How Are Girls in Afghanistan Continuing Their Education?

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After the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in 2021, they severely limited access to education for girls. Yet a club founded in the U.S., Flowers for the Future, helps Afghan girls keep learning through Zoom meetings with U.S. students. Two students, one Afghan, one American, describe their journey with the program and what it’s taught them about grit, resilience and the importance of learning. Read the essays by Mahsa Kosha and Emily Khossaravi in the Hechinger Report. (May 2023) …

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Could Your International Degree be Financed by Goldman Sachs?

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Quite possibly, since the elite U.S. investment bank has been investing millions in educational startups. Students from countries like India, Nigeria and Indonesia have long struggled to finance their U.S. degrees due to limited access to loans, but these new startups could disrupt that. For example, in just the first quarter of 2022, one startup, Prodigy Finance, reported a 98% increase in the number of Indian loan applicants. Nick Cuthbert of the PIE News breaks down the financial projections. (May 2023) …

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Is It Possible for Vietnamese Universities to Find Ways to Attract American Students to Study Abroad?

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Vietnamese students now make up the fifth-largest group of foreign students in the U.S., according to the 2022 Institute of International Education’s (IIE) annual Open Doors report. The report found 20,713 Vietnamese students studied in the U.S. in the 2021-2022 academic year. But now some Vietnamese universities have recently begun trying to attract U.S. students to study in Vietnam, a goal that is challenging, some education experts told VOA’s Khanh An. (May 2023) …

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Is Your Dream School in Good Financial Shape?

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The global consultancy Bain and Company has released an interactive tool to measure the financial health of U.S. colleges. You can use it to see what might happen if enrollments decline, or if the U.S. enters a recession. Bain’s analysis suggests many schools are not prepared for future economic shocks. (May 2023) …

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Higher Education Is Worth the Cost; How Can Colleges Convince Students?

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Data show that completing an undergraduate degree improves your career potential, well-being and even your health. But the key word there is “completing,” and many students in the U.S. don’t – in 2019, four-year colleges graduated only an average of 51% of their students on time. How can the least successful schools adapt? Elizabeth Bradley, the president of Vassar College, proposes several solutions and argues that the “American dream” of social mobility is at stake. Weigh her ideas for yourself in The Hill. (May 2023) …

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How Much Is Tuition, Really?

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In the U.S., there’s often a big gap between the “sticker price” advertised on a college website, and what students pay after grants, scholarships and aid are awarded. The Hechinger Report’s Tuition Tracker tool uses historical data to estimate how much students similar to you have been charged in the past. (May 2023) …

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Could AI Decide If You Get Into College?

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Universities in the U.S. are beginning to experiment with using AI in admissions decisions. AI programs can already review transcripts, and one school is even training an AI program to accept or reject the same applicants as its admissions committee. While AI could lessen the workload for admissions departments, critics worry its reasoning could be biased or difficult for humans to understand. Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed sums up the debate. (May 2023) …

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What Kinds of Recreation Do US Colleges Offer?

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To attract students, colleges can lower costs or improve their academics – or they can make their colleges more fun. Schools across the U.S. have built lavish recreation centers with gym equipment, sports facilities and even designated spaces for video games. Dan Friedell of VOA Learning English has more. (May 2023) …

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2 Dorm Directors Fired at Small Christian College After Using ‘He/Him,’ ‘She/Her’ in Emails

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Shua Wilmot and Raegan Zelaya, two former dorm directors at a small Christian university in western New York, acknowledge their names are unconventional, which explains why they attached gender identities to their work email signatures.  Wilmot uses “he/him.” Zelaya goes by “she/her.”  Their former employer, Houghton University, wanted them to drop the identifiers in line with a new policy for email formats implemented in September. Both refused and were fired.  “My name is Shua. It’s an unusual name. And it ends with a vowel, ‘a,’ that is traditionally feminine in many languages,” Wilmot said in a nearly one-hour video hemore

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US Education Lands International Student Dream Career

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A Nigerian student who earned a graduate degree at the University of Arkansas Little Rock has scored a job as a data engineer at American Express. “Coming in as an international student, it’s like a dream come true for me,” Ifeanyichukwu Umoga said. “I am very excited to graduate and see what awaits me.” The school’s website has the full story. (May 2023) …

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Will Colleges Start Funding Paid Internships?

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Internships help students build their resumes and learn real world skills that can help secure job offers after graduation. Yet many opportunities are unpaid, and only the best-off students can afford to work for free. Now, state universities in Wisconsin and New York are using their budgets to pay students who complete internships in their communities. Johanna Alonso of Inside Higher Ed reports on the promising outcomes of these programs. (May 2023) …

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The Most Influential US College Ranking Is Under Fire — Can It Adapt?

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Each year, U.S. News and World Report ranks U.S. undergraduate and graduate programs. But recently, many prestigious medical and law schools, as well as undergraduate colleges, have opted out of the rankings, claiming they are inaccurate and don’t capture the nuances of each school. The newest rankings address this by prioritizing student outcomes over test scores and reputations. Jeremy Bauer-Wolf of Higher Ed Dive analyzes the changes. (May 2023) …

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How Diverse Is US Higher Education?

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The Chronicle of Higher Education reviewed data from the U.S. Department of Education for almost 4,000 schools. Scroll through their findings to see how schools stack up on racial and gender diversity, as well as their proportion of “nonresident foreign” students. (May 2023) …

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‘Waste of Time’: Community College Transfers Derail Students

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First came the good news. After taking classes at a community college, Ricki Korba was admitted to California State University, Bakersfield, as a transfer student. But when she logged on to her student account, she got a gut punch: Most of her previous classes wouldn’t count. The university rejected most of her science classes, she was told, because they were deemed less rigorous than those at Bakersfield — even though some used the same textbooks. Several other courses were rejected because Korba exceeded a cap on how many credits can be transferred. Now Korba, a chemistry and music major, ismore

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Do Western Universities Impart ‘Western Values’?

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The dominance of Western universities in global rankings is often cited as a kind of “soft power,” which allegedly makes elites around the world think and act like liberal democrats. But is this really true? Some leaders such as Viktor Orbán in Hungary or Bashar al-Assad in Syria, are illiberal, despite their extensive Western educations. Yet others seem to hold more liberal values than their educators did, like the anti-colonial Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi in India or Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya. Ultimately, we can’t predict how leaders will turn out based on their schooling. But international education can, andmore

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Are International Students a Benefit or a Loss for Source Countries?

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India recently became the world’s most populous country, and 25% of the world’s population under the age of 25 live there. Unsurprisingly, it’s one of the biggest sources of international students in the Western world. But India’s government questions the value of this “one-way traffic,” arguing that the country loses valuable talent and should be attracting international students of its own. One member of India’s Economic Advisory Council said there are “too many university campuses on the planet,” since digital education is cheaper and more sustainable. Read the analysis from Viggo Stacey, editor of The PIE. (April 2023) …

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