Author: jplucas

Colleges may soon be running ads something like that for chief privacy officers, a title so new in higher education that one campus public-relations official, when asked if his institution had a CPO, replied, “What in the blue blazes is that?”

More U.S. students are studying abroad than ever before, and they’re choosing an increasingly diverse array of destinations, a new report says. A record 241,791 U.S. students went abroad for academic credit in 2006-07, up 8% from the previous year, and nearly 150% more than a decade earlier.

The number of foreign students enrolled in U.S. colleges surged 7% last year to 623,805, an all-time high and the largest one-year increase on record. It is the strongest sign yet that post-9/11 declines are history. Enrollments of foreign undergraduate and graduate students just starting to pursue their degree are rising even faster â?? 10.1% last year â?? suggesting growth will continue, the report says.

In light of the ongoing economic downturn, college foundation directors are preparing to work harder to provide the scholarships that deserving students are going to need more than ever.

Each year, foundation staff members and volunteers raise money for students, faculty and campus projects. The foundation directors early next year will finalize how much money they have available to award to students for the 2009-10 academic year.

The number of international students enrolled in American colleges in the fall of 2007 shattered previous records and represents the largest one-year increase in decades, according to new data from the Institute of International Education.

Educators and government officials say the bounce indicates that hostile student-visa policies, weak recruiting efforts by colleges, and insufficient government support are things of the past. A weak dollar, the growing number of internationally mobile students, the lack of higher-education capacity in key source countries like China, and a rising middle class in those same countries have also helped fuel the growth.

The price of leadership continues to rise in higher education, particularly for public-university presidents. According to The Chronicle’s latest survey of executive compensation, median pay and benefits rose 7.6 percent in 2007-8, to $427,400, for the leaders of 184 public research universities.

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i13/13b00301.htm
The price of leadership continues to rise in higher education, particularly for public-university presidents. According to The Chronicle’s latest survey of executive compensation, median pay and benefits rose 7.6 percent in 2007-8, to $427,400, for the leaders of 184 public research universities.

Many of the nation’s wealthiest private institutions also had big pay increases at the top. And some community-college leaders, who earn far less than their four-year peers, made big strides in the past year.

Record numbers of American students are studying abroad, with especially strong growth in educational exchanges with China, the annual report by the Institute on International Education found.

More foreign students came to the United States in the 2007-8 academic year than ever before. But while there were some gains in the core undergraduate and graduate populations, particularly at the graduate level, the record result was driven largely by dramatic increases in the numbers of international students employed off-campus through optional practical training (OPT) and those enrolled in non-degree and intensive English programs. Meanwhile, the number of Americans studying abroad continues steadily growing, according to the latest installment of Open Doors, an annual survey conducted by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

David J. Sargent, the 77-year-old president of Suffolk University in Boston, received a $2.8 million pay package in 2006-7 â?? including a $436,000 longevity bonus and more than $1 million in deferred compensation â?? after the board of trustees, eager to delay his retirement, decided he had long been underpaid.

One of four methods Virginia Tech uses to alert students and faculty in an emergency failed Thursday when school administrators attempted to warn the campus about reports of gunfire in a dorm, the university said.

For the second time this year, a professor at the University of Iowa has taken his own life after being accused of sexual harassment.

For the university, which also has faced a scandal involving alleged sexual assault by athletes and a devastating flood this year, the latest incident added to an unsettling semester.