Jon Marcus

Hugely popular short-term certificates—educational credentials designed to be completed within one year, and being pushed by community colleges and other higher-education institutions—provide almost no financial return to students, according to new research. While earning an associate’s degree or long-term certificate results in a higher likelihood of finding a job, and at a higher salary, short-term […]

As students, employers, and policymakers continue to question whether earning a college degree really proves that graduates are ready for work, a new set of voluntary standards proposes to set out what they should be learning—and measure whether or not they have. The Degree Qualifications Profile specifies what students should know and be able to […]

In what it calls “an elaborate shell game,” universities and colleges are shifting their financial aid from low-income students to high-income ones to bolster their prestige and raise them up the rankings, a new report says. Meanwhile, according to the report by the nonprofit, nonpartisan New America Foundation, universities are leaving their poorest families to […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The annual meeting of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities this year had the tone of a revival meeting. “We have been under steady, unrelenting pressure,” declared the organization’s president, David Warren, who spoke of “an overreaching executive branch” he said sought to use unreliable statistics to measure the effectiveness […]

Maya Gunaseharan spent her first year in college at American University, then transferred to Cornell. And that was after 12 years at a private school in New Jersey. Now all three ask her to contribute money. “I do feel a pull, because I had a really great first year at American,” said Gunaseharan, who is […]

At a time when policymakers are struggling to increase the proportion of Americans with college and university degrees, more than 31 million people have already accumulated credits but quit without graduating, a new report shows. And while a third of those left after as little as a single term, about 21 million spent more than […]

America’s primary and secondary schools may be busy preparing for the onset of the Common Core standards, meant to better prepare students for college, but one key partner isn’t even close to ready: colleges and universities themselves. States with and without plans to assess student learning and the Common Core That’s the conclusion of a […]

Adele Williams hears from a lot of her friends from high school about their struggles to afford the cost of college. “I have a best friend who goes to a public university, and she’s in quite a lot of debt,” said Williams. Higher and higher tuition, she said, “is just a scary thought for people […]

Colleges and universities continue to give record-high discounts on tuition, which is good news for students, but bad news for the institutions, a new report shows. The so-called discount rate—the amount of revenue that goes back out the door in the form of financial aid to fill seats—was projected to have grown to more than […]

WASHINGTON, DC – Skeptical that Congress will end tuition tax credits they say disproportionately benefit higher- rather than lower-income students, advocates for reform want the tax breaks to at least be used to encourage colleges to raise their graduation rates and reduce borrowing. Among their other proposals, a consortium of groups pushing for changes in […]