Author: jplucas

Following the lead of other expensive, elite universities, Northwestern University on Tuesday announced initial funding for a program that will provide full scholarships for low-income students.

A donation from Chicago businessman Patrick Ryan and his wife, Shirley, both Northwestern graduates, will fund scholarships for the school’s neediest students, allowing them to graduate without having to pay back student loans. The amount of the gift was not disclosed, and university officials said they don’t know how many students will benefit.

It�s quiet. Too quiet.

Those who have been following the work of the Secretary of Education�s Commission on the Future of Higher Education � be it with excitement or, more commonly in higher education, trepidation � might be forgiven for feeling either forlorn or relieved at how little has been said and done about the panel�s agenda since the commission formally completed its work in August.

As the longtime resident expert on institutional data at Earlham College, provost Nelson Bingham says he used to feel like the Maytag repairman.Not anymore. Today, he says, a ââ?¬Å?culture of assessmentââ?¬Â pervades the campus.

Ever since Education Secretary Margaret Spellings unveiled plans seven weeks ago to overhaul the nation’s higher education system, she and her staff have been trying to relieve anxieties.

Students who participate in collaborative learning and educational activities outside the classroom and who interact more with faculty members get better grades, are more satisfied with their education, and are more likely to remain in college. But the gains from those practices are even greater for students from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, or who come to college less prepared than their peers.

Foreign student enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities last year appears to have stabilized after two years of declines, a study shows. And a separate online survey suggests that foreign-student enrollments could rebound this year. Meanwhile, the number of U.S. students studying abroad continues to increase.

The number of new foreign students coming to the United States grew this school year, after several years of weakness that followed the terrorist attacks of 2001, according to a survey to be released today by the Institute of International Education.

It’s hard to imagine many college students would want to sit through their professors’ lectures more than once. But for UW-Madison students such as Kelly Egan, it’s almost required.