increasing access and success

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced new legislation on Thursday aimed at improving the college accreditation process.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, in collaboration with the state Department of Higher Education, is hosting two workshops aimed at helping the state's nearly 500 former ITT Technical Institute students left in the lurch, after the for-profit career school shut down earlier this month. But some of the former ITT students attending Tuesday's workshop said they're not satisfied with the options available.

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.

With school back in session, many high school juniors and seniors are beginning to look at colleges, many of them paging through college guides like the Princeton Review.

But the vast majority of college students in this country are adults struggling to balance work and family responsibilities.

That's why this year Washington Monthly magazine is out with a different kind of college ranking - one that, for the first time, ranks the best two- and four-year colleges for adult learners.

Smith College has long upheld progressive values, urging its students to root out racism and injustice wherever they see it. Recently, that's included Smith’s own School for Social Work, where some faculty are raising questions about whether administrators have gone too far in responding to students' demands.

For many community college students nationwide, the goal is a four-year degree. But studies show only 14 percent walk away with a bachelor's within six years, partly because of the difficulty associated with transferring college credits. On Tuesday, Massachusetts officials rolled out a new tool designed to streamline the transfer process.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is taking action against a company that promises to assist borrowers with student loan debt relief. On Friday, Healey reached a settlement with Libre Technology.

Georgetown University will offer an edge in admissions to the descendants of slaves sold in the 1800s to keep the university financially afloat. The Catholic university announced Wednesday that it is taking several steps to recognize and memorialize the Catholic university’s past, including the creation of a center for the study of slavery and the construction of a memorial to the 272 slaves sold in 1838.

In her latest book, Student Debt: Rhetoric and Realities of Higher Education Financing, Sandy Baum argues that the student loan debt "crisis" isn't as bad as we're often led to believe.

Suffolk University is still reeling after the university's Board of Trustees voted last month to abruptly fire President Margaret McKenna, who had already agreed to resign. Suffolk has burned through five presidents in five years. By any account, that's a lot of break-ups. But Suffolk isn't alone; the problems there represent broader relationship issues between presidents and their boards.