new business models

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.

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.

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.

How to Stage a Revolution; The Joy of Garbage; Zombies in Popular Media; The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Those are just some of the options available to students in the expanding menu of college courses. But that has not always been the case. 

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. 

This month, Dr. Paula Johnson officially leaves the field of medicine to become the first African American president of Wellesley College. As part of our series with leaders in higher education, Dr. Johnson sat down with WGBH's Kirk Carapezza during her first day on the job. 

This summer, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is partnering with a private company to recruit and enroll more international students. The flagship campus is finalizing the deal amid criticism that it's accepting too many out-of-state students.

Not many college presidents come from outside the Ivory Towers. Jeff Weiss, who took the helm at Lesley University on July 1 is one of the few.