After weeks of hinting he would run for reelection, U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally announced his candidacy for 2024 in a three-minute video that drew a stark picture of what he believes is at stake: the very soul of America. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington on the prospect of another election battle between Biden and his likely challenger, former President Donald Trump. …
Leave a commentAlmost every category of higher education in the U.S. has declining enrollments. But trade programs – short certificates that offer real-world skills like auto repair and industrial automation – are a hit. The Hechinger Report’s Olivia Sanchez looks at one program in Tennessee to discover why: students love the flexibility, practicality and high wages. Read her story published by The Associated Press. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentTerrica Purvis squinted through goggles as her hands carefully guided a pipette full of indigo-tinted fluid into clear glass test tubes. It was the last chemistry lab of the winter quarter at Everett Community College. Purvis was working through the steps of what chemistry professor Valerie Mosser jokingly refers to as the “post-apocalypse survival” lab — an experiment using boiled red cabbage water to test the acidity of common household chemicals. Purvis, 27, is in her first year of study for an associate degree in nursing at Everett Community College. She is also one of more than 6,000 Washington communitymore
Leave a commentA survey of more than 1,000 global education agents from five continents found that there will be a surge in applications this year. However, students’ top concerns vary – Chinese students care most about rankings, while students from the Middle East and Africa worry more about costs. Dive into the research in this report from INTO University Partnerships. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentThe U.S. Supreme Court on Friday preserved access to the abortion drug mifepristone while a lawsuit challenging the use of the drug plays out in lower courts. The high court issued a brief on Friday evening granting emergency requests from the Biden administration and the drug’s manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, to continue to allow women to access the drug. The ruling puts on hold a preliminary injunction from a federal judge in Texas, who earlier this month ordered restrictions on the abortion drug. Two justices on the nine-member court — conservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — dissented from the decision.more
Leave a commentFrench! That’s according to writer Freddie DeBoer, who cites the hundreds of millions of French speakers across Africa. DeBoer argues that “safe majors” like business or computer science often suffer from high competition, low educational standards, volatile demand and susceptibility to artificial intelligence (AI). Furthermore, the idea of a “practical major” is meaningless, constantly changing and used to blame people for economic issues beyond their control. Read his take on the topic in New York Magazine. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentPresident Joe Biden will formally announce his 2024 reelection campaign as soon as next week, three people briefed on the discussions said Thursday. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said they were not aware that a final decision on timing had been made, but that Biden had been eyeing Tuesday, April 25, four years to the day since the Democrat entered the 2020 race. The upcoming announcement is expected to be in the form of a video released to supporters. Biden, 80, has repeatedly said he intends to run for a second term,more
Leave a commentThe latest session of the U.N. Commission on Population and Development is happening this week in New York. Attendees have discussed how women and girls are still denied equal access to education, how aging in rich countries and high birth rates in poorer ones affect public schooling, and how the pandemic may have punched a hole in the goal of equal education for all. Read a summary of their discussion in this U.N. press release. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentAlabama State University is partnering on a new project to make free mental health resources more widely available to students at historically Black colleges and universities, The Associated Press reported. The “She Care Wellness Pods” will give students access to therapy sessions, workshops, yoga and quiet spaces. Actress Taraji P. Henson’s Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation is partnering with the Kate Spade Foundation to place the pods on HBCU campuses. Alabama State is the first to participate in the program, AP reported. Henson said the foundations are trying to make resources more available and eradicate the stigma around mental health issuesmore
Leave a commentThe authors of a new book, “Campus Economics: How Economic Thinking Can Help Improve College and University Decisions,” think so. Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson weigh in on the future of tenure, the effects of high inflation and why colleges don’t shut down unpopular majors. Weigh their arguments for yourself in this interview with Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentFox Corp. and Fox News on Tuesday settled a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, averting a high-profile trial that would have put one of the world’s top media companies in the crosshairs over its coverage of false vote-rigging claims in the 2020 U.S. election. The settlement was announced by Fox, Dominion and the judge in the case at the 11th hour, with a 12-person jury selected on Tuesday morning and the case poised to kick off with opening statements on Tuesday afternoon. Dominion had sought $1.6 billion in damages in the lawsuit filed in 2021, withmore
Leave a commentIn a 2019 survey, more than 40% of East and South Asian students said gun violence is their biggest fear when it comes to studying in the U.S. Meanwhile, English-speaking countries with less gun violence, such as Canada, Australia and Britain, have seen a rise in international education. Are the two related? Liam Knox of Inside Higher Ed has more. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentA major defamation lawsuit against Fox News goes to trial Tuesday, carrying the potential to shed additional light on former President Donald Trump’s election lies, reveal more about how the right-leaning network operates and even redefine libel law in the U.S. Here are some things to know about the case. The case Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox for $1.6 billion, claiming the news outlet repeatedly aired allegations that the company’s voting machines were rigged to doom Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign while knowing they were untrue. Fox contends that it was reporting newsworthy charges made by supporters of the Republicanmore
Leave a commentFlorida is home to New College, whose roughly 700 students largely devise their own degree programs. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has accused Florida’s public education system of indoctrinating students in left-wing ideas and has removed New College’s president and board. (DeSantis is expected to announce this summer as a Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential race.) Supporters of his actions say it brings accountability to colleges run with taxpayer money; opponents claim it threatens academic freedom. Dan Friedell from VOA Learning English examines the controversy, based on a report from The Associated Press. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentThe Biden administration announced it would end the China Initiative, a Trump-era plan to investigate academic espionage by China. However, the Biden administration has set new compliance, disclosure and privacy rules, and research collaboration has declined. Many researchers, especially Asian American ones, report being afraid to work alongside their Chinese peers. Can the U.S. balance national security with academic openness? Karin Fischer of the Chronicle of Higher Education looks at both sides of the issue. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentAs a new election season begins, the Republican Party is struggling to navigate the politics of abortion. Allies for leading presidential candidates concede that their hardline anti-abortion policies may be popular with the conservatives who decide primary elections, but they could ultimately alienate the broader set of voters they need to win the presidency. The conflict is unfolding across the United States this week, but nowhere more than in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law one of the nation’s toughest abortion bans on Thursday. If the courts ultimately allow the new measure to take effect, it willmore
Leave a commentTulane University President Michael Fitts thinks that AI can make creative work easier but will never replace human creativity itself. AI “can find an answer, but it can’t be the first to ask the question,” he wrote. As long as that remains the case, universities will need to train human minds, he added. Read the op-ed from Michael Fitts in USA Today. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentU.S. News & World Report publishes the most influential college rankings in the U.S. But last year, Yale Law School – the No. 1 legal program in the country for years – chose not to participate. Twelve of the top 14 law schools followed suit, though most still made it into this year’s rankings despite not submitting data. Now, both undergraduate and graduate programs are deciding whether rankings make sense for them. This panel discussion, featuring the dean of Yale Law, the CEO of U.S. News & World Report and a high school student, was produced by Chris Remington andmore
Leave a commentMany college graduates aspire to work in government because of the stability, benefits and sense of purpose. But at least six states have tried to reduce the importance of a college degree in getting a job, arguing that the requirements are a burden on poorer applicants and result in turning away many gifted ones – all amidst a labor shortage. New Jersey, one of the wealthiest and most populous states, is just the latest. Read the story from Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech for The Hill. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentRecuperating U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California asked Wednesday to be temporarily replaced on the Judiciary Committee, shortly after two House Democrats called on her to resign after her extended absence from Washington. In a statement, the long-serving Democratic senator said her recovery from a case of shingles, disclosed in early March, had been delayed because of complications. She provided no date for her return to the Senate and said she had asked Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to serve in her committee seat until she was able to return. “I intendmore
Leave a commentThe second of two Black Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House will return to the Legislature after a Memphis commission voted to reinstate him Wednesday, nearly a week after his banishment for supporting gun control protesters propelled him into the national spotlight. Hundreds of supporters chanted and cheered as they marched Representative Justin Pearson through Memphis to the Shelby County Board of Commissioners meeting, where officials quickly voted 7-0 to restore his position. “The message for all the people in Nashville who decided to expel us: ‘You can’t expel hope. You can’t expel justice,” Pearson said at the meeting,more
Leave a commentThe cost of U.S. tourist and student visas, among other kinds, is increasing on May 30. See the full breakdown in this news release from the U.S. State Department. (March 2023) …
Leave a commentTwo-year community colleges, which serve many of the students who need the most support, have the lowest completion rates of any kind of university or college, The Associated Press reported. The availability of advisers, students say, is often a deciding factor in who succeeds, the AP says in its story. (April 2023) …
Leave a commentYounger Americans – millennials and adults in Generation Z – are more engaged in addressing climate change on- and offline, according to a 2021 Pew Research poll. Compared with older adults, Gen Zers and millennials are talking more about the need for action on climate change, including discussing and sharing information on social media platforms and by volunteering and attending rallies and protests on climate change, Pew found. Colleges and universities in the U.S. are taking note of students’ increased interest and are finding ways to become more environmentally sustainable, The Washington Post reported. Read the story from Amudalat Ajasamore
Leave a comment