global competitiveness

Colleges and universities across the country are scrambling to deal with President Trump’s temporary travel ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries linked to concerns about terrorism.

The college application process can be confusing and frustrating. Here's a look at what happens behind the curtain.

Every three years, half a million 15-year-olds from dozens of education systems around the world take the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures their proficiency in reading, math and science. Massachusetts is one of only two states in the U.S. that pays to participate as a "mini nation,” hoping its investment will pay off.

Students, faculty, staff and immigration advocates are calling on college and university administrators to make campuses “sanctuaries” for people who could face deportation under the policies of President-elect Donald Trump.

Amity University, one of India's largest college chains is tapping the brakes on its plans to expand into the U.S. Based in New Delhi, Amity recently bought a campus in New York and announced plans to open another campus there and in Massachusetts. But state officials were skittish about an India-run school setting up shop in the Commonwealth.

Last week, one of the country’s largest for-profit chains -- ITT Technical Institute -- shut its doors. The closure is just the latest blow to the embattled for-profit college industry, which, in recent years, has faced questions about its place in the higher education marketplace.

The federal government announced Friday that it's expanding visas to Syrian students studying at American colleges and universities. The Department of Homeland Security is trying to make it easier for Syrian refugees to work while in the U.S.

This month, Doctor David Podell takes the helm at Massachusetts Bay Community College. For the past eight years, he was the vice president for Academic Affairs at Marymount Manhattan College in New York.

As part of our Leaders in Higher Education series, On Campus' Kirk Carapezza  caught up with Podell on campus in Wellesley and asked him how his previous experience at a private college prepared him for his new job.

Students and faculty at four Boston-area colleges will welcome new leaders to campus for this upcoming school year. These soon-to-be college presidents will serve their schools during a time of nationwide racial tensions, increasingly competitive higher education markets, and a palpable anxiety about the fate of private liberal arts colleges and state-funded universities.

There’s a lot in the news about college presidents grappling with diversity, race and ethnicity. But Ronald Liebowitz heads a campus established nearly 70 years ago as a national model of ethnic and religious pluralism. This month, Liebowitz became the ninth leader of Brandeis, a private research university that considers social justice central to its mission. 

As part of our series of conversations with leaders in higher education, On Campus' Kirk Carapezza sat down with Liebowitz before his official first day on campus in Waltham.