000 people who took out government-backed loans to go to Wilfred. That lawsuit was originally dismissed on a technicality. The decision was overturned when a judge said the Education Department was required to tell students if they're eligible to cancel a loan. Now, four people familiar with the case told Bloomberg the federal government is considering a deal. It would allow students to petition to cancel their debt and get refunds on past payments. The outlet notes a lawyer for the students said in a March 9 filing that they "have made substantial progress toward a final settlement," but no official agreement has been submitted to the court yet.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The notice under Rule 116 was moved by Congress MLAs Punjabhai Vansh, Mahendrasinh Baraiya, Hirabhai Patel and Mansinh Chauhan. The Gujarat government, on Friday, said that it is actively considering to conduct admissions of professional medical courses at Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, a deemed university at Waghodia of Vadodara and other such universities through the common counselling procedure to be done by the state government. Health Minister Shankar Chaudhary said this from the floor of Gujarat Assembly while making a statement on a discussion under Rule 116 of the Assembly on reports of authorities of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth taking bribes from medical students to get them passed in the examination. The notice under Rule 116 was moved by Congress MLAs Punjabhai Vansh, Mahendrasinh Baraiya, Hirabhai Patel and Mansinh Chauhan. The Congress MLAs alleged that commercialisation of education in Gujarat had resulted in large-scale corruption and the Sumandeep Vidyapeeth incident had caused a sense of fear among the parents and students. President of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth Mansukh Shah and two others were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau for accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from mother of a girl student for letting her fill her medical examination papers last month. Giving a reply on the notice, Chaudhary refuted the allegations levelled by opposition Congress and said that taking due seriousness of the complaint lodged by the mother of the girl student, ACB had conducted decoy operation and then arrested total three persons, including Mansukh Shah. Investigation of the case is on. Chaudhary then said that Sumandeep Vidyapeeth is a deemed university which conducts admissions of various medical examinations on its own while also deciding its fees.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Comeback of for-profit medical schools brings questions of reputation, quality of education After nearly a century of dormancy, for-profit medical schools are making a return in the United States. A recent paper by University researchers analyzed the history, reappearance and possible effects that these schools could have on medical education. Though at one time for-profit medical schools existed in the United States, this changed with the publishing of Abraham Flexner’s 1910 report on the state of these schools, according to the paper. There were numerous critiques of these schools in Flexner’s report, particularly of the standards, requirements, teaching and students’ clinical and research exposure. The report led to a renovation of medical teaching and the subsequent disappearance of for-profit institutions. The medical education system accepted nearly all students who could afford to pay tuition prior to 1910, Gruppuso said. “There was no standardized set of requirements for medical schools, and it was creating a real crisis in terms of quality for medical care.” In 1996, the court case United States v. American Bar Association made it possible for for-profit law schools to be established, according to the paper. Though the Liaison Committee on Medical Education had previously been opposed to for-profit medical schools, they slowly began to change their opinions after the court case and eventually allowed for for-profit medical schools to be established in 2013. According to the paper, a number of investor-owned schools, such as the Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine, have been accredited, and more have received preliminary and provisional accreditation. Philip Gruppuso, professor of pediatrics and an author of the paper, said the main point of the article was to bring both the existence and establishment of these for-profit schools to public attention. “(This article) sheds light on the fact that not all medical schools in the United States are nonprofit institutions, so I’m not
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    I’m working with a client to help fill a management level position, and last week we interviewed an applicant with three degrees from a for-profit university. As college degrees become more important for both hiring and advancement, these for-profit educational institutions are growing in number and presence. For-profit schools are just that — businesses. They are corporations, often with shareholders, that have the objective of making a profit. Education is their product. If you’re thinking about going back to school, here are some things to consider before you commit your time or your money to these businesses. Consider your objective. If you want a technical skill, the for-profit route may be for you. Most of these schools do not have entrance requirements. Money and a high school diploma or its equivalent will get you a seat in the program. If you want a college education, consider that the for-profit degrees come with limits. Credits for your work may not transfer to other programs. A bachelor of science degree may not qualify you to move into a graduate program with another school. Most employers will give preference to a candidate with a degree from a traditional university. And if you’re thinking about an advanced degree that will allow you to teach at the university level, don’t even consider the for-profit route. If your objective is flexibility, remember that many traditional universities are now offering online classes and flexible scheduling. Pay attention to accreditation. Accreditation for the university AND for specific programs is a big deal. Learn what accreditation means. Know what the standard of excellence is. Lack of appropriate accreditation may mean your degree is worth very little. Pay attention to cost. Congress is now involved in investigating the costs of for-profit schools. Many state schools are now offering online, evening and weekend programs for much less money. For example, the Georgia WebMBA program is a fully online 18-month master’s program offered through a consortium of
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Current higher education policy in England is based on “bad pub economics” and ministers have failed to learn the lessons from international developments, according to a leading academic. Lorraine Dearden, professor of economics at the UCL Institute of Education and research fellow in education at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, lamented England’s 2012 trebling of fees to £9,000 and current plans in the Higher Education and Research Bill to ease the entry of new private providers as being driven by a desire to create competition. "There are very, very good economic reasons why the market alone cannot be allowed to operate in higher education,” said Professor Dearden in a keynote speech at the Central for Global Higher Education’s annual conference in London on 1 March. She cited “credit market failures” for student lending that means government has to provide loans, the fact that higher education brings “social returns” as well as private returns, “risk and uncertainty” caused by student reluctance to borrow, and “information problems” that mean prospective students cannot know the costs and benefits of their higher education until much later in life. The government’s misguided notion that price competition between universities would occur under the £9,000 cap – when in reality all have ended up charging the maximum – was “bad pub economics”, Professor Dearden said. The £9,000 fees policy failed to take into account the fact that income-contingent loans meant the repayment risk from higher fees was borne by government rather than universities or students, she added. “If you want to allow a range of fees, what is important is that the higher education institutions need to share some of the risk of non-repayment,” she continued. That would mean a system that better reflects the “true costs and benefits” of courses, Professor Dearden said. She added that there were currently “lots of economists trying to work out” how to ensure that universities “have skin in the game”. Professor Dearden also accused Jo Jo
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Webster will host a conference of independent colleges in mid-March titled “Securing America’s Future: The Power of a Liberal Arts Education.” The conference is hosted by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), an organization of small, non-profit private liberal arts colleges. It is intended as a workshop for leaders of these colleges on the future of liberal arts education in America. The CIC works to provide resources to and promote the visibility of its member colleges. Webster president Elizabeth Stroble will speak at the workshop, along with several other university presidents. “This workshop offers private college leaders in the region an opportunity to discuss responses to significant and continuing changes in higher education, the nation, and the world around us,” Rich Ekman, president of the CIC, said in a press release. “Sharing insights and research will help their institutions deal more effectively with both the trends they face today and future issues.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The Trump administration has taken its first shot at rules designed to protect students from expensive, low-quality colleges and career training programs. Less than a month after Betsy DeVos was sworn in as its top official, the U.S. Department of Education announced Monday evening that it would delay until July 1 an effort to crack down on career training programs that load students up with unpayable debt. The biggest winners: the more than 800 higher educational programs that claim to lead to “gainful employment” but flunked the department’s January excessive debt test—mostly for-profit art and cosmetology schools. These programs can now continue to recruit applicants (at least until July 1) without having to warn them about alumni’s oppressively high debt loads. The schools can also take this extra time to seek data showing that their graduates’ student loan bills are actually below the official “excessive debt” cutoff. That means bills must be no more than 12% of the average student’s gross earnings, as reported to the Social Security Administration, and no more than 30% of their discretionary income. That means, for example, that students considering entering, say, the Art Institute of Pittsburgh’s two-year Associate’s program in graphic design won’t necessarily be warned that the typical graduate of the program has taken on about $40,000 in debt, but finds a job paying only about $22,000 a year. The monthly financial reality for such graduates is grim. Their before-tax monthly salary works out to about $1,900. The monthly payments on a standard 10-year student loan repayment plan top $400 – or more than 20% of their gross earnings. The department said it would use the extra time to “further review the [Gainful Employment] regulations and their implementation.” The action puts the brakes on one of many last-minute moves by the Obama administration. In January, the Department of Education issued an analysis of the earnings and student debt levels of more than 8,600 higher education programs that offer pr
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    March 19, 2017 - Higher Education Relevance Quality Agency (HERQA) is discussing with private higher education institutions to introduce a new directive which will regulate them and possibly penalize them in case of breaches, according to the Reporter. The directive, which was prepared by the Agency last year, was tabled to stakeholders including owners, presidents and associations of private higher education institutions for a final discussion. The discussion was meant to receive comments regarding the directive. “Once we receive comments from the interested parties we will take them into consideration,” Tarekgne Geressu, communication head of the Agency told The Reporter. The draft directive gives the Agency the power to penalize institutions that don't follow regulations under civil and criminal law. “The latest one is more detailed and specific than the zero draft,” Solomon Tadesse,” head of legal department at the Agency, said. In addition, we added a list of principles along with the misconducts and penalties, he said. It categorizes the misconducts along with their corresponding penalties. In this respect it listed 15 misconducts and their corresponding penalties. The penalty varies from issuing a warning letter to cancellation of licenses. Irregularities include opening branches and offering different programs without the permission of the Agency, registering students who do not fulfill the academic requirement and receiving students beyond the permitted enrollment by the Agency. The Agency, which has its offices only in Addis Ababa, oversees around 111 colleges, universities, university-colleges and institutes scattered across the country
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    PATNA: The state assembly on Wednesday passed three Bills, including the Bihar Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2017 that envisages to relax the rules for opening a private university. While the varsity Bill was passed unanimously, the two other Bills were passed by voice vote. One of them pertained to the repeal of the existing Bihar Krishak evam Gramin Kshetra Vikas Agency Act to facilitate the merger of the four command area development agencies of the Sone, Gandak, Kosi and Kiul-Badua river basins. The other Bill was an amendment Bill related to the inclusion of the provision for payment of pension to MLAs and MLCs in the Act (2006) governing the payment of salaries and allowances to them. The Accountant General had objected to the pension to the lawmakers as it was not provided for in the pay Act, said parliamentary affairs minister Shrawan Kumar. As for the varsity Bill, education minister Ashok Choudhary said the Act had been framed in 2013 to allow a new private university to run from its premises having an area of 10,000 square metres in a building for two years before shifting to the place designated in the project report. As per the amendment, such a university can be run from the premises of even 5,000 square metres for four years before shifting to the designated place, Choudhary said.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Taiwan's declining birth rate will take a toll on college enrollment, as the Ministry of Education (MOE) predicted Wednesday that the number of students entering university and other higher education institutes would drop close to 40 percent by 2028. At the Legislature's Education and Culture Committee, Deputy Minister of Education Yao Leehter (姚立德) reported that the number of incoming university bachelor freshmen and vocational colleges would drop by 40 percent to 723,000 in 2028 — 413,000 fewer than enrollment rates in 2013. Drops in enrollment are predicted to continue the trend of institutional belt-tightening, including cuts in instructor hiring, school closures and mergers. School lands are likely to be left unused, causing a waste of higher education resources, Yao said, warning that universities and colleges should "begin thinking about an exit plan." As higher education has become more accessible, the number of well-educated unemployed has increased, with many businesses claiming today's graduates do not fit the requirements of a modern workplace. Update Education for Industry The MOE is set to launch a project assisting vocational high school students in entering the job market immediately after graduation, in order to close the gap between education and industry. A flexible department-altering system would be established, Yao said, to allow university departments to change their teaching materials and content to catch up with the latest business trends. The Democratic Progressive Party's Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) questioned the fact that government funds for private universities differ greatly from those for public universities. She said that a regular public university receives three times the funding of a private university, while a regular public school student gets 2.2 times that a private school student gets. "The difference in resources at school impacts students' opportunities in their careers," Su said. In response, Yao said the ministry has increased private universities' funding to NT$8
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search. Most medical school graduates leave school with a significant amount of student debt, and their debt burden tends to be higher if they attended private medical schools. But private medical schools vary widely in price. Among ranked private schools in the 2018 Best Medical Schools research and primary care rankings, the cost of tuition and fees for the 2016-2017 school year ranges from $32,663 per year at Baylor College of Medicine to $63,890 per year at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. At the 10 least expensive ranked private medical schools, tuition and fees for the 2016-2017 school year were slightly more than $43,700 on average compared with the typical price at a private medical school, which was nearly $53,900 annually. Six of these 10 schools were ranked in the bottom one-fourth in the medical school rankings, and are labeled Rank Not Published. Below is a list of the 10 ranked private medical schools with the lowest tuition and fees in 2016. Two of these schools offer discounts to in-state residents – the Baylor College of Medicine and the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. The prices given for the schools in this article are the full-freight rates paid by out-of-state students. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report. U.S. News surveyed 170 medical schools for our 2016 survey of research and primary care programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, could be close down. CEU was founded in 1991 and has 1,440 students from 117 countries, many of whom on a scholarship, and has operated in Hungary for 25 years. Many of the social science degrees offered at the CEU rank among the world’s top 50-100, while it is also one of the leading research institutions in Hungary. The management of the private university says that the Victor Orban administration has introduced legislation that makes its operation impossible. The law proposed by the Orban government suggests that any foreign University must be subject to an intergovernmental agreement and can only operate in Hungary if it has a campus in the country of origin. CEU is registered with New York State but does not have a campus in the United States. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Orban view George Soros as a political foe. Even if setting up a campus in the United States within a year would be possible, an intergovernmental agreement to ensure the continued operation of the CEU would be impossible. Speaking to Bloomberg on Wednesday, the President of CEU, Professor Michael Ignatieff, made clear that “the bill is a threat to our continued existence in Hungary.” However, the Education Secretary Laszlo Palkovics says the proposed legislation will be applied to 28 foreign universities operating in Hungary and is not targeting the CEU alone. “This is not an anti-CEU investigation and not against Mr. Soros,” Mr. Paklovics told the BBC.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Arizona Summit Law school, a troubled for-profit institution owned by the InfiLaw System, has been placed on probation by its accrediting body, the American Bar Association. The association’s move was announced on Monday and followed Arizona Summit’s affiliation with Bethune-Cookman University, a nonprofit historically black college in Daytona Beach, Fla. Arizona Summit Law in Phoenix is the second school owned by InfiLaw to be placed on probation for failing to meet A.B.A. accreditation standards. Sterling Partners, a private equity firm in Chicago and Baltimore, is an investor. The first, Charlotte School of Law in Charlotte, N.C., lost its eligibility for federal student aid in January as a result of the probation. Its enrollment has declined sharply, and the school has said it is trying to restart federal aid and is exploring affiliation with a nonprofit college in a Northeastern state. At Arizona Summit, the bar association found that admissions practices, academic programs, and graduation and bar exam passage rates were below par. These deficiencies, according to a statement by the A.B.A. Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, “have resulted in the law school now being in a position where only immediate and substantial action can bring about a sufficient change to put the law school on a realistic path to being in compliance within the time allowed” by the bar association’s rules. Only 24.6 percent of Arizona Summit graduates who took the Arizona state bar exam for the first time in July 2016 passed, an exceptionally low rate. Charlotte School of Law reported nearly the same passage rate for its graduates who took the North Carolina bar exam last month. The bar association said that because the situation at Arizona Summit was critical and urgent, it could have hearings this year to consider any additional remedial action or sanctions “up to and including withdrawal of the law school’s approval.” The probation decision was made by the bar association’s Council of the Section of Legal E
    6 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
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The Rwandan Ministry of Education has temporarily suspended the operations of four universities and courses in six other universities as part of a strategy to deal with sub-standard educational offerings. The move follows recommendations of an audit report on the quality of education in the higher learning institutions in the country, the findings of which indicated that the institutions in question had either inadequate staff or teaching facilities. These institutions have been given six months to address the inadequacies and comply with the higher education requirements before they are allowed to resume normal operations. Rwanda has 35 universities, two of which are public (the University of Rwanda and the Institute of Legal Practice and Development) and 33 of which are private. ‘Irregularities’ A total of 16 universities, including those affected by suspensions, were issued with letters asking them to correct “irregularities” and comply with the ministry’s requirements. Among those universities which have been told to suspend courses are two international universities: the Open University of Tanzania and the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology of Kenya. The audit was carried out in all higher education institutions – public and private – in October last year by international external auditors. The audit report is yet to be made public. The four suspended universities are Rusizi International University, Sinhgad Technical Education Society-Rwanda, Mahatma Gandhi University and Nile Source Polytechnic of Applied Arts in Huye district. Suspension of courses The six other universities which have been told to suspend undergraduate courses include the University of Technology and Arts of Byumba, the Open University of Tanzania, the University of Gitwe, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Institut Catholique de Kabgayi and Institut d’Enseignement Superieur de Ruhengeri. Some of the suspended courses include medicine and surgery, science in medical laboratory and te
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Senate Democrats want Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to explain why she’s delaying the implementation of an Obama-era rule aimed at ensuring career-training programs, specifically those at for-profit colleges, actually prepare students for good-paying jobs. In a letter to DeVos this week, Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Patty Murray (Wash.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) called the department’s gainful employment rule a critical protection for both students and taxpayers. On Jan. 9, the department released final debt-to-earning rates for career training programs required by the rule finalized under Obama in October 2014. Under the rule, the estimated annual loan payment of a typical graduate would have to be at or below 20 percent of his or her discretionary income or 8 percent of his or her total earnings to be considered a program that leads to gainful employment. Programs that exceed these levels would be at risk of losing their ability to participate in taxpayer-funded federal student aid programs. Late last week the department gave schools more time to appeal their ratings, which are generated using earnings data from the Social Security Administration and debt information from the department’s records and the school. Final appeals, originally due March 10, are now due July 1. But Democrats argue the rule was generous to begin with, giving schools three opportunities to appeal their rates. “According to a Department spokesperson, the delay was also due to ‘a question about whether schools can provide data to a third party,’” the senators wrote. “It is unclear how this question could not have been solved through follow-up guidance rather than a delay.” DeVos is also giving Gainful Employment Programs until July 1 to switch to a new format in meeting the requirement to disclose information about their programs, including graduation rates, tuition and fee amounts, typical student debt upon graduation and what a graduate is likely to earn. The senators asked DeVos how long
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Taylor’s University is ranked no. 29 in the world for Hospitality & Leisure Management Taylor’s University today achieved a global milestone through recognition in the QS World University Ranking by Subject results which positioned the university as number one in Malaysia and top 30 in the world for Hospitality & Leisure Management. Taylor’s University placed alongside renowned universities in Asia, including Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore for the top 5 ranking for the subject. Taylor’s University Vice Chancellor & President, Professor Michael Driscoll shared his elation over this accomplishment, sharing that this accolade further solidified Taylor’s strong standing in this area. “As Taylor’s University moves to the next chapter towards balanced excellence, this accomplishment provides us with a stronger foundation as we continue to attract the best talents, collaborate with the best partners globally and produce the best graduates who make a difference in their communities, wherever they are in the world. This international recognition reflects our perseverance and dedication to provide the highest of quality undergraduate teaching and learning, and a testament of our outstanding academic reputation, employer reputation and our research capability in this particular field,” shared Professor Driscoll. He added that this achievement is indeed an important milestone for Taylor’s, a young, dynamic and ambitious university, in line with its aspiration of becoming one of Asia’s top 100 universities by year 2022. In addition to the recognition for hospitality and tourism management subjects, Taylor’s is also the only private university in Malaysia to receive recognition for the subject of Art & Design, making it to top 200 in the world and top 2 placing in Malaysia, alongside Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) made it to third placing for this subject in Malaysia. These accomplishments signal that the quality of the teachin
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    177 Private Colleges Fail Education Dept.'s Financial-Responsibility Test "According to a Chronicle analysis of data released on Tuesday, 177 private colleges that grant degrees failed a U.S. Education Department test for financial responsibility in the 2014-15 academic year. That's 18 more than the previous year," according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. "Of the institutions that failed, 112 are nonprofit, and the remaining 65 are for-profit. In the previous year, 93 of the 159 failing institutions were nonprofit. The department considers an institution’s debt and assets, among other factors, in giving it a score ranging from -1 to 3. Scores lower than 1.5 are considered failing. The department’s methodology in devising the scores has drawn sharp criticism in the past from some higher-education groups. The latest scores cover the institutions for fiscal years ending between July 1, 2014, and June 30, 2015. Several of the colleges have closed since the 2014-15 academic year. Some, like Dowling College, in Oakdale, N.Y., previously failed the financial-responsibility test, while others, like Saint Joseph’s College, in Rensselaer, Ind., passed it." NASFAA's "Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented. Publication Date: 3/10/2017
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    RANCHI: The state higher and technical education department plans to provide aid to private engineering and polytechnic colleges to develop infrastructural facility and increase the gross enrolment ratio of the higher education institutes. . . Sources in the higher education department said the government plans to provide up to Rs 6 crore to private engineering colleges and around Rs 3 crore to private polytechnic institutions to help them upgrade their laboratories and use smart technologies in their classrooms. There are 11 private engineering colleges and 16 private polytechnic colleges in the state. . . Department secretary Ajay Kumar Singh said, "The funds will be given to the existing colleges in instalments. An amount of Rs 2 crore and Rs 1 crore will be given as first instalment to engineering and polytechnic colleges." . . The department has laid down a host criteria for the institutes to be eligible for the aid: The institutes need to be recognised by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and have their financial statements of past five years audited. The colleges also need to be affiliated to state board of technical education. . . The second instalment will be given to colleges only if it is accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). . . Once the grant is provided to the colleges they will have to ensure that students from the state are enrolled in 60% of the total seats for a span of five years. . . The department will also provide land to new colleges planning to set up their campuses in state if they get AICTE recognition. . . "The national gross enrolment ratio is 23.6% while the state ratio is 13.4% only. We aim to increase this ratio to up to 30% by 2018, and for this we want more private colleges in the state," Singh said. .
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    It might just be career government lawyers doing their jobs, and doing them well, until the Trump Administration can catch up and work its malevolence, but in court papers filed today, the Trump Justice Department defended the Obama Administration’s gainful employment rule, a measure aimed at curbing predatory abuses by for-profit colleges. The rule penalizes expensive career college programs that, year after year, leave graduates with debts that, based on their earnings, they cannot afford to repay. “The public interest is served by allowing the Department to go forward with implementing the GE regulations,” Justice Department lawyers wrote on behalf of their client, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who is being sued by an association of cosmetology schools. The association’s somewhat risque argument is that many hairdressers and other beauty professionals do not report all their tip income to the IRS, and thus their graduates actually are doing better than the gainful employment calculations give them credit for. Revised under pressure from industry lobbyists, the Obama Administration’s rule is not very strong, but it does endanger some of the worst-of-the-worst college programs. The operators of those programs, who have been raking in billions in taxpayer money, want to make sure they can still act with impunity, even though their abuses have ruined the lives of countless veterans, single moms, and other students. There are good cosmetology schools, as well as other types of career schools. The gainful employment rule aims to channel resources and students to those quality, affordable schools, and away from the kind of for-profit colleges that law enforcement agencies are investigating or prosecuting for fraud. But given: that Donald Trump was previously the proprietor of his own predatory for-profit real estate “university”; that Trump crony Newt Gingrich and congressional Republicans have aggressively advocated for the for-profit college industry; that DeVos has been invested in for-profit education
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    "For-profit colleges have faced federal and state investigations in recent years for their aggressive recruiting tactics –– accusations that come as no surprise to author Tressie McMillan Cottom," NPR reports. "Cottom worked as an enrollment officer at two different for-profit colleges, but quit because she felt uncomfortable selling students an education they couldn't afford. Her new book, Lower Ed, argues that for-profit colleges exploit racial, gender and economic inequality. Cottom tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that for-profit institutions tend to focus their recruiting on students who qualify for the maximum amount of student aid. 'That happens to be the poorest among us,' she says. 'And because of how our society is set up, the poorest among us tend to be women and people of color.' Though for-profit colleges hold out the promise of a better future, Cottom notes that the credentials they offer tend to be 30 to 40 percent more expensive than the same credentials from a nonprofit public institution. What's more, she says, students at for-profit institutions often drop out before completing their degree, which means many students are left mired in debt and with credits that are not easily transferable. 'The system that we've come to rely on to increase access to higher education to the most vulnerable among us really only compounds their poverty and their risk factors,' Cottom says. 'That's the exact opposite of what higher education is supposed to do.'" NASFAA's "Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    AGRA: Acting on a directive from chief minister Yogi Adityanath to curb the menace of mass cheating in the ongoing UP Board examinations, a team of invigilators led by Agra University vice-chancellor conducted a surprise raid at a private college and caught the owner red-handed while assisting students in copying. The raid was conducted on Wednesday evening by a four-member team at Manish Sharma College on Deori road under Sadar police jurisdiction. The private college is owned by Prashant Sharma. Talking to TOI, professor Luvkush Mishra, a team member, said, "It was astonishing to see that the owner of the college was acting as the center superintendent for examinations in the college. There was no principal or invigilators in the college." According to university norms, only principal, center superintendent and invigilators are allowed during exam hours. "Acting as the centre superintendent, Prashant was signing and collecting the answer-sheets that were mostly blank. After examination hours, he gave those blank answer sheets to the boys he had hired and dictated answers to them," said professor Mishra. The team found several bundles of answer sheets at Prashant's office that were not sealed after the exams. Arvind Dixit, VC of Agra University, said, "After conducting the exam, the answer sheets must be sealed within half-an-hour in the presence of invigilators and centre superintendent. However, we found several bundles that were not sealed." The team members said that after the boys had filled up the sheets, Prashant placed it between the bundles and sent it to the respective centres. On Wednesday , the team seized all the answer sheets and urged the regional higher education officer to take strict action against the accused. In order to conduct the remaining examinations, the VC has allotted four invigilators and a center superintendent from Agra University to Manish Sharma College. According to an Agra University official, CM Aditya Nath Yogi had called a high-level meeting of university VCs on Tuesday an
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The right-wing government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is taking steps that could cause a popular American university in Budapest to close. Under a bill submitted to the Hungarian Parliament late Tuesday, non-EU universities issuing diplomas in Hungary would be required to have a campus in their home country. Central European University — which was founded in 1991 by liberal philanthropist and investor George Soros and is widely considered to be the top private university in Hungary — does not have a campus in the United States, even though it is registered in New York state. Students from scores of countries are enrolled in the university's English-language, graduate and post-graduate programs. Orban and the Hungarian-born Soros have a strained relationship, even though the prime minister received a scholarship from the Soros foundation that allowed him to study briefly at Oxford. Hungarian officials say the legislation doesn't have anything to do with Soros or CEU, even though the new requirement doesn't affect Hungary's 27 other non-EU universities, which all have campuses abroad. They say the changes are needed because foreign-funded universities are operating outside the law. But many Hungarians, and certainly Orban's critics in and outside of the country, believe the legislation is a clear attempt to shut down CEU. If the legislation passes, the law would take effect in September and CEU would have to open a campus in the United States by Feb. 15, 2018, if it wants to stay open. That is something the university says "would have no educational benefit and would incur needless financial and human resource costs." The bill "is a threat to our continued existence in Hungary," Michael Ignatieff, CEU's president and rector, told reporters at a news conference. He vowed to fight back, adding: "This university is not going to close under any circumstance and we won't be pushed around." Ignatieff met with Hungary's education minister Wednesday night in Budapest to try to resolve the conflict, CEU
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    DAYS could be numbered for independent private colleges playing hide-and-seek with government with regards to the implementation of the new curriculum for primary and secondary education is concerned. Many of the country's private colleges are either resisting or finding it difficult to implement the syllabi, with some of them having completely abandoned the local examination body -- the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council -- in favour of Cambridge International Examinations. Officials from independent colleges surveyed by the Financial Gazette recently are of the view that implementing the new curriculum would be costly for their institutions because it requires additional staff to cover the new subjects that are part of the new syllabi. It would also entail that their teaching staff go through re-training while relevant learning material would have to be acquired. But Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister, Paul Mavhima, said government would clampdown on all institutions defying its directives. He outlined what he called two issues characterising independent colleges' terrain. "Firstly, there are some institutions in this sector that are operating without any form of registration and many of these institutions have approached us and pleaded for the formalisation grace period to be extended. "Secondly, there are some registered independent colleges that, for one reason or the other, are not implementing the new curriculum, but recruiting trained teachers. "Now all the institutions choosing to operate without registration risk facing closure, if they do not put their paperwork in order," said Mavhima. Christian College of Southern Africa principal, Tichaona Zinhumwe, said the way the new curriculum was structured requires them to change the way they have been enrolling students. "This poses challenges because we do not have adequate facilities to accommodate these students. Some of the subjects require space and most independent colleges are located in city centres so it will be difficult to
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    According to a Chronicle analysis of data released on Tuesday, 177 private colleges that grant degrees failed a U.S. Education Department test for financial responsibility in the 2014-15 academic year. That’s 18 more than the previous year. Of the institutions that failed, 112 are nonprofit, and the remaining 65 are for-profit. In the previous year, 93 of the 159 failing institutions were nonprofit. The department considers an institution’s debt and assets, among other factors, in giving it a score ranging from -1 to 3. Scores lower than 1.5 are considered failing. The department’s methodology in devising the scores has drawn sharp criticism in the past from some higher-education groups. The latest scores cover the institutions for fiscal years ending between July 1, 2014, and June 30, 2015. Several of the colleges have closed since the 2014-15 academic year. Some, like Dowling College, in Oakdale, N.Y., previously failed the financial-responsibility test, while others, like Saint Joseph’s College, in Rensselaer, Ind., passed it.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Ratings agency dings small university for spending big after a new president took over. As focus shifts to a budget deficit, question becomes whether Drew can cut spending while growing enrollment. MaryAnn Baenninger inherited a budget deficit when she came to Drew University in the summer of 2014. The next year, the small private university’s deficit grew. And that was by choice. Drew spent more as Baenninger sought to put money into the university’s campus, students and employees. The university issued its first raises in about five years. It hired a respected enrollment guru and increased its financial aid spending. It renovated the dining hall. The spending was a change for Drew, a pricey university to the west of New York City in Madison, N.J., which had been preparing for budget cuts following several years of dropping enrollment before Baenninger arrived. But, according to Baenninger and members of her administration, the spending helped to keep talented staff and faculty members from leaving, improve student retention and increase applications from prospective students. “We were losing kids on the food, for God’s sake,” Baenninger said. “Our salaries were going downhill. Now they’re going up.” Recently, however, the spotlight has shifted to Drew’s deteriorating financial situation. Moody’s Investors Service drove home that point this month by downgrading Drew’s bonds for the second time in 15 months. Moody’s dropped one series of bonds from Ba3 to B2 and two others from Ba3 to B3, sinking them farther into junk territory and signifying that they are highly speculative. Moody’s pointed to operating deficits that are expected to last longer than previously projected, along with a competitive student market constraining possibilities for short-term revenue growth. It said Drew has no more unrestricted liquidity left and would have to rely on loans and distributions from temporarily restricted endowment assets for working capital. Moody’s also assigned a negative rating outlook. “The negative outlook reflect
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The Bihar Legislative Council today passed seven bills including the Bihar Private University (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which paved way for running private universities from rented premises in the state. State Education minister Ashok Choudhary introduced the bill proposing to allow private universities to function from rented premises with a built up area of 5,000 sqm up to two years till construction of permanent infrastructure. Countering BJP member Vinod Narayan Jha's assertion that not a single university has shown interest in opening its campus in Bihar, Choudhary said the state government has received 14 proposals for setting up universities. Out of them, the government has set up a committee to look into the Detailed Project Report of 12 proposals. Three universities would start running their courses soon and the government has decided to allow such universities to run their academic activities from rented accommodation for two years if they fulfil all requisite criteria, he said. "Our aim is to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in universities. So, we opened the door for private institutions. At present, the state's GER is 13.9 per cent against the national average of 24 per cent. The government intends to push that up to 30 per cent by 2020," he said. State Parliamentary Affairs minister Shrawan Kumar introduced the Bihar State Legislature (Members' salaries, allowances and pension) (amendment) Bill, 2017 which was passed by the legislative Assembly yesterday. An amendment has been proposed in the preamble of the State Legislature (Members' salaries, allowances and pension) (Amendment) Act to incorporate provision of pension for retired members of the bicameral state legislature. The House passed Bihar Farmers and Rural Areas Development Agency (Repeal) Bill, 2017, the Patna University (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Bihar State University (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Bihar Appropriation Excess Expenditure Bill, 2017. The Legislative Council also passed the Bihar Protection of Interest of Dep
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 750 higher education institutions closed last year, including for-profit schools. Among these closing schools are private nonprofit colleges no longer able to fill the gaps between revenue and expenses and sustain operations while debt remains unpaid. While very few of the higher education institutions closing each year are private nonprofit schools, the annual number has tripled since the recession and is anticipated to remain stable or increase further, according to a 2015 Moody’s report. Many of the schools most at risk have fewer than 500 students and are affiliated with religious denominations. When a college or university goes bankrupt, what happens to its endowment? Most financially troubled schools have modest endowments, and some of the funds within the endowments are restricted by their donors to specific “for good, forever” purposes rather than immediate general support like debt relief. For example, Art Rebrovick, restructuring officer for Virginia Intermont College, which closed in 2014, said, “The endowment was on the books for $4 million, but it had been leveraged and used for faculty salaries so many times that there was just literally no money there.” If there is money left, there can be a fight between creditors, or between successor institutions taking up the responsibility of educating students. When Chester College in New Hampshire closed, it designated New England College as the recipient of its residual assets. This practice follows state and IRS guidelines that direct dissolving 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations to give remaining funds to other nonprofits with similar missions, services, clientele, etc. However, the New England Institute of Art challenged the decision because it said that it was taking 92 percent of Chester College’s students and that act should be supported by the college’s residual endowment. Ultimately, the New Hampshire courts decided that the funds would be split 60-40 between the two schools, with New England
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    WAXAHACHIE — Academic Excellence: two puissant words that all schools and university aim for and contend to be the best. Out of 47 private colleges in Texas that offer online courses, Southwestern Assemblies of God University has ranked in the top five of online colleges in Texas by Affordable Colleges Online for the 2016-2017 school year. According to AffordableCollegesOnline.org, "Texas is second in the nation in the number of institutions offering online degree programs. In Texas, online degree programs are designed to provide the same academic quality and rigor as their campus-based equivalents, but with the flexibility and convenience of 24/7 remote access. There are notable schools in the Lone Star State that merit recognition." With an overall high score of 98.71 for it's 53 online programs, 16:1 student-teacher ratio, and 73 percent financial aid assistance, SAGU ranked No. 4 in the poll and stood out amongst larger schools that include Dallas Baptist University, University of Houston-Victoria, and Wayland Baptist University. As stated by the website, "The colleges that made the list of the Best Online Colleges in Texas for 2016—17 have a demonstrated a record of excellence in delivering online programs and support to students at the post-secondary level." Affordable Colleges Online ranked the best online colleges in the state with information gathered by researchers and postsecondary experts. The organization's goal is to find colleges that offer a balance of academics, student support, and affordability concerning online education. Factors considered in the ranking process included in-state tuition and fees for undergraduate students, the percentage of students receiving scholarships or grants from the college, and availability of job placement services for students and graduates. Within SAGU's online programs, the school offers both bachelor and master's degrees in Education, Theology, and Psychology, continuing to grow in other areas of interest. Many of these programs are also available in fast-trac
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Seven Missouri private colleges and six from Kansas have failed a U.S. Department of Education test of their financial responsibility during the 2014-2015 academic year. The Chronicle of Higher Education this week released analyzed data that found 177 degree-granting colleges across the country failed the test, 18 more than had failed the previous year. Most of those failing were nonprofits. Only 65 of the failing schools were for-profit institutions. Among them was Wright Career College, a for-profit private school that was based in Overland Park and closed in April 2016 after going bankrupt. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that in determining whether an institution passes or fails, the Education Department considers an institution’s debt and assets, among other factors. Scores given range from negative-1 to 3, and any score below 1.5 is considered failing. These schools are subject to cash monitoring and other federally imposed requirements. A school could raise concerns about its financial responsibility and end up on the monitoring list for late financial statements, outstanding liabilities and accreditation issues. The scores are made public by the federal Education Department as some broad indication of the financial health of thousands of two- and four-year schools. The idea is to give tuition-paying students and parents a better look at what their money is buying and how it’s being used. “The department’s methodology in devising the scores has drawn sharp criticism in the past from some higher-education groups,” the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Among the schools in Missouri listed with a failing score for the 2014-2015 academic year is Westminster College in Fulton with a score of 1.1. But school officials said the college has subsequently improved performance and the reported score “does not reflect our college’s current financial conditions,” said Lana Poole, college spokeswoman. Poole said Westminster’s composite score for financial responsibility would increase to 2.7 fo
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    More than 150,000 students qualify for university admission annually, but only 27,000 can be accommodated in state-run universities, State Minister of Higher Education Mohan Lal Grero said. He said others, numbering around 130,000 were left out and some of them opted for vocational education and related areas in the governmental institutions. The Minister was addressing a seminar organised by the Agriculture Faculty of the Peradeniya University, under the theme ‘Peradeniya University and Sri Lanka Food Industry-the inter relationship’ as part of its diamond jubilee commemoration of the University at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Institute, Colombo. That was the reason the government had decided to support private higher education sector, Grero said. The government would introduce a loan scheme for students who had financial problems to enrol in higher education institutes in Sri Lanka. "If we have quality higher educational institutions within the country foreign exchange can be saved," Grero said. The minister said they would also focus on further developing the state education sector. The government was planning to increase state university intake by 15% by 2020. According to its policy the main target was to increase the intake up to 50,000 students by 2020, Grero said.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    President Donald Trump´s threat to deport millions of illegal immigrants – half of them Mexicans – has triggered an unprecedented campaign by the Mexican government and universities. A raft of measures announced in recent weeks seek to reincorporate returning migrants into the country´s education system and labour force while defending those who wish to remain in the United States. Trump has vowed to deport as many as three million illegal immigrants, with those with criminal records at the front of the queue. However, there is growing fear among the hundreds of thousands of university students and workers who are beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA programme – which grants temporary legal status to certain immigrants who arrived as minors – following the detention of several DACA holders in recent weeks. A recent series of menacing tweets by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, suggesting that even DACA holders could be subject to deportation, has sparked further alarm. Mexicans represent roughly 5.8 million of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. They include an estimated 400,000 Mexicans known as Dreamers, for the proposed federal Dream Act that sought to provide legal status for young immigrants. Many have little or no support system in Mexico and some don´t even speak Spanish. In response, the Mexican government is seeking to ease the repatriation process for hundreds of thousands of migrants, particularly students. New legislation On 17 March, the Mexican Congress approved new legislation that streamlines the application process to schools and universities for returning migrants. The changes to the federal Education Law empower private colleges to revalidate transcripts from other Mexican or foreign institutions. Even more significant, students who studied abroad no longer need to present an apostille – a diplomatic notarised seal – along with their transcripts, a process that can take weeks and cost hundreds of dollars. The feder
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    After leaving Somalia at the height of the civil war to work in universities in Italy and Canada, Professor Mohamed Ahmed Jimale returned to the ravaged Somalian capital of Mogadishu in 2012 with the idea of reviving the Somali National University, or SNU, where he had graduated in 1983 and taught as a lecturer in the faculty of veterinary sciences. He was approved as rector by the new central government in 2013 and the university opened in 2014 with six faculties. In this interview, Jimale speaks about the state of higher education in Somalia and the challenge of running a university in what is still an unstable and often hostile environment, and about his hopes of helping poorer Somalis to attain the kind of education that launched his own career. UWN: What does it take to run such a university? MAJ: It’s not easy at times. Finding students is difficult, as is finding the right calibre of academic and support staff. Our university is tuition-free, therefore whoever gets admission here must earn it first by passing their high school exams and our pre-admission exams, which many students fail. At the level of academic staff, the higher education labour sector in Somalia is still young and it is tricky getting the right personnel to run the university. Another challenge is that we depend on the government for funding, which is not constant or predictable due to other competing national budget priorities. There are those who hold a myth that a tuition-free government university like ours is the preserve of high-ranking government officials and their children or you have to be influential or come from powerful families to get admission. We have had to battle with and demystify [this], making it clear that the university is open to all Somalis. The only ticket required is good grades. The final challenge is how to bring back our seven campuses with limited resources and cater for swelling numbers. UWN: What kind of assistance have you received from foreign universities? MAJ: One of the major problems we
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    For those that draw the line in the sand at $5.00 for a “penny stock,” Aspen Group, Inc. (OTCQB:ASPU) may be able to graduate out of penny-stock-land soon. Trading as low as $1.52 last July (and $1.21 in January 2016), the company has found a solid uptrend to tip the scales at $4.44 in December for its current 52-week high. After a pullback from that high, shares are moving up again, including a 7.7% climb in morning trading to $4.04 on Friday. Shares are being driven by the New York City-based post-secondary education company issuing two substantial pieces of news after Thursday’s closing bell. First, in the third quarter of fiscal 2017 (ended January 31, 2017), Aspen reported revenue of $3.74 million, up 73% from the year prior quarter. The company swung to a profit, with net earnings of $7,377 versus a net loss of $689,718 a year earlier. Aspen also had a record number 825 new student enrollments during the latest quarter, a 50% year-over-year increase. Separately, the company said it signed a letter of intent to acquire an unnamed regionally accredited for-profit university based in California for $9.0 million. Payment will come in the form of $2.5 million in cash, $2.0 million in convertible debt and $4.5 million in ASPU common stock. $900,000 of the $2.5 million cash component will be lent to a newly-formed entity controlled by the loan’s guarantor who owns 100% of the voting power of the university.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Provincial minister for Higher Education Commission, Syed Raza Gillani, has announced that distribution of laptops among university students will start from 13th March. A total of 115,000 laptops will be awarded to deserving students from public sector universities. This announcement was made during a departmental meeting at Civil Secretariat on 8th March. Secretary Higher Education Department Naseem Nawaz and representatives of private universities and Punjab Higher Education Commission attended the meeting. Share of public and private universities According to Prime Minister’s Laptop scheme, only public sector university students were eligible to enroll in the program. This meant that around 110,000 laptops were to be distributed to deserving students enrolled in public universities. However, Punjab government has decided to award additional 5,000 laptops to students from private universities. Talking about this change in policy, Raza Gillani said that provision of laptops to private universities is another ‘first’ of Punjab government. He further added that this would help the students to improve their access to the latest knowledge-trends. Schedule of distribution Distribution of these laptops will start from 13th March. Public sector universities will be the first to get these laptops, with private sector universities coming later down the road.
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    President Donald Trump’s administration has begun relaxing restrictions on for-profit colleges, and traders in shares of companies like Strayer Education Inc. (STRA) and Capella Education Co. (CPLA) have taken note. For-profit college stocks soared in the week after the Department of Education announced a delay in the implementation of a regulation finalized in October 2014 by former President Barack Obama. Shares of Strayer Education, a holding company for Strayer University, climbed 2.5 percent in the week following the March 6 announcement, hitting a high of $81.40 shortly after Monday market open, while Capella Education, the parent of Capella University, grew 1.8 percent over the same period, surpassing $78 Monday morning. Grand Canyon Education Inc. (LOPE), the parent of Grand Canyon University, rose 3.5 percent over the past week to an all-time high of $67.49, and Laureate Education Inc. (LAUR), which counts Walden University as one of its for-profit institutions and was formerly known as Sylvan Learning Systems, saw its shares rise 0.6 percent to nearly $13 Monday. DeVry Education Group Inc. (DV), known for its DeVry University, saw a more modest 0.4 percent rise over the past week. The Department of Education initially required for-profit colleges, along with some nonprofit and public schools, to report data on the success of their job training programs by April 3, but under new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the date was pushed to July 1. The rule, which was originally slated for implementation on July 1, 2015, would cut back on federal funding for institutions whose programs did not lead to "gainful employment"— meaning graduates’ annual loan payments exceeded 20 percent of their income. For-profit colleges, whose attendees tend to be disproportionately female, minority and low-income, have long faced criticism for their role in the student debt crisis. Data released from the Department of Education in September linked more than 35 percent of student debt defaults in 2013 to the institutions, des
    6 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
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    The first class of students who went to community college for free under Tennessee Promise is graduating this spring. Some might go straight into the workforce, some plan to transfer to public universities — but private colleges are starting to make a concerted effort to recruit them, too. One of these efforts comes in the form of a scholarship, a potentially hefty one: Tennessee Promise students transferring to Lipscomb University will receive at least $10,000, making up more than a third of their tuition. The university announced the "Lipscomb Promise" scholarship last week. “A substantial amount of their education will be funded by this university," said university president Randy Lowry. "That, in partnership with state resources ... [and] with their own resources and work, should provide them with the opportunity for this kind of college experience.” This award is not actually new — Lipscomb already offered the $10,000-plus scholarship to transfer students, under a different name, in past years. Lebron Hill, a junior, says the "Lipscomb Pathways" award was an integral part of his deciding to transfer from Motlow State Community College last year. "The money was a main factor in my choice, so I'm glad I was able to get the scholarship," he says. So "Lipscomb Promise" is essentially a rebranding. But changing the wording is not insignificant — after all, the entire Tennessee Promise program showed that marketing makes a difference. The governor has acknowledged that a huge part of its success is the fact that it proactively labels community college as "free," even though it was already free for many students because they qualified for federal financial aid. Mike Krause, who oversees the Tennessee Promise program and the state's higher education commission, says he expects calling the scholarship "Lipscomb Promise" will make a difference. “I think this is a place where the brand matters. You’re able to tell a student who’s really gotten used to the Tennessee Promise message [that college is affordable for
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     
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    Buoyed by the ascendancy of Donald Trump, America’s predatory for-profit colleges are renewing their multi-front fight to destroy a key measure to hold them accountable: the gainful employment rule. The new battle plan includes pushes in Congress and before the Betsy DeVos Department of Education, plus two new lawsuits aimed at the regulation, including one, in Arizona, that has not been previously reported. It looks like this harmful effort is rapidly gaining traction. It took the Obama administration nearly eight years of battling well-paid for-profit college lobbyists and lawyers to finally enact and implement this regulation, which has a simple, common sense premise: Career training programs that, year-after-year, leave graduates mired in overwhelming debt should lose eligibility for taxpayer-funded student grants and loans. Career education should make people financially better off, not worse off, and the rule aims to channel money away from programs that do harm — and channel it toward those honest, effective colleges that are genuinely helping students build careers. For decades, many for-profit colleges, through a toxic mix of high prices, low quality, and weak job placement, have promised more than they could deliver, and yet have been getting billions annually in federal aid, much of it spent on advertising and profits, rather than education. Many veterans, single moms, displaced factory workers and miners, and others struggling to build a better future have been deceived and abused by unscrupulous college owners, whose offices are in Wall Street suites as well as strip malls. The final gainful employment rule does not demand much; only the worst programs flunk its test comparing graduate earnings with debt levels. The first round of results, reported in January, showed that 98 percent of the flunking programs were at for-profit colleges. The for-profit colleges have never stopped trying to overturn the rule, even after federal courts decisively rejected two separate industry lawsuits. Now, however,
    6 years ago by @prophe
     
     

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