Aspire A blog about the present and future of higher education

Depending on who you talk to, online education is either the big man on campus (BMOC, for the acronym-minded) or the elephant in the classroom. Colleges and universities are launching new or expanded online programs for a multitude of worthwhile—and sometimes hotly debated—reasons, but the basics come down to these: to attract new students, boost enrollments, diversify student populations and ... Read More »

Several recent reports have been alarming those of us in higher education who care deeply about the future of community colleges and those who attend them. One is Bridging the Higher Education Divide: Strengthening Community Colleges and Restoring the American Dream, a new report from the Century Foundation task force on “preventing community colleges from becoming separate and unequal.” Some ... Read More »

A new article by Allie Bidwell at US News & World Report digs into concerns over a massive, education-based employability shortfall less than 10 years from now: As the economy continues to slowly recover and millions of job openings are expected to appear over the next decade, there is a growing call for more educated workers to fill those positions. But the current ... Read More »

Are you thinking of heading back to school? If so, it wouldn’t just be you and Rodney Dangerfield there. The latest research shows that adults are heading back to college in higher numbers than ever. And with grim projections of employability shortfalls looming in the not-very-distant future, adding some academic feathers to your cap makes more and more sense with every hotly sought-after ... Read More »

Here’s an interesting fistful of facts from a marketing firm (for the record: no connection to the College of Professional Studies) about who is enrolling in online ed programs (and where, and what kind). One very interesting finding: “Most online students enroll in institutions that have a campus/facility within 100 miles of their home.” Looks like “distance learning” might actually be relatively ... Read More »

Minority students face a number of challenges as they enter higher education (including entering it, as this recent New York Times item highlights)—not the least of which are the economic hurdles. Two recent articles focus on the uphill battle faced by minority students as they engage with higher education—from weighing the decision to apply, to enrolling and matriculating, to successfully ... Read More »

The Hudson Institute is “a nonpartisan policy research organization dedicated to innovative research and analysis that promotes global security, prosperity, and freedom.” The Institute has just released a report that focuses on the ways in which modern advances in technology can, in themselves, support educational innovation—and the ways in which current technology is merely a platform that needs the skilled and informed implementation of ... Read More »

According to Merriam-Webster, a compromise is “something intermediate between or blending qualities of two different things.” In politics, it’s often defined as a result in which both sides are unhappy. By either of these standards, the U.S. Supreme Court compromised in its surprisingly narrow ruling in Fisher v. Texas. Most observers, myself included, expected a bitterly divided ruling, 5-3 or ... Read More »

Imagine the city of New York—all 8 million people. Take a moment to appreciate how many people that is: every skyscraper, apartment building, housing project; every subway, plus Times Square and Grand Central Station, all packed to capacity. Next, add another two million people; suddenly, New York City is bursting at its seams, teeming with 10 million people. Now, put them ... Read More »

The Indiana-based Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation committed to improving higher education, specifically by increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality college degrees, certificates and credentials to 60 percent by 2025. A report Lumina released last week examines a rise in the annual number of American college graduates since the end of the last century. In 1995, less than a quarter of ... Read More »