As Lumina Foundation releases a new edition of the signature report, "A Stronger Nation Through Higher Education," the central message is the same one conveyed since the first of this series of reports in 2009. Lumina remains convinced that significantly increasing college attainment is the key to ensuring a brighter future for our nation and its citizens. By the year 2025 Lumina's goal is to see 60 per cent of Americans holding a college degree, certificate, or other high-quality postsecondary credential. This fifth edition of "Stronger Nation," much like earlier editions, is designed to track progress toward that vital goal from a national perspective in the nation's largest metro areas, in each of the 50 states, even down to the county level. This 2014 edition reports what appears to be modest progress in most areas. Beyond the numbers, Lumina sees even more encouraging signs-- unmistakable signals that the need and the hunger for higher education is stronger than ever.
A public policy leader addresses how artificial intelligence is transforming the future of labor—and what we can do to protect the role of workers. As computer technology advances with dizzying speed, human workers face an ever-increasing threat of obsolescence. In Human Work In the Age of Smart Machines, Jamie Merisotis argues that we can—and must—rise to this challenge by preparing to work alongside smart machines doing that which only humans can: thinking critically, reasoning ethically, interacting interpersonally, and serving others with empathy. The president and CEO of Lumina Foundation, Merisotis offers a roadmap for the large-scale, radical changes we must make in order to find abundant and meaningful work for ourselves in the 21st century. His vision centers on developing our unique capabilities as humans through learning opportunities that deliver fair results and offer a broad range of credentials. By challenging long-held assumptions and expanding our concept of work, Merisotis argues that we can harness the population’s potential, encourage a deeper sense of community, and erase a centuries-long system of inequality.
The topic of achieving and assuring quality in every higher education institution continues to be both relevant and urgent worldwide. This volume presents a considered discussion of a range of facets of the issue, drawing on the findings of a 3 year EU research programme involving seven countries: Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Latvia, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia and the Netherlands. Topics include access, student assessment, governance, stakeholders, academic faculty, information and the interface between the secondary and tertiary sectors. The authors, all of whom are drawn from the research teams, explore particular aspects of the research objectives. These aim to identify the drivers and overcome the barriers to establishing high quality in both European higher education, in relation to the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance and, by implication, in worldwide higher education.
With the imminent demographic shifts in our society and the need to prepare students for citizenship in a global, knowledge-based society, the role of the academic department chair in creating diverse and inclusive learning environments is arguably the most pivotal position in higher education today. In the United States, increasing minority student enrollment coupled with the emergence of a minority majority American nation by 2042 demands that academic institutions be responsive to these changing demographics. The isolation of the ivory tower is no longer an option. This is the first book to address the role of the department chair in diversity and addresses an unmet need by providing a research-based, systematic approach to diversity leadership in the academic department based upon survey findings and in-person interviews. The department chair represents the nexus between the faculty and the administration and is positioned uniquely to impact diversity progress. Research indicates that more than 80 percent of academic decisions regarding appointment, curriculum, tenure and promotion, classroom pedagogy, and student outcomes are made by the department chair in consultation with the faculty. This book examines the multidimensional contributions that chairs make in advancing diversity within their departments and institutions in the representation of diverse faculty and staff; in tenure and promotion; curricular change; student learning outcomes; and departmental climate. The scope and content of the book is not limited to institutions in the United States but is applicable to academic institutions globally in their efforts to address the access and success of increasingly diverse student populations. It addresses institutional power structures and the role of the dean in relation to the appointment of chairs and their impact on the success of chairs from non-dominant groups, including female, minority, and lesbian/gay/transgendered individuals who serve in predominantly white male departments. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, the book analyzes predominant structural and behavioral barriers that can impede diversity progress within the academic department. It then focuses upon the opportunities and challenges chairs face in their collaborative journey with faculty and administration toward inclusive departmental and institutional practices. Each chapter provides concrete strategies that chairs can use to strengthen diversity in the academic department.Addressed to department chairs, deans, faculty, and administrative leaders in higher education in all Western societies facing demographic change and global challenges, this book offers a critical road map to creating the successful academic institutions that will meet the needs of our changing populations.
Taking on the cherished principle that community colleges should be open to all students with a high school education, Scherer and Anson argue that open access policies and lenient federal financial aid laws harm students and present the case for raising the minimum requirements for community college entry.
In this environment of disruptive technological change, higher education institutions must determine whether they will develop and offer technology-supported, hybrid, or online courses and degrees, which courses and degrees, how many, for whom, and for what purpose. They must make decisions about development models and design, processes, costs, and student and faculty support. In this volume, the authors explore the current and future practice of distance education in higher education institutions, including: developing an initial infrastructure to support course design and development, revitalizing existing structures and processes for distance education, and cutting-edge practices that innovate and lead the field. These topics help guide decision makers as they determine appropriate responses to distance learning opportunities. This is the 173rd volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Higher Education. Addressed to presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other higher education decision makers on all kinds of campuses, it provides timely information and authoritative advice about major issues and administrative problems confronting every institution.
Reimagining the Culture of Leadership for Student Success A revision to the practical and popular guide, this book asks the crucial question within today's environment, "What's a student-ready college?" Higher education leaders are responsible for preparing their institutions to serve the students they admit in the best way possible. By asking ourselves how we can transform our institutions into student-ready colleges to create a new culture of leadership that is responsive to current challenges and focuses on understanding and utilizing student assets and social capital to achieve shared goals for student success. Becoming a Student-Ready College shows you how. Conversations in higher education tend to focus on defining college readiness for students. Too often, we forget to ask the question from the other side, and we miss important opportunities to develop institutions in ways that can help students thrive. Higher education leaders and educators can better serve today's college students through responsive and redesigned practices and policies. This updated edition features revisions and new material that speak to the social realities of today's incoming students and cover the latest strategies and techniques for connecting with learners to foster equity and success. Leverage existing resources to the benefit of students and deliver the right support at the right time to achieve equity in student outcomes and build on students' assets Design eco-systemic partnerships and support programs that nurture the relationship between the student and the institution Strengthen institutional capacity-building for achieving defined student-ready goals Build shared governance to promote agency and to foster change and collaboration Becoming a Student-Ready College explores leaders' shared responsibilities in advancing student success and provides practical recommendations for educators at all levels.
This book offers context, research, policy, and practice-based recommendations centering college access and success for a historically overlooked population: rural Students and Communities of Color. Through an exploration of how colleges and universities can effectively welcome students from rural areas who identify as Asian and Pacific Islander, Black and African American, Hispanic and Latinx, and/or Indigenous, this text challenges the misleading narrative that rural is white, thereby placing these students and their communities in conversation with national higher education discourse. Rich contributions on scholarship, practice, and policy address the intersection of racism and spatial inequities and consider the unique opportunities and challenges that rural Students and Communities of Color face across the United States’ higher education landscape. Chapters provide direction on creating equitable policies and practices, as well as details of the assets, resources, and networks that support this population’s success. This edited collection provides a wealth of insight into the recruitment, access, persistence, and retention of rural Students of Color, equipping higher education researchers, practitioners, administrators, and policymakers with the knowledge they need to better account for and support rural students and communities across race and ethnicity.
Building sustainable diversity in higher education isn't just the right thing to do—it is an imperative for institutional excellence and for a pluralistic society that works. *Updated Edition* Daryl G. Smith has devoted her career to studying and fostering diversity in higher education. In Diversity's Promise for Higher Education, Smith brings together research from a wide variety of fields to propose a set of clear and realistic practices that will help colleges and universities locate diversity as a strategic imperative and pursue diversity efforts that are inclusive of the varied—and growing—issues apparent on campuses without losing focus on the critical unfinished business of the past. To become more relevant to society, the nation, and the world, while remaining true to their core missions, colleges and universities must continue to see diversity—like technology—as central, not parallel, to their work. Indeed, looking at the relatively slow progress for change in many areas, Smith suggests that seeing diversity as an imperative for an institution's individual mission, and not just as a value, is the necessary lever for real institutional change. Furthermore, achieving excellence in a diverse society requires increasing institutional capacity for diversity—working to understand how diversity is tied to better leadership, positive change, research in virtually every field, student success, accountability, and more equitable hiring practices. In this edition, which is aimed at administrators, faculty, researchers, and students of higher education, Smith emphasizes a transdisciplinary approach to the topic of diversity, drawing on an updated list of sources from a wealth of literatures and fields. The tables and figures have been refreshed to include data on faculty diversity over a twenty-year period, and the book includes new information about • gender identity, • embedded bias, • student success, • the growing role of chief diversity officers, • the international emergence of diversity issues, • faculty hiring, • and important metrics for monitoring progress. Drawing on forty years of diversity studies, this third edition also • includes more examples of how diversity is core to institutional excellence, academic achievement, and leadership development; • updates issues of language; • examines the current climate of race-based campus protest; • addresses the complexity of identity—and explains how to attend to the growing kinds of identities relevant to diversity, equity, and inclusion while not overshadowing the unfinished business of race, class, and gender.
The Toolbox Revisited is a data essay that follows a nationally representative cohort of students from high school into postsecondary education, and asks what aspects of their formal schooling contribute to completing a bachelor's degree by their mid-20s. The universe of students is confined to those who attended a four-year college at any time, thus including students who started out in other types of institutions, particularly community colleges.
