NSTA WebNews Digest

Education News: College

Ed. Schools Lag Behind Digital Content Trends

5/22/2013 - Education Week
Teacher education institutions risk becoming obsolete if they do not do a better job preparing future teachers to use digital curricula, experts say.

Politicians, Business Leaders Ask High Schoolers to Consider Community College

2/25/2013 - U.S. News & World Report
Promoting two-year tech pathways can open students' eyes to lucrative careers in STEM fields.

$10,000 Bachelor's Degree Is Proposed in California Legislation

1/4/2013 - The Chronicle of Higher Education
A California state legislator is the latest elected official to push for public colleges to offer bachelor's degrees at bargain-basement prices.

National Groups Call for Big Changes in Remedial Education

12/13/2012 - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Remedial courses meant to get underprepared students ready for college-level work are often not an on-ramp but a dead end, leaders of four national higher-education groups said on Wednesday, recommending sweeping changes in how such students are brought up to speed.

Should Science Majors Pay Less for College Than Art Majors?

11/5/2012 - The Atlantic
In Florida, a task force commissioned by Governor Rick Scott is putting the finishing touches on a proposal that would allow the state's public universities to start charging undergraduates different tuition rates depending on their major. Students would get discounts for studying topics thought to be in high demand among Florida employers. Those would likely include the STEM field), among others.

Get Me a Med School! Stat!

9/20/2012 - Inside Higher Ed
Several prominent universities, driven by revenue and prestige concerns, are building or merging with medical schools at a furious pace.

Global Education Shifts

7/12/2012 - Inside Higher Ed
China and India are expanding their influence in the higher education arena—according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, about 40% of young postsecondary degree-holders in leading countries will come from China and India by 2020. The United States and some European Union countries will produce about 25%.

Engineering Your Degree

7/10/2012 - Inside Higher Ed
Individualized engineering programs are gaining popularity as problems within the field call for greater flexibility and broader skill sets—and a new generation of ambitious students who want to tackle those problems emerges.

Resource Watch: Khan-esque Videos From MIT Students

5/9/2012 - Education Week
Picking up on the Khan Academy meme, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has launched a program to encourage its students to create short instructional videos for K-12 students on science and engineering concepts.

Reconsidering Academic Careers

5/3/2012 - Inside Higher Ed
A study based on a national survey of science doctoral students at American research universities shows that as they progressed through their Ph.D. programs, the attractiveness of academic careers decreased significantly.

Completion at What Price?

4/2/2012 - Inside Higher Ed
A new faculty think tank says the completion agenda and its workforce fixation harm student access while largely ignoring government disinvestment in higher education.

Students Divided on Whether Applicants Should Weigh Colleges' Partnerships

4/2/2012 - U.S. News & World Report
Research institution and school collaborations can benefit students, but details may be hard to find.

Where the Jobs Are, the Training May Not Be

3/2/2012 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
State colleges are cutting financing for technical, engineering, and health care programs as the need for training in those fields grows.

UW Becomes Latest Member of Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation

2/9/2012 - The Republic (Columbus)
The University of Wyoming is the latest member of a group of 69 universities and computing centers devoted to using computational research to accelerate scientific discoveries.

Berkeley Issues Plan to Improve Diversity in Engineering

12/22/2011 - ScienceInsider
Promising "disruptive progress," the engineering college at the University of California, Berkeley, has named an associate dean for equity and inclusion to help it increase the number of students and faculty members from underrepresented groups.

Young Scientists Take Aim

12/6/2011 - The Wall Street Journal
Shaina Kulp chose to attend the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia because of its strong science classes and highly rated pharmacy school. To her surprise, she also learned to shoot a rifle.

Higher Ed Research Roundup

11/21/2011 - Inside Higher Ed
At annual gathering of scholars of academe, scholars discuss a potpourri of topics, including the state of for-profit colleges and the impact of no-loan policies.

Foreign-Born Earn STEM Degrees at Higher Rates than Native Citizens

11/18/2011 - U.S. News & World Report
About a third of U.S. college graduates with engineering degrees are foreign-born, even though they account for just 16.5% of the U.S. population 25 and older, according to new data from the Census Bureau. Foreign-born people have about 27% of the degrees in computers, math, and statistics, and 24% of degrees in physical science.

Would-Be Engineers Hit Books the Hardest, a Study Finds

11/17/2011 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
Business majors spend less time on course work than other college students, but they devote more hours to nonschool duties, like earning money and caring for family members. In contrast, engineering students spend the most time studying and the least on outside demands.

Women Making Slow, Sure Strides in Science, Math

10/25/2011 - Education Week (requires registration)
For many of the women, the chemistry lab was a home away from home—a sorority for nerds, of sorts, that hints at the slow but steady shift in technical fields that have been traditionally filled with men.

Education Department Awards Nearly $2.9 Million to Colleges and Universities to Strengthen Minority Participation in Stem-Related Fields

10/3/2011 - U.S. Department of Education
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently announced that 12 colleges and universities that serve large minority populations will receive $2,898,578 in grants to strengthen education programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Texas May Cut Almost Half of Undergrad Physics Programs

9/27/2011 - Inside Higher Ed
Almost half of undergraduate programs at public colleges and universities in Texas are in danger of being eliminated because they do not meet a new state requirement of graduating at least 25 students every five years, UPI reported.

U.S. Postsecondary Edge Shrinking Among G-20 Countries

9/13/2011 - Education Week
The United States still leads the world in having a college-educated workforce, but it is the only country among the G-20 members whose incoming workers are less educated than those retiring, according to a study released this morning by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Romance vs. STEM

8/16/2011 - Inside Higher Ed
The journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin is about to publish a series of research projects that suggest that when college-age women think about romance, they become less interested in studying STEM fields. College-age men, however, can get interested in romance without any impact on their engagement with math and science.

Fields of Learning

8/2/2011 - Inside Higher Ed
Student farms are reaching new heights, and their supporters argue that this experiential learning is crucial at all colleges—land-grant or otherwise.

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