increasing access and success
Complaints from students about the way financing companies are handling student loans are eerily similar to the problems that frustrated mortgage-holders in the wake of the financial crisis, and cost some of them their homes, according to a government report.
In its second annual review of student-loan practices, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, says loan servicers make it hard for borrowers to pay off their loans early and, unless recipients provide explicit instructions, divide up early or partial payments in ways that are the most expensive to consumers.
What you know determines where you go, according to a new book that sets out to determine why the smartest low-income students forgo the most selective colleges.
It’s not that poor kids aren’t as smart as rich ones, researcher Alexandra Walton Radford finds. Nor do top schools turn them down. In fact, she reports, low-income prospects have a big advantage in the admissions process at the most selective colleges.
The problem is that few of them apply, thanks to high school counselors and peers who know little about the admissions process, and parents who often know even less.
The recession may be over but its effects still linger at public colleges and universities.
After facing declining revenue during the longest recession since the 1930s, many state governments continue to defund public institutions of higher learning.
A new report released this month by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center finds state funding for public higher education in Massachusetts has fallen 25 percent since 2001.
They’ve been part of the higher education landscape since 1837 when Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., opened its doors. But today, some women’s colleges are struggling to fill their seats.
Twice in the past six months, trustees at traditionally women-only schools have responded to that challenge by voting to go co-ed.
Today, there are only about 50 women’s colleges left in the U.S. That’s down from more than 250 in 1950. Twice in the past six months, trustees at traditionally women’s colleges have voted to go coed: Pennsylvania’s Wilson College in January and then right here in WGBH’s backyard Pine Manor College in July.
At a time of growing economic inequality in America, Wesleyan University President Michael Roth urges colleges and universities to create a culture in which low-income students can thrive.
"America today is a land of much greater distance between the haves and the have-nots," Roth writes. "It’s always been the case that wealthy students could have a very different experience than those of limited means, but today the social distance created by that economic gap is so great that it can undermine campus learning."
Like many parents, Dahlia Lithwick felt absolutely dumbfounded after sitting through one too many back-to-school meetings at her children’s school. The Ivy League-educated lawyer and journalist expressed her frustration in a revealing piece for Slate last week—one that highlighted the communication breakdown that hampers education reform.
The jargon-filled language has made its way into back-to-school nights, and it’s no wonder parents are confounded.
The University of Massachusetts is marking the opening of a new center for terrorism and security studies at its Lowell campus.
At a ceremony on the Lowell campus, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who stepped down Monday after seven years at the helm, will discuss lessons learned from the Boston Marathon bombings.
Facing federal budget cuts, one of the world’s most prestigious universities is launching a colossal capital campaign. Harvard University’s new fundraising effort announced on Saturday could become the largest ever in higher education.
Harvard hopes to rake in $6.5 billion by 2018. If successful, America’s oldest institute of higher learning would surpass Stanford University’s five-year $6.2 billion campaign that finished last year.
