article about higher education

Articles on Higher education

Displaying 1 - 20 of 1279 articles.

College athletes still are not allowed to be paid by universities − here’s why

Cyntrice Thomas , University of Florida

Why do international students choose to study in Australia?

Ha Nguyen , Victoria University ; Peter Hurley , Victoria University , and Sam Hoang , Victoria University

March Madness brings unique gambling risks for college students

M. Dolores Cimini , University at Albany, State University of New York

How going back to the SAT could set back college student diversity

Joseph Soares , Wake Forest University

Generative AI is changing the legal profession – future lawyers need to know how to use it

Craig Smith , University of Salford

If uni marks are going up, does that mean there’s a problem?

Phillip Dawson , Deakin University and Thomas Corbin , Deakin University

How ‘social financing’ could help fund higher education for under-represented students

Shelley Legin , Royal Roads University and Heather M Hachigian , Royal Roads University

Amid growth in AI writing tools, this course teaches future lawyers and other professionals to become better editors

Patrick Barry , University of Michigan

The hostility Black women face in higher education carries dire consequences

Ebony Aya , Macalester College

National parks teach students about environmental issues in this course

Seth T. Kannarr , University of Tennessee

Academic journalism: the concept at the heart of a conference – and The Conversation

Stephen Khan , The Conversation

South Africa: women play a key role in early childhood learning and care – but they need help accessing university

Kaylianne Aploon-Zokufa , University of the Western Cape

How age-friendly universities can improve the second half of life

David R. Buys , Mississippi State University and Aaron Guest , Arizona State University

Universities Accord: there’s a push to increase Indigenous students and voices in higher education. But we need more detail and funding

Peter Anderson , Griffith University ; Angela Baeza Pena , Queensland University of Technology ; Levon Ellen Blue , The University of Queensland ; Melanie Saward , Queensland University of Technology , and Thu Dinh Xuan Pham , Griffith University

Universities Accord: early university offers won’t be made until later in Year 12. Is this a good idea?

Pearl Subban , Monash University

Universities Accord: almost 50% students don’t feel like they belong at uni. We need to fix this if we’re going to double enrolments

Joseph Crawford , University of Tasmania

Universities Accord: many students could pay less for their higher education … eventually

Gwilym Croucher , The University of Melbourne

Universities Accord: ‘ Gonski-style ’ funding is on the table for higher education. This will see some unis gain more than others

Peter Hurley , Victoria University and Melinda Hildebrandt , Victoria University

Universities Accord: the final report mentions ‘equity’ 200 times, but can it boost access for underrepresented groups?

Sally Patfield , University of Newcastle

Universities Accord final report: what is it, and what does it recommend?

Judith Ireland , The Conversation

Related Topics

• Higher ed attainment
• Higher education policy
• International students
• Universities
• US higher education

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Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University

Associate Professor, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne

Adjunct Professor, Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, OISE, University of Toronto

Senior Research Fellow, Curtin University

Professor of International Higher Education, UCL

Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Director, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University

Honorary Senior Fellow, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne

Professor of Geography, The University of Melbourne

Professor of Higher Education, The Ohio State University

Professor, University of Cape Town

Associate Professor of Higher Education, Seton Hall University

Professor Emeritus and Former Deputy Vice Chancellor, The University of Melbourne

Associate Professor, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University

Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University

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How the Pandemic Has Changed Us—and Higher Education

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• Digital Learning
• Education Strategy
• Perspectives

THREE UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES

Maria de Fátima Carioca , dean at AESE Business School in Portugal, began her career in education with 20 years in the software industry, working in various business management and people management functions. After getting her doctorate degree at the University of Manchester, she joined AESE as a professor of Human Factor in 2005 and became a dean in 2014.

When the pandemic arrived, Carioca oversaw the closing of the school in a matter of days, accounting for the needs of faculty, staff, students, and even alumni, whom AESE is dedicated to supporting. Almost all programs were moved online except for high-level management programs dependent on in-person networking.

Wendy Stahl , a professor in the School of Professional Studies at New York University, had a somewhat easier time transitioning to online learning—her courses for Spring 2020 were already digital by design.

Driven by a passion for education, Stahl began teaching over 20 years ago, while still an executive in the media technology industry. She continued to follow that passion by taking a teaching position at NYU after retiring from the corporate sector. About seven years ago, Stahl had the opportunity to begin developing asynchronous online courses for NYU, and she has continued to teach some of her courses online ever since. Over the past year, she had the opportunity to observe the transition to online learning from a position of knowledge and experience.

Nour Khalil , a student pursuing a BA in business administration at the American University in Cairo, spent her early school years in several different countries, gaining a multicultural worldview from her travels. Her passions include the natural world and sustainability.

Khalil was on campus for only a semester and a half before having to switch to online learning. While learning online has been quite tough, she says her school did a great job facilitating a smooth transition to digital learning and maintaining a quality educational program.

But our individual paths have also been markedly different— much rougher for some than others . To better understand this past year’s impact on individuals in education, Inspiring Minds spoke to a dean, a professor, and a student from different business schools globally. While reading their reflections, consider how this time of trial has reshaped boundaries and played out differently among their roles.

Q: What was your experience early in the pandemic?

Maria de Fátima Carioca, dean, AESE Business School in Portugal: In March 2020, in a matter of days, we closed the school. In doing so, we had to consider what being closed meant to the whole AESE community—to our staff, our faculty, and our alumni.

We switched most of our programs to an online format. I say “most of our programs” because we realized very quickly that some executive education programs, namely those that rely heavily on networking, cannot be accomplished online. Moving programs online changed the way we delivered classes—and even the way we encouraged our students to prepare for those classes. We invested in creating virtual classrooms that are basically TV studios. And we trained our faculty to make the most of the technology, to reinvent themselves, and to deliver the best possible learning experience tailored to a live online format. We also trained our staff, because doing all of the administrative processes online and from home was a completely different way of working.

Wendy Stahl, adjunct assistant professor in the School of Professional Studies, New York University: At NYU, tremendous resources are dedicated to supporting faculty in their online teaching skills. A few years ago, when everyone started looking at online learning, I was asked to develop a course for the asynchronous online mode, which was quite new back then. I have taught both in the asynchronous online mode and in the classroom for the last seven years. So this year was not the first time that I taught online.

As it turned out, for this past winter semester [2020], I was already scheduled to teach an asynchronous online course. During the pandemic, I taught the courses that I would have taught. So for me, unlike for many, the scramble to quickly drop what you were doing for classroom teaching and convert it all instantly to online was not an issue.

Nour Khalil, BA student, American University in Cairo: I experienced only a semester and a half on campus, and the rest has been online. So, unfortunately, the primary university experience I know has been online.

I have to say—the American University in Cairo did an amazing job at shifting online very quickly. Around the end of February [2020], the university had started teaching faculty how to use Zoom and how to use online platforms. The school made a big effort to smooth things out for us and not make us even more stressed than we already were.

The school’s quality did not decline at all. They truly did an amazing job staying true to their promise, which is providing students with high-quality education. And from my personal experience, the quality of my education did not really change during the pandemic. For that, I’m grateful. I’d like to say thank you to all those who made a huge effort and to all the professors who were very understanding.

In terms of my day-to-day experiences, though, there were tougher times than others. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention mental health and burnout, which is something I’m sure we all felt. The pandemic definitely had a big toll on mental health in the sense that, even if you worked very hard and were very organized, your mental health could suffer. I experienced a lot of Zoom fatigue, and the lack of normal physical activity was a strain, as well. I did reach points of burnout where I was overworking myself too much to be able to stay at a certain level. It has definitely been a tough time.

Q: What bright spots have emerged for you during the past year?

Carioca : Since the first week of confinement, we began delivering an article a day to our alumni, sharing thoughts, stories, solutions, and pioneering ideas to move forward. It was very good for our alumni to feel that we were together in the same boat, on the same journey. The intention was to help our community get through the challenges that the pandemic brought upon their organizations, and to see this moment as a great opportunity to take risks while doing things differently in order to come out of the crisis stronger than ever.

We also confirmed that online learning has great advantages. One is that we have been able to expand to new markets by bringing our programs to other Portuguese-speaking countries. Now we are seeking to reach all those countries, and that is something that is only possible with all the knowledge gained from the past year. It turned out to be an amazing opportunity.

“The school is changing its processes, some of its culture, and its programs, but the mission is the same. We prepare our participants and our alumni throughout their lives to be leaders to whom we can entrust the future. That mission, our mission, must—and will—continue.” Maria de Fátima Carioca

Amidst these challenging times, AESE celebrated a landmark moment—its 40th anniversary. Previous anniversaries have been times to network and to share knowledge, innovative approaches, and disruptive ideas. For the past year and a half, the challenge was to reimagine everything, maintaining the standards but in an online format. By now, I am proud to share that our Alumni Assembly took place online on June 25 and gathered more than 800 participants from our 7,500 alumni throughout a whole day. It was a virtual learning experience with relevant networking, supported by quality technological means. It received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Stahl : Last summer, I participated in a development program that NYU put together to purposefully convert several courses in our core program to a fully online modality. We had access to resources such as instructional designers, videographers, and others. There was a tremendous amount of pedagogical review and curriculum alignment that went on.

I found, and I think my colleagues found, that for each lesson, we had to really rethink: What is it that I’m trying to do, and what’s the best way to do that when you’re not in the classroom? We experimented with a lot of different ways to do things, some of them related to pedagogical structures and some of them experimenting with various activities.

I think it’s very exciting that we have this opportunity to work in all these new ways to further make an impact on our students and engage with them. And I think that the progress in the next couple years should be awesome.

Khalil : We had some professors who were amazing people, who were really understanding. This removed a big bulk of the stress we would get from other professors who unfortunately weren’t that understanding.

Some professors were very innovative, as well. For example, Dr. Nellie El Enany was able to make class time as engaging and as interactive as it would be on campus. She was open to discussion and would cover really interesting topics. Also, the way she assessed us was all about projects, and each one was a hands-on experience. I feel like I really gained information from the field that I want to work in in the future. I would wake up in the morning excited to attend her class. So even with all the hard things going on, professors like her made this online experience bearable.

Q: What did you learn over the past year that you want to carry with you going forward?

Carioca : Through the time of the pandemic, we have changed and greatly enriched our learning offerings. But I think all of us realized that the culture of the school has been reinforced. Our values have been reinforced. Change ignited us. We understood very quickly that no matter what format or channel we are using, we must continue to have a unique way of educating leaders and accomplishing our mission.

The school is changing its processes, some of its culture, and its programs, but the mission is the same. We prepare our participants and our alumni throughout their lives to be leaders to whom we can entrust the future. That mission, our mission, must—and will—continue.

Stahl : Never underestimate what your students can do if you motivate them well. They are digital natives, so this is not a strange world for them. Doing school in this space is not all that unusual.

Additionally, I became even more committed to hybrid models of teaching that take the best of all of our tools and platforms and let us really engage with the students in as many ways as possible.

“Teachers need to remember that we have to become a person to our students. We have to find a personal way to engage them, so that they’re comfortable coming to us if something’s on their mind.” Wendy Stahl

Khalil : There were three things that I had to deal with: I had to become much more independent in my work, I had to be much more organized, and I had to manage my time efficiently. When I was at the university, if I had any questions, I would just go see my professor. But now if I have any questions, I have to send an email and wait for a response, which can be another burden. So instead, I try to first understand by myself. And if I really don’t understand, then I ask. I’ve had to learn to be a bit more independent.

Second, organization is so crucial because you have so many things to deal with at the same time. So if you’re not organized, you can forget deadlines. I know many people who suffered from that. You have to stay organized and even do work in advance.

And lastly, time management, which goes with organization. We have so many courses to deal with at the same time, and many projects, which can be a really big burden because they demand lots of groupwork. When you have to deal with other people’s schedules and yours, and you still have a lot of other schoolwork to handle, you really need to know how to manage your time or you just won’t be able to finish everything.

Q: How do you think business education will change as a result of the pandemic?

Carioca : In the near future, I believe that the option of either online or face-to-face training will no longer be a mandatory choice; it will become a corporate or personal decision. The choice will be made by evaluating the learning experience offered by the school and considering the individual and corporative training objectives. But I trust all the formats will be used, albeit oriented to accomplishing different learning objectives.

I also think business schools were already changing before the pandemic. I say that because of forces such as the digital revolution, globalization, innovative business models, and even the vast discussion around the future of work—all those forces were already driving the reimagination of education. With the pandemic, we just had to change at an accelerated pace and on several fronts—modalities, curricula, etc.

Stahl : I think changes had been coming, but what happened last year pushed people who weren’t that interested in using online tools to jump right into it. And there’s no going back now.

With online teaching part of the new normal, we as educators have more work to do to make sure we are using technology effectively and that there’s some rigor to what online tools can offer the learning experience. Now that we have more experience with it broadly—some great and some not so great—we can learn from that.

I think there will always be completely online classes because there are definitely some students for whom that’s a great benefit. Will it move everybody to 100 percent online degrees? No, I don’t think so. The social component of the education process is important. If we’re teaching business, business is about people’s relationships. And in today’s business world, we have both in-person relationships and digital relationships. So I think that as the workplace also evolves post-pandemic, with more remote working and more collaboration, we will also see that flow back into education.

“I don’t know why it has taken an entire pandemic for us to realize this, but I’m happy that it has made professors realize that they need to be more innovative to make sure all that information actually gets stuck in our brains.” Nour Khalil

Khalil : I think that, in the future, universities will try to incorporate more online courses into the way they deliver education, just because I think we’ve all gotten the hang of it. Online learning is something that will definitely not disappear, and it also makes some things easier.

However, what I want, and what many of my friends want, is to go back to our old life on campus. So I think it’s eventually going to be a combination of both.

Q: After what you witnessed last year, what advice do you have for educators?

Carioca : First, think of what must not change. When I think about it, I realize that the human side of our school—caring about each other, standing by our alumni, reinforcing our shared values, engaging the faculty and staff—has not changed.

Secondly, think of what we can and must change. We all have proven that our adaptability is enormous and that is why we can and should dare to innovate.

Ten years from now, we will be offering different programs and learning initiatives in different ways and dealing with different business and societal challenges, but the ethos of the school shall remain. We will be, as we are now, forging leaders for the present and for the future.

Balancing these two dimensions, and in the correct order, is the equation that will keep us resilient and bring success to our schools. I think that is the most important lesson learned from the pandemic: understanding what is perennial while gaining the ability to adapt and innovate creatively.

Stahl : I see four key takeaways. First, as you’re preparing your online lessons, ask yourself the hard questions: Why am I putting this in the lesson? How does this particular element support what we’re doing? In the online world, content has to really earn its place rather than fill time.

The second thing is to innovate and try things to make meaningful engagement. Online learning is not naturally engaging, but it can be.

Third, remember that students today live in the digital world, and to them it’s perhaps not as unusual to do things digitally as it would be to some of us. So check your own paradigms.

And finally, I think the really important one for us as teachers is to remember that you have to become a person to your students. That means that you have to find a personal way to engage with them so that they’re comfortable coming to you if something is on their minds.

“Change ignited us. We understood very quickly that no matter what format or channel we are using, we must continue to have a unique way of educating leaders and accomplishing our mission.” Maria de Fátima Carioca

Khalil : One thing we’ve learned is that there’s so much information all around us, and we’re all so overwhelmed, that we can no longer make education a burden. It can very easily become this thing that students want to get over with. But nowadays, we’re having conversations about making things more interactive and more fun to lock students’ interests. I don’t know why it has taken an entire pandemic for us to realize this, but I’m happy that it has made professors realize that they need to be more innovative to make sure all that information actually gets stuck in our brains.

I don’t think this is something we should omit from the equation. Fun should be included in learning to make students more engaged, so we actually come out of university having learned something and being qualified for jobs.

Maria de Fátima Carioca has been dean of AESE since 2014 and professor in the Human Factor area of the school since 2005. She coordinates initiatives and studies in the areas of people management, talent, future of work, family-work balance, family businesses, leadership, and business ethics.

Wendy Stahl is an adjunct assistant professor at New York University. She teaches leadership and strategic marketing in the MS Marketing Program. She also assists in adapting course content for digital delivery.

Nour Khalil is a student at the American University in Cairo. She is currently pursuing a BA in business administration.

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4 trends that will shape the future of higher education

Higher education needs to address the problems it faces by moving towards active learning, and teaching skills that will endure in a changing world. Image:  Vasily Koloda for Unsplash

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• Measures adopted during the pandemic do not address the root causes of the problems facing higher education.
• Institutions need to undertake true reform, moving towards active learning, and teaching skills that will endure in a changing world.
• Formative assessment is more effective than high-stakes exams in equipping students with the skills they need to succeed.

Since the onset of the recent pandemic, schools and universities have been forced to put a lot of their teaching online. On the surface, this seems to have spurred a series of innovations in the education sector. Colleges around the world embraced more flexibility, offering both virtual and physical classrooms. Coding is making its way into more school curricula , and the SAT exam for college admission in the US has recently been shortened and digitized , making it easier to take and less stressful for students.

These changes might give the illusion that education is undergoing some much-needed reform. However, if we look closely, these measures do not address the real problems facing higher education. In most countries, higher education is inaccessible to the socio-economically underprivileged, certifies knowledge rather than nurtures learning, and focuses on easily-outdated knowledge. In brief, it is failing on both counts of quality and access.

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Four ways universities can future-proof education, the global education crisis is even worse than we thought. here's what needs to happen, covid-19’s impact on jobs and education: using data to cushion the blow, higher education trends.

In the last year, we have started to see examples of true reform, addressing the root causes of the education challenge. Below are four higher education trends we see taking shape in 2022.

1. Learning from everywhere

There is recognition that as schools and universities all over the world had to abruptly pivot to online teaching, learning outcomes suffered across the education spectrum . However, the experiment with online teaching did force a reexamination of the concepts of time and space in the education world. There were some benefits to students learning at their own pace, and conducting science experiments in their kitchens . Hybrid learning does not just mean combining a virtual and physical classroom, but allowing for truly immersive and experiential learning, enabling students to apply concepts learned in the classroom out in the real world.

So rather than shifting to a “learn from anywhere ” approach (providing flexibility), education institutions should move to a “learn from everywhere ” approach (providing immersion). One of our partners, the European business school, Esade, launched a new bachelor’s degree in 2021, which combines classes conducted on campus in Barcelona, and remotely over a purpose-designed learning platform, with immersive practical experiences working in Berlin and Shanghai, while students create their own social enterprise. This kind of course is a truly hybrid learning experience.

2. Replacing lectures with active learning

Lectures are an efficient way of teaching and an ineffective way of learning. Universities and colleges have been using them for centuries as cost-effective methods for professors to impart their knowledge to students.

However, with digital information being ubiquitous and free, it seems ludicrous to pay thousands of dollars to listen to someone giving you information you can find elsewhere at a much cheaper price. School and college closures have shed light on this as bad lectures made their way into parents’ living rooms, demonstrating their ineffectiveness.

Education institutions need to demonstrate effective learning outcomes, and some are starting to embrace teaching methods that rely on the science of learning. This shows that our brains do not learn by listening, and the little information we learn that way is easily forgotten (as shown by the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve , below). Real learning relies on principles such as spaced learning, emotional learning, and the application of knowledge.

The educational establishment has gradually accepted this method, known as 'fully active learning'. There is evidence that it not only improves learning outcomes but also reduces the education gap with socio-economically disadvantaged students. For example, Paul Quinn College, an HBCU based in Texas, launched an Honors Program using fully active learning in 2020, combined with internships at regional employers. This has given students from traditionally marginalised backgrounds the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained at university in the real world.

3. Teaching skills that remain relevant in a changing world

According to a recent survey, 96% of Chief Academic Officers at universities think they are doing a good job preparing young people for the workforce . Less than half (41%) of college students and only 11% of business leaders shared that view. Universities continue to focus on teaching specific skills involving the latest technologies, even though these skills and the technologies that support them are bound to become obsolete. As a result, universities are forever playing catch up with the skills needed in the future workplace.

What we need to teach are skills that remain relevant in new, changing, and unknown contexts. For example, journalism students might once have been taught how to produce long-form stories that could be published in a newspaper; more recently, they would have been taught how to produce shorter pieces and post content for social media. More enduring skills would be: how to identify and relate to readers, how to compose a written piece; how to choose the right medium for your target readership. These are skills that cross the boundaries of disciplines, applying equally to scientific researchers or lawyers.

San Francisco-based Minerva University, which shares a founder with the Minerva Project, has broken down competencies such as critical thinking or creative thinking into foundational concepts and habits of mind . It teaches these over the four undergraduate years and across disciplines, regardless of the major a student chooses to pursue.

4. Using formative assessment instead of high-stake exams

If you were to sit the final exam of the subject you majored in today, how would you fare? Most of us would fail, as that exam did not measure our learning, but rather what information we retained at that point in time. Equally, many of us hold certifications in subject matters we know little about.

Many people gain admission to higher education based on standardized tests that skew to a certain socio-economic class , rather than measure any real competency level. Universities then try to rectify this bias by imposing admission quotas, rather than dissociating their evaluation of competence from income level. Many US universities are starting to abandon standardized tests, with Harvard leading the charge , and there have been some attempts to replace high-stake exams with other measures that not only assess learning outcomes but actually improve them.

Formative assessment, which entails both formal and informal evaluations through the learning journey, encourages students to actually improve their performance rather than just have it evaluated. The documentation and recording of this assessment includes a range of measures, replacing alphabetical or numerical grades that are uni-dimensional.

The COVID-19 pandemic and recent social and political unrest have created a profound sense of urgency for companies to actively work to tackle inequity.

The Forum's work on Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Social Justice is driven by the New Economy and Society Platform, which is focused on building prosperous, inclusive and just economies and societies. In addition to its work on economic growth, revival and transformation, work, wages and job creation, and education, skills and learning, the Platform takes an integrated and holistic approach to diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice, and aims to tackle exclusion, bias and discrimination related to race, gender, ability, sexual orientation and all other forms of human diversity.

The Platform produces data, standards and insights, such as the Global Gender Gap Report and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 4.0 Toolkit , and drives or supports action initiatives, such as Partnering for Racial Justice in Business , The Valuable 500 – Closing the Disability Inclusion Gap , Hardwiring Gender Parity in the Future of Work , Closing the Gender Gap Country Accelerators , the Partnership for Global LGBTI Equality , the Community of Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officers and the Global Future Council on Equity and Social Justice .

The International School in Geneva just launched its Learner Passport that includes measures of creativity, responsibility and citizenship. In the US, a consortium of schools have launched the Mastery Transcript Consortium that has redesigned the high school transcript to show a more holistic picture of the competencies acquired by students.

Education reform requires looking at the root cause of some of its current problems. We need to look at what is being taught (curriculum), how (pedagogy), when and where (technology and the real world) and whom we are teaching (access and inclusion). Those institutions who are ready to address these fundamental issues will succeed in truly transforming higher education.

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Penny A. Pasque, The Ohio State University; Thomas F. Nelson Laird, Indiana University, Bloomington

Journal Details

The Review of Higher Education  is interested in empirical research studies, empirically-based historical and theoretical articles, and scholarly reviews and essays that move the study of colleges and universities forward. The most central aspect of  RHE  is the saliency of the subject matter to other scholars in the field as well as its usefulness to academic leaders and public policymakers. Manuscripts submitted for  RHE  need to extend the literature in the field of higher education and may connect across fields and disciplines when relevant. Selection of articles for publication is based solely on the merits of the manuscripts with regards to conceptual or theoretical frameworks, methodological accurateness and suitability, and/or the clarity of ideas and gathered facts presented. Additionally, our publications center around issues within US Higher Education and any manuscript that we send for review must have clear implications for US Higher Education. 

Guidelines for Contributors

Manuscripts should be typed, serif or san serif text as recommended by APA 7th edition (e.g., 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, and 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, 10-point Computer Modern) double-spaced throughout, including block quotes and references. Each page should be numbered on the top right side of the page consecutively and include a running head. Please supply the title of your submission, an abstract of 100 or fewer words, and keywords as the first page of your manuscript submission (this page does not count towards your page limit). The names, institutional affiliations, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and a short biography of authors should appear on a separate cover page to aid proper masking during the review process. Initial and revised submissions should not run more than 32 pages (excluding abstract, keywords, and references; including tables, figures and appendices). Authors should follow instructions in the 7th edition Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association; any manuscripts not following all APA guidelines will not be reviewed. Please do not change fonts, spacing, or margins or use style formatting features at any point in the manuscript except for tables. All tables should be submitted in a mutable format (i.e. not a fixed image). Please upload your manuscript as a word document. All supporting materials (i.e., tables, figures, appendices) should be editable in the manuscript or a separate word document (i.e., do not embedded tables or figures). For a fixed image, please upload a separate high-resolution JPEG.

Authors should use their best judgment when masking citations. Masking some or all citations that include an author’s name can help prevent reviewers from knowing the identities of the authors. However, in certain circumstances masking citations is unnecessary or could itself reveal the identities of manuscript authors. Because authors are in the best position to know when masking citations will be effective, the editorial team will generally defer to them for these decisions.

Manuscripts are to be submitted in Word online at  mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rhe . (If you have not previously registered on this website, click on the “Register here” link to create a new account.) Once you log on, click on the “Author Center” link and then follow the printed instructions to submit your manuscript.

The term “conflict of interest” means any financial or other interest which conflicts with the work of the individual because it (1) could significantly impair the individual’s objectivity or (2) could create an unfair advantage for any person or organization. We recommend all authors review and adhere to the ASHE Conflict of Interest Policy before submitting any and all work. Please refer to the policy at  ashe.ws/ashe_coi

Please note that  The Review of Higher Education  does not require potential contributors to pay an article submission fee in order to be considered for publication.  Any other website that purports to be affiliated with the Journal and that requires you to pay an article submission fee is fraudulent. Do not provide payment information. Instead, we ask that you contact the  RHE  editorial office at  [email protected]  or William Breichner the Journals Publisher at the Johns Hopkins University Press  [email protected] .

Author Checklist for New Submissions

Page Limit.  Manuscripts should not go over 32 pages (excluding abstract, keywords, and references; including tables, figures and appendices.)

Masked Review.  All author information (i.e., name, affiliation, email, phone number, address) should appear on a separate cover page of the manuscript. The manuscript should have no indication of authorship. Any indication of authorship will result in your manuscript being unsubmitted.

Formatting.  Manuscripts should be typed, serif or san serif text as recommended by APA 7th edition (e.g., 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, and 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, 10-point Computer Modern), double-spaced throughout, including block quotes and references, and each page should be numbered on the top right side of the page consecutively. Authors should follow instructions in the 7th edition Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association; this includes running heads, heading levels, spacing, margins, etc.. Any manuscripts not following APA 7th edition will be unsubmitted. [Please note, the  RHE  editorial team recommends 12-pt Times New Roman font to ensure proper format conversion within the ScholarOne system.]

Abstract.  All manuscripts must include an abstract of 100 words or fewer, and keywords as the first page of your manuscript submission (this page does not count towards your page limit).

Author Note.  An Author’s note may include Land Acknowledgments, Disclosure Statement (i.e., funding sources), or other acknowledgments. This should appear on your title page (not in the masked manuscript).  

Tables.  All tables should be editable. Tables may be uploaded in the manuscript itself or in a separate word document. All tables must be interpretable by readers without the reference to the manuscript. Do not duplicate information from the manuscript into tables. Tables must present additional information from what has already been stated in the manuscript.

Figures.  Figures should be editable in the manuscript or a separate word document (i.e., no embedded tables). For fixed images, please upload high-resolution JPEGs separately.

References.  The reference page should follow 7th edition APA guidelines and be double spaced throughout (reference pages do not count toward your page limit). 

Appendices.  Appendices should generally run no more than 3 manuscript pages. 

Additional Checklist for Revised Submissions

Revised manuscripts should follow the checklist above, with the following additional notes: 

Page Limit.  Revised manuscripts should stay within the page limit for new submissions (32 pages). However, we do realize that this is not always possible, and we may allow for a couple of extra pages for your revisions. Extensions to your page length will be subject to editor approval upon resubmission, but may not exceed 35 pages (excluding abstract, keywords, and references).

• Author Response to Reviewer Comments.  At the beginning of your revised manuscript file, please include a separate masked statement that indicates fully [1] all changes that have been made in response to the reviewer and editor suggestions and the pages on which those changes may be found in the revised manuscript and [2] those reviewer and editor suggestions that are not addressed in the revised manuscript and a rationale for why you think such revisions are not necessary. This can be in the form of a table or text paragraphs and must appear at the front of your revised manuscript document. Your response to reviewer and editor comments will not count toward your manuscript page limit. Please note that, because you will be adding your response to the reviewer and editor feedback to the beginning of your submission, this may change the page numbers of your document unless you change the pagination and start your manuscript itself on page 1. The choice is yours but either way, please ensure that you reference the appropriate page numbers within your manuscript in these responses. Additionally, when you submit your revised manuscript, there will be a submission box labeled “Author Response to Decision Letter”. You are not required to duplicate information already provided in the manuscript, but instead may use this to send a note to the reviewer team (e.g., an anonymous cover letter or note of appreciation for feedback). Please maintain anonymity throughout the review process by NOT including your name or by masking any potentially identifying information when providing your response to the reviewer's feedback (both in documents and the ScholarOne system).

Editorial Correspondence

Please address all correspondence about submitting articles (no subscriptions, please) to one or both of the following editors:

Dr. Penny A. Pasque, PhD Editor, Review of Higher Education 341 C Ramseyer Hall 29 W. Woodruff Avenue The Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210 email:  [email protected]

Dr. Thomas F. Nelson Laird, PhD Editor, Review of Higher Education 201 North Rose Avenue Indiana University School of Education Bloomington, IN 47405-100 email:  [email protected]

Submission Policy

RHE publishes original works that are not available elsewhere. We ask that all manuscripts submitted to our journal for review are not published, in press or submitted to other journals while under our review. Additionally, reprints and translations of previously published articles will not be accepted.

Type of Preliminary Review

RHE utilizes a collaborative review process that requires several members of the editorial team to ensure that submitted manuscripts are suitable before being sent out for masked peer-review. Members of this team include a Editor, Associate Editor and Managing Editors. Managing Editors complete an initial review of manuscripts to ensure authors meet RHE ’s Author Guidelines and work with submitting authors to address preliminary issues and concerns (i.e., APA formatting). Editors and Associate Editors work together to decide whether it should be sent out for review and select appropriate reviewers for the manuscript.

Type of Review

When a manuscript is determined as suitable for review by the collaborative decision of the editorial team, Editors and/or Associate Editors will assign reviewers. Both the authors’ and reviewers’ are masked throughout the review and decision process.

Criteria for Review

Criteria for review include, but are not limited to, the significance of the topic to higher education, completeness of the literature review, appropriateness of the research methods or historical analysis, and the quality of the discussion concerning the implications of the findings for theory, research, and practice. In addition, we look for the congruence of thought and approach throughout the manuscript components.

Type of Revisions Process

Some authors will receive a “Major Revision” or “Minor Revision” decision. Authors who receive such decisions are encouraged to carefully attend to reviewer’s comments and recommendations and resubmit their revised manuscripts for another round of reviews. When submitting their revised manuscripts, authors are asked to include a response letter and indicate how they have responded to reviewer comments and recommendations. In some instances, authors may be asked to revise and resubmit a manuscript more than once.

Review Process Once Revised

Revised manuscripts are sent to the reviewers who originally made comments and recommendations regarding the manuscript, whenever possible. We rely on our editorial board and ad-hoc reviewers who volunteer their time and we give those reviewers a month to provide thorough feedback. Please see attached pdf for a visual representation of the RHE workflow .

Timetable (approx.)

• Managing Editor Technical Checks – 1-3 days
• Editor reviews and assigns manuscript to Associate Editors – 3-5 days
• Associate Editor reviews and invites reviewers – 3-5 days
• Reviewer comments due – 30 days provided for reviews
• Associate Editor makes a recommendation –  5-7 days
• Editor makes decision – 5-7 days
• If R&R, authors revise and resubmit manuscript – 90 days provided for revisions
• Repeat process above until manuscript is accepted or rejected -

Type of review for book reviews

Book reviews are the responsibility of the associate editor of book reviews. Decisions about acceptance of a book review are made by that associate editor.

The Hopkins Press Journals Ethics and Malpractice Statement can be found at the ethics-and-malpractice  page.

The Review of Higher Education expects all authors to review and adhere to ASHE’s Conflict of Interest Policy before submitting any and all work. The term “conflict of interest” means any financial or other interest which conflicts with the work of the individual because it (1) could significantly impair the individual’s objectivity or (2) could create an unfair advantage for any person or organization. Please refer to the policy at ashe.ws/ashe_coi .

Guidelines for Book Reviews

RHE publishes book reviews of original research, summaries of research, or scholarly thinking in book form. We do not publish reviews of books or media that would be described as expert opinion or advice for practitioners.

The journal publishes reviews of current books, meaning books published no more than 12 months prior to submission to the associate editor in charge of book reviews.

If you want to know whether the RHE would consider a book review before writing it, you may email the associate editor responsible for book reviews with the citation for the book.

Reviewers should have scholarly expertise in the higher education research area they are reviewing.

Graduate students are welcome to co-author book reviews, but with faculty or seasoned research professionals as first authors.

Please email the review to the associate editor in charge of book reviews (Timothy Reese Cain, [email protected] ), who will work through necessary revisions with you if your submission is accepted for publishing.

In general, follow the APA Publication Manual, 7th edition.

Provide a brief but clear description and summary of the contents so that the reader has a good idea of the scope and organization of the book. This is especially important when reviewing anthologies that include multiple sections with multiple authors.

Provide an evaluation of the book, both positive and negative points. What has been done well? Not so well? For example the following are some questions that you can address (not exclusively), as appropriate:

What are the important contributions that this book makes?

What contributions could have been made, but were not made?

What arguments or claims were problematic, weak, etc.?

How is the book related to, how does it supplement, or how does it complicate current work on the topic?

To which audience(s) will this book be most helpful?

How well has the author achieved their stated goals?

Use quotations efficiently to provide a flavor of the writing style and/or statements that are particularly helpful in illustrating the author(s) points. 

If you cite any other published work, please provide a complete reference.

Please include a brief biographical statement immediately after your name, usually title and institution. Follow the same format for co authored reviews. The first author is the contact author.

Please follow this example for the headnote of the book(s) you are reviewing: Stefan M. Bradley. Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivy League. New York: New York University Press, 2018. 465 pp. $35. ISBN 97814798739999.

Our preferred length is 2,000–2,500 words in order for authors to provide a complete, analytical, review. Reviews of shorter books may not need to be of that length.

The term “conflict of interest” means any financial or other interest which conflicts with the work of the individual because it (1) could significantly impair the individual’s objectivity or (2) could create an unfair advantage for any person or organization. We recommend all book reviewers read and adhere to the ASHE Conflict of Interest Policy before submitting any and all work. Please refer to the policy at ashe.ws/ashe_coi

NOTE: If the Editor has sent a book to an author for review, but the author is unable to complete the review within a reasonable timeframe, we would appreciate the return of the book as soon as possible; thanks for your understanding.

Please send book review copies to the contact above. Review copies received by the Johns Hopkins University Press office will be discarded.

Penny A. Pasque,         The Ohio State University

Thomas F. Nelson Laird,         Indiana University-Bloomington

Associate Editors

Angela Boatman,         Boston College

Timothy Reese Cain (including Book Reviews),         University of Georgia

Milagros Castillo-Montoya,         University of Connecticut

Tania D. Mitchell,         University of Minnesota

Chrystal George Mwangi       George Mason University

Federick Ngo,        University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Managing Editors

Stephanie Nguyen,         Indiana University Bloomington

Monica Quezada Barrera,         The Ohio State University

Editorial Board

Sonja Ardoin,         Clemson University

Peter Riley Bahr,        University of Michigan

Vicki Baker,      Albion College

Allison BrckaLorenz,        Indiana University Bloomington

Nolan L. Cabrera,        The University of Arizona

Brendan Cantwell,        Michigan State University

Rozana Carducci,        Elon University

Deborah Faye Carter,         Claremont Graduate University

Ashley Clayton,         Louisiana State University

Regina Deil-Amen,         The University of Arizona 

Jennifer A. Delaney,     University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

Erin E. Doran,    Iowa State University

Antonio Duran,   Arizona State University 

Michelle M. Espino,        University of Maryland 

Claudia García-Louis,        University of Texas, San Antonio

Deryl Hatch-Tocaimaza,        University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Nicholas Hillman,        University of Wisconsin-Madison

Cindy Ann Kilgo,        Indiana University-Bloomington

Judy Marquez Kiyama,  University of Arizona

Román Liera,        Montclair State University

Angela Locks,        California State University, Long Beach

Demetri L. Morgan,  Loyola University Chicago

Rebecca Natow,         Hofstra University 

Z Nicolazzo,        The University of Arizona

Elizabeth Niehaus,        University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Robert T. Palmer,        Howard University

Rosemary Perez,        University of Michigan

OiYan Poon,         Spencer Foundation 

Kelly Rosinger,        The Pennsylvania State University

Vanessa Sansone,         The University of Texas at San Antonio

Tricia Seifert,        Montana State University

Barrett Taylor,         University of North Texas 

Annemarie Vaccaro,  University of Rhode Island

Xueli Wang,        University of Wisconsin-Madison

Stephanie Waterman,         University of Toronto 

Rachelle Winkle-Wagner,         University of Wisconsin-Madison

Association for the Study of Higher Education Board of Directors

The Review of Higher Education is the journal of Association for the Study Higher Education (ASHE) and follows the ASHE Bylaws and Statement on Diversity. 

ASHE Board of Directors

Abstracting & Indexing Databases

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• Dietrich's Index Philosophicus
• IBZ - Internationale Bibliographie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Zeitschriftenliteratur
• Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlicher Literatur
• Academic Search Alumni Edition, 9/1/2003-
• Academic Search Complete, 9/1/2003-
• Academic Search Elite, 9/1/2003-
• Academic Search Premier, 9/1/2003-
• Current Abstracts, 9/1/2003-
• Education Research Complete, 3/1/1997-
• Education Research Index, Sep.2003-
• Education Source, 3/1/1997-
• Educational Administration Abstracts, 3/1/1991-
• ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), 1977-
• MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association)
• Poetry & Short Story Reference Center, 3/1/1997-
• PsycINFO, 2001-, dropped
• Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies
• TOC Premier (Table of Contents), 9/1/2003-
• Scopus, 1996-
• Gale Academic OneFile
• Gale OneFile: Educator's Reference Complete, 12/2001-
• Higher Education Abstracts (Online)
• ArticleFirst, vol.15, no.3, 1992-vol.35, no.2, 2011
• Electronic Collections Online, vol.20, no.1, 1996-vol.35, no.2, 2011
• Periodical Abstracts, v.26, n.4, 2003-v.33, n.3, 2010
• PsycFIRST, vol.24, no.3, 2001-vol.33, no.1, 2009
• Personal Alert (E-mail)
• Education Collection, 7/1/2003-
• Education Database, 7/1/2003-
• Health Research Premium Collection, 7/1/2003-
• Hospital Premium Collection, 7/1/2003-
• Periodicals Index Online, 1/1/1981-7/1/2000
• Professional ProQuest Central, 07/01/2003-
• ProQuest 5000, 07/01/2003-
• ProQuest 5000 International, 07/01/2003-
• ProQuest Central, 07/01/2003-
• Psychology Database, 7/1/2003-
• Research Library, 07/01/2003-
• Social Science Premium Collection, 07/01/2003-
• Educational Research Abstracts Online
• Research into Higher Education Abstracts (Online)
• Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts (Online)

Abstracting & Indexing Sources

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• Family Index   (Ceased)  (Print)
• Psychological Abstracts   (Ceased)  (Print)

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Also of Interest

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Patti Duncan, Oregon State University

Georgia L. Irby, College of William & Mary

Benjamin Fraser, The University of Arizona

Jeraldine Kraver, University of Northern Colorado; Peter Kratzke, University of Colorado, Boulder

Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang, Malmö University, Sweden

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Higher Education

The International Journal of Higher Education Research

Recognized as the leading international journal on higher education studies, this publication examines educational developments throughout the world in universities, polytechnics, colleges, and vocational and education institutions. It reports on developments in both public and private higher education sectors.

Higher Education features contributions from leading scholars from different countries who tackle the problems of teachers as well as students, and of planners as well as administrators. It presents authoritative overview articles, comparative studies and analyses of particular problems or issues.

While each higher education system has its own distinctive features, common problems and issues are shared internationally by researchers, teachers and institutional leaders. Higher Education offers opportunities for the exchange of research results, experience and insights, and provides a forum for ongoing discussion between experts.

This is a transformative journal , you may have access to funding.

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Latest issue

Volume 87, Issue 3

Latest articles

The challenge of change: understanding the role of habits in university students’ self-regulated learning.

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When massified higher education meets shrinking birth rates: the case of South Korea

International student mobility within Europe: responding to contemporary challenges

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Negotiating meritocracy and gender equality across organisational spaces: the case of a tenure track system

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Student sociodemographic and school type differences in teacher-predicted vs. achieved grades for university admission

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Opinion Liberals must answer the right’s attacks on America’s colleges

Republican officials and conservative activists have long demonized America’s colleges and universities as centers of elitism, hyper-liberalism and wasteful spending. And in purple and red states, they are increasingly enacting policies in line with that vision: putting Republicans with little higher education experience in top roles at universities , banning classes and programs that don’t align with conservative beliefs, and either cutting or not increasing funding at colleges, leading to the shuttering of departments and even entire schools .

Democratic officials and the broader left generally support America’s long-standing system of universities that operate largely independently from partisan politics. Now, they need to act on that belief by aggressively and forcefully pushing back against the right’s war on colleges.

There’s nothing new about conservatives attacking academia. The right views universities like the news media: as a left-leaning institution that must be delegitimized, weakened or taken over by conservatives. Attacking the University of California at Berkeley as a symbol of out-of-control liberalism was part of how future president Ronald Reagan rose to power in the 1960s.

That said, over the past decade, the Republican Party has become even more fixated on what’s happening on campuses. Bashing colleges and enacting policies to constrain them weren’t hallmarks of being a George W. Bush-era Republican politician.

Public colleges are reliant on states and the federal government for much of their funding, so they need politicians on their side to survive. But although Democrats often try to make college more affordable, such as President Barack Obama’s proposal for free community college , the party hasn’t positioned itself as a stalwart defender of universities. Until recently, that wasn’t necessary — the happenings on campuses weren’t at the center of state and national politics.

And many Democratic politicians and prominent left-leaning figures have positions on higher education that make them less than ideal defenders of it. They view college as a luxury for students who choose to pay for it and a pathway to white-collar jobs, as opposed to a place for learning and intellectual development. As factory jobs declined and racial inequality persisted, the Clinton and Obama administrations pushed K-12 reform and expanded college access as ways for working-class Americans to essentially educate themselves into the middle class with a bit of government help.

So Democrats who consistently push for increased funding for K-12 schools and forcefully oppose cuts to that spending aren’t as invested in public dollars for colleges and universities . They haven’t opposed the gradual shift in financing of higher education over the past four decades, as colleges went from charging low tuition to dramatically increasing costs and expecting most students to take out loans.

Also, many prominent Democrats agree with and therefore reinforce conservative depictions of colleges as enclaves for the elite and super-liberal. Democratic politicians , their children , their advisers and the journalists whose articles they read disproportionately attend or attended Ivy League schools and other expensive private colleges with lots of rich students and some very vocal left-wing professors and activist groups. So leading Democrats’ personal experiences don’t match reality: The overwhelming majority of American students attend public colleges that don’t have intense left- or right-wing activism, in part because many of those students have part-time jobs and don’t live on campus.

Another reason Democrats are reluctant to defend colleges is that an overly simplistic view of the electorate has taken hold within the party . White Americans without bachelor’s degrees are increasingly voting Republican , while White Americans with degrees are shifting left. The nondegree group is about 40 percent of voters , those with a bachelor’s about 30 percent. So many Democratic pundits and strategists (wrongly) argue electoral math requires the party to distance itself from people who are attending or graduated from college.

“People say to me sometimes, ‘Well, Joe, that’s great, you’re helping people get into college, but how about all those hard-working people you grew up with in the neighborhood? How about all those folks in labor unions? How about all those hard-working people that work with their hands?” President Biden said in a speech in February .

I doubt people are actually coming up to the sitting president and complaining that he is too supportive of Americans going to college. Hopefully Biden doesn’t actually think (wrongly) that the country is neatly divided between non-unionized college graduates in cushy office jobs and unionized non-college graduates who mostly work with their hands. I suspect this is just pandering to older White voters.

When you combine Republicans’ organized, intense campaign against colleges and universities with Democrats’ ambivalence, you arrive at our terrible situation: students across the country graduating with loads of debt, university budget cuts in both blue and red states, officials in Texas as well as Michigan and California trying to limit left-wing protests on campus.

Democrats and the broader left are addressing some of these issues. The Biden administration is trying to forgive as much education debt as it can and continuing Obama’s push for free community college. New Mexico and Minnesota have created free tuition programs for four years of college. Democratic politicians and liberal activists are rightly attacking Republican restrictions on the teaching of critical race theory and rollbacks of diversity, equity and inclusion programs as partisan actions to make campuses more conservative on racial issues.

But none of that adds up to a broader vision for higher education. I worry the right will keep winning on this issue if conservatives have a clear view that inspires their base (“colleges are centers of ‘woke’ indoctrination”) and liberals are saying a bunch of disparate things.

Defining higher education as a public good is that unifying idea for the left. It reflects how most Democrats (and I suspect many Republicans and independents) actually think about colleges and universities. Politicians fund colleges (although not enough) for the same reasons they spend money on K-12 schooling: a more educated populace is good for the nation collectively, not just something that benefits the individuals who attend. Elected officials try (but not hard enough) to keep public college tuition low because they view higher education as something everyone should have access to, no matter their income.

They use government funds to pay professors and university staff because they are the necessary employees to carry out an essential public service, like firefighters and librarians.

And even if politicians and the public don’t recognize this, schools and universities provide a number of benefits that can’t easily be replicated by businesses or the private sector. They are often one of the biggest employers and health-care providers in small towns and rural areas. Research at universities has led to medical innovations that have saved lives and scholarly findings that have dramatically improved public policy.

“Public education is infrastructure. It belongs in the same category as our roads, bridges, utilities, municipal services, parks, libraries and everything else we need to operate society as a collective,” education writer John Warner argues in his book “Sustainable. Resilient. Free. The Future of Public Higher Education. ”

If higher education is rightly recognized as a public good, policy should be aligned with that principle. Tuition should be free at public colleges, and those institutions should also help lower-income students pay for housing and other costs while in school. That will require much more funding from states and the federal government.

It is also essential to maintain high numbers of professors and staff on campus, just as we need sufficient numbers of teachers in middle schools.

Classes in English, humanities and other subjects that aren’t clearly tied to jobs should be encouraged because they are part of a full education. We aren’t cutting literature in K-12, even though most people don’t quote Shakespeare in their jobs.

We need strong protections for academics to research what they wish. There’s going to be less groundbreaking scholarship if professors are worried they will be fired or lose research funding if their findings don’t align with politicians’ views.

To reinforce the idea of colleges as being for the public and deserving of government funding, defenders of higher education should particularly highlight the virtues of community colleges and four-year public colleges, where the overwhelmingly majority of students go, not small exclusive schools such as Harvard.

Speaking favorably about colleges isn’t some huge danger to the Democratic Party. Voting patterns are more based on religion, ideology and other factors than whether someone attended college. But reframing higher education as a public good has political value, too. It shifts away from the idea that higher education is by and for elites, with people without degrees locked out of many jobs and only those from prestigious colleges getting the top roles.

The left and center-left should be trying to create a society in which higher education is available to everyone who wants it but in which there are also plenty of steady, decent-paying jobs with good benefits that don’t require a degree.

It’s unfortunate that higher education has become such a political issue. But today’s right is at war with many ideals that I thought were safe and sacrosanct, such as respecting election results. Liberals need to strongly defend higher education or eventually live in a nation that no longer has colleges and universities that foster innovation and social mobility, draw brilliant students and professors from across the world, and fuel the economies of small towns across the country.

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Gen Z isn't sure higher education is worth it — and it might be taking a toll on Harvard

• Applications to Harvard declined 5.14% this year, compared to last year.
• The decline follows controversy at Harvard surrounding its response to antisemitism.
• It could also reflect a larger trend in Gen Zers no longer valuing higher education.

Harvard might be losing some of its appeal among Generation Z .

The Boston Ivy League school announced that it accepted 1,937 students this year out of 54,008 applicants — a 5.14% decline in applications from last year despite marking the fourth year in a row the school received over 50,000 applications.

This data also comes after the school reported a 17% decline in applications for early admissions in December. While Harvard did not elaborate on any reasoning for the declines in applications alongside its release of the data, it follows a tumultuous past year for the school after it faced scrutiny for its response to antisemitism on campus , along with its admissions policies following the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision in June.

"Beyond another strong applicant pool, we are delighted by the stunning array of talents and lived experiences the Class of 2028 will bring with them from throughout the United States and around the world," William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid, said in a statement.

Fewer applicants also came as Harvard increased its tuition to $82,866, a 4.3% increase from the previous year. While other prestigious schools did not experience an application decline — Yale, Columbia, and Dartmouth, for example, all saw their numbers increase — Harvard's data could offer a glimpse into Gen Z's changing sentiment regarding the value of higher education.

A Business Insider July poll, in collaboration with YouGov, found that just 39% of Gen Z said advancing their education is important to them, and 46% of them said they don't think college is worth the cost. Sadie Shaw, 22, previously told BI that she dropped out of college after a month because she didn't see the point in paying for courses she could learn herself.

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"It has been amazing for me to not be in debt," she said. "I have no student loans, like so many of my friends are in $100,000 in debt and student loans just to get a job that pays $60,000 a year."

Harvard offers free tuition for families with an income below $85,000. But, as the Harvard Crimson noted , the school did not increase that threshold to account for the tuition increase — even while having the biggest endowment in the country at just over $50 billion — likely increasing some affordability concerns for some prospective students.

Ongoing challenges for Harvard

Harvard propelled itself into the international spotlight following a congressional testimony last year with the leaders of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after which the schools drew criticism from prominent donors that the school's leaders did not adequately condemn antisemitism.

As a result, some of Harvard's key donors — including Victoria's Secret owner Les Wexner — announced they would be pulling their donations from the school. Top Republican on the House education committee Virginia Foxx also led an effort to subpoena Harvard over documents outlining its strategies to address antisemitism, with a Harvard spokesperson saying in a statement that the school has "denounced antisemitism on our campus and has made clear that the university will continue to take actions to combat antisemitism in any form."

Before the Israel-Hamas war, the Education Department also announced it was investigating Harvard over its use of legacy preference admissions policies following the Supreme Court's June ruling, which banned the consideration of race in college admissions.

Beyond the challenges Harvard itself is facing, students across the country are struggling to navigate the Free Application for Federal Student Aid , or FAFSA, application due to ongoing errors and delays resulting from the Education Department's attempt to overhaul and simplify the process.

According to the National College Attainment Network, which tracks FAFSA data, applications are down nearly 29% compared to last year — meaning fewer students are applying for, and have a chance of receiving needed financial aid.

With concerns around the cost of higher education, and recent political discourse on campuses, more Gen Zers might decide that getting a degree just isn't worth it anymore — even if it's from Harvard.

Watch: Biden announces who can have $10,000 erased in student loans

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What to know about Biden’s latest attempt at student loan cancellation

President Joe Biden says student loan relief will empower Americans to pursue their dreams without the burden of debt. Visiting Wisconsin, Biden announced details of a new plan to help more than 30 million people.

President Joe Biden speaks at an event about canceling student debt, at the Madison Area Technical College Truax campus on Monday, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

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President Joe Biden departs after delivering remarks on student loan debt at Madison College, Monday, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on student loan debt at Madison College, Monday, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is taking another shot at student loan cancellation, hoping to deliver on a key campaign promise that he has so far failed to fulfill.

In a visit to Wisconsin on Monday, Biden detailed a proposal that would cancel at least some debt for more than 30 million Americans. It’s been in the works for months after the Supreme Court rejected Biden’s first try at mass cancellation.

Biden called the court’s decision a “mistake” but ordered the Education Department to craft a new plan using a different legal authority. The latest proposal is more targeted than his original plan, focusing on those for whom student debt is a major obstacle.

Here’s what to know about the new plan:

HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM BIDEN’S FIRST PLAN?

Biden’s first attempt at widespread student loan cancellation would have erased $10,000 for borrowers with yearly incomes of up to $125,000, plus an additional $10,000 if they received federal Pell grants for low-income students. It was estimated to cost $400 billion and cancel at least some student debt for more than 40 million people.

The Supreme Court rejected that plan last year, saying Biden overstepped his authority.

The new plan uses a different legal justification — the Higher Education Act, which allows the secretary of education to waive student loan debt in certain cases. The Education Department has been going through a federal rulemaking process to clarify how the secretary can invoke that authority.

The new plan targets five categories of borrowers, focusing on those believed to be in the greatest need of help. It would provide relief to an estimated 30 million borrowers. The administration has not said how much the plan would cost.

WHO’S ELIGIBLE?

Biden’s new proposal would offer cancellation to five categories of borrowers.

The widest-reaching provision aims to reset student loan balances for borrowers who have seen their debt grow because of unpaid interest. It would cancel up to $20,000 in interest for Americans who now owe more than they originally borrowed. That cap wouldn’t apply for individuals who make less than $120,000 a year or couples who earn less than $240,000 and also are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan.

The Education Department says 25 million people would be eligible for that relief, including 23 million who would get their interest erased entirely.

Borrowers who are eligible for other federal forgiveness programs but haven’t applied would also get their loans canceled under the new proposal. It applies to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and income-driven repayment plans, among others. It’s meant to help people who missed out on forgiveness because of complex paperwork, bad advice or other obstacles. An estimated 2 million people would be eligible for that help.

All debt would be canceled for borrowers who have been repaying undergraduate loans for 20 years or more, or 25 years for those with graduate school debt. The Biden administration says it would erase loans for more than 2 million people.

Those who attended college programs of “low financial value” would be eligible for forgiveness. The plan would cancel debt for borrowers who went to institutions that lost eligibility for federal education funding because they cheated students. It would also cancel loans for people who went to college programs that left graduates with low incomes compared to their student loans.

A final category would cancel loans for Americans facing hardship that prevents them from repaying their student loans. The rule would allow the Education Department to cancel debt for borrowers who are considered highly likely to default on their loans, and it would create an application system for individuals to detail other forms of hardship.

DO I NEED TO APPLY?

Most of the cancellation would be done automatically with no need to apply. That would be the case for the interest cancellation, borrowers with older loans, those that attended low-value programs, and those eligible for other cancellation programs.

There’s one exception: If borrowers want to make a case that they face some sort of hardship that merits cancellation, they would need to apply individually.

WHEN WILL I GET RELIEF?

The Biden administration says some debt could be canceled as soon as this fall, including interest that has snowballed on top of borrowers’ loans.

That timeline would require some maneuvering. The Education Department said it plans to release a formal proposal in the “coming months.” That would usually be followed by a public comment period of 60 days. Then if the rule is finalized by Nov. 1, it would usually take effect the following July — in this case, July 2025.

But the Higher Education Act authorizes the education secretary to fast-track rules for “early implementation” in some cases. The Biden administration recently used that power to accelerate student loan cancellation offered through a new federal repayment plan. Invoking that authority could allow Biden to start canceling debt later this year.

IS THIS A SURE THING?

Anything but. The Biden administration says it’s confident that the plan is allowed by the Higher Education Act. But loan cancellation of this type is uncharted territory, and conservative opponents are expected to challenge Biden’s plan in court.

Republicans have repeatedly fought Biden’s plan for student loan cancellation, saying it’s an unfair benefit shouldered by taxpayers who repaid their loans or didn’t go to college. Opponents say the Supreme Court was clear that widespread loan cancellation must come from Congress.

If Biden’s plan faces a lawsuit, courts could order the administration to halt cancellation until legal questions are sorted out. That scenario could leave the plan on hold beyond the November presidential election. Even if it survives legal challenges, a Donald Trump victory would spell almost certain doom for Biden’s plan.

CAN CANCELLATION BE REVERSED?

If Biden’s plan is overturned after the administration starts canceling loans, it would present a thorny question: Can forgiven student loans be unforgiven?

Technically, there are ways that canceled student debt can be reinstated. But doing it on such a large scale could be difficult and costly, requiring heavy work from loan servicers contracted to work for the Education Department.

It could also be politically fraught to reinstate debt after it’s been forgiven. Ultimately it could be up to the courts to decide how to handle debt that’s already been canceled.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

Why can’t US match other countries on basically free higher ed?

Yvonne Abraham’s column “Look past the $90k price tag” (Metro, March 31), about the over-the-top cost of higher education, is spot-on. Western European countries effectively made higher education free in the 1970s. The United States is just about 50 years behind.

Some high school graduates from my town are receiving essentially free education in other countries. Germany provides a virtually free higher education to international students. Other countries, such as France, provide higher education at a very low cost. Imagine that: Free, or virtually free, higher education .

Are these countries dupes or do they realize that education is the best investment regardless of national origin? Horace Mann began free elementary education in the United States here in Massachusetts. Eventually the United States went to free secondary education, but we went astray and failed to keep up with much of the rest of the developed world more than a generation ago. We can do better.

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Representative Carmine Gentile

The writer, a Democrat, represents the 13th Middlesex District and is vice chair of the Joint Committee on Higher Education.

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Student Opinion

Should College Be Free?

Do you think other states should follow New Mexico in making higher education tuition-free? What would that mean for society?

By Callie Holtermann

Do you plan to go to college? Are you or your family concerned about paying for it?

In the past three decades, the average cost of attending a private college in the United States has tripled — landing at around $50,000 per year.

Should college cost this much? How would our society change if college cost nothing at all?

Amid declines in enrollment , states including Texas and Michigan are experimenting with plans to reduce or eliminate tuition for many students. Starting in July, New Mexico will go a step further: It will completely cover tuition for all state residents who attend public colleges and universities.

In “ What if College Were Free? This State Is Trying to Find Out. ,” Simon Romero writes about the state’s plan, which received bipartisan approval:

As universities across the United States face steep enrollment declines , New Mexico’s government is embarking on a pioneering experiment to fight that trend: tuition-free higher education for all state residents. After President Biden’s plan for universal free community college failed to gain traction in Congress, New Mexico, one of the nation’s poorest states, has emerged with perhaps the most ambitious plans as states scramble to come up with their own initiatives. A new state law approved in a rare show of bipartisanship allocates almost 1 percent of the state’s budget toward covering tuition and fees at public colleges and universities, community colleges and tribal colleges. All state residents from new high school graduates to adults enrolling part-time will be eligible regardless of family income. The program is also open to immigrants regardless of their immigration status. Some legislators and other critics question whether there should have been income caps, and whether the state, newly flush with oil and gas revenue, can secure long-term funding to support the program beyond its first year. The legislation, which seeks to treat college as a public resource similar to primary and secondary education, takes effect in July.

The article continues:

Other states are assembling their own programs: The University of Texas System created a $300 million endowment in February that expands tuition assistance for thousands of students. Michigan provides free college to residents who were essential workers during the pandemic, while also covering tuition at community colleges for people ages 25 or older. Reflecting challenges before and during the pandemic, some initiatives have not produced the desired results. Even after California recently expanded free tuition opportunities, enrollment at its community colleges fell by nearly 15 percent in 2021 from a year earlier. The push for tuition-free higher education comes amid a broader enrollment crisis in the United States. Total undergraduate enrollment fell by 6.6 percent from 2019 to 2021, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Students, read the entire article , then tell us:

What do you think of New Mexico’s plan to provide tuition-free college to state residents? Do you think college should be “a public resource similar to primary and secondary education,” as New Mexico is treating it? Do you think that your state should adopt a similar plan? Why or why not?

Do you want to attend college? Why or why not? How does the cost of higher education factor into your thinking?

Do you think everyone should go to college — or do you think there should be more alternatives to higher education? If so, what should they be and why?

Why do you think universities across the United States are facing declines in enrollment? Do you think plans to make college less expensive or entirely free are the right way to increase enrollment?

Do you think making college tuition-free is worth the cost? (As the article points out, the money for the first year of the New Mexico program largely comes from pandemic relief funds. After that, legislators will need to draw funds from other sources to keep the program going.) Is it more realistic to do what states like Washington and Tennessee have done and limit tuition assistance to community colleges, exclude some residents because of family income or impose conditions requiring students to work part time?

Mr. Romero describes New Mexico’s initiative as “unusually inclusive,” given that it extends free tuition to inmates, unauthorized immigrants and some Native Americans from neighboring states. Why do you think New Mexico’s legislators decided it was important to make members of these groups eligible for free tuition? What might be some of the long-term effects of free college for all?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Callie Holtermann joined The Learning Network as a senior news assistant in 2020. More about Callie Holtermann

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German university rescinds Jewish American’s job offer over pro-Palestinian letter

Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy at the New School, condemned killings in Gaza carried out by the Israeli military

A leading Jewish American philosopher has been disinvited from taking up a prestigious professorship at the University of Cologne after signing a letter expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning the killings in Gaza carried out by Israeli forces.

Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy and politics at the New School for Social Research in New York, said she had been cancelled by the university, which has withdrawn its invitation to the Albertus Magnus Professorship 2024, a visiting position, which she had been awarded in 2022. The letter was written in November 2023 following the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas, prompting Israel’s attack on Gaza.

Fellow academics have written a letter to the university in protest against the ban. In it, they call the withdrawal of the invitation “another attempt to limit public and academic debate on Israel and Palestine by invoking supposedly clear, distinct, governmentally sanctioned red lines”.

They said the letter, titled Philosophy for Palestine, which was signed by Fraser and several hundred other academics, was separate from Fraser’s work as a scholar and that her guest professorship had nothing to do with the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Cologne University said in a statement its decision to cancel the invitation had been made “with great regret”. It said the reason was that in the letter signed by Fraser, “Israel’s right to exist as an ‘ethno-supremacist state’ since its foundation in 1948 is called into question. The terror attacks by Hamas on Israel of 7 October 2023 is [sic] elevated to an act of legitimate resistance.”

It said that the signatories’ demand for the academic and cultural boycott of Israeli institutions was at odds with the university’s close ties to Israeli partner institutions and the views in the letter were not in line with its own statements from October 2022 on the situation in the Middle East region.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau , Fraser called herself a victim of “philosemitic McCarthyism” alongside a number of other academics such as Masha Gessen who have been cancelled in Germany over their views regarding the Middle East conflict amid growing criticism that a dominating pro-Israel political consensus has shut down any proper debate .

“After all, I was canceled in the name of German responsibility for the Holocaust. This responsibility should also apply to Jewish people. But in Germany it is narrowed down to the state policy of the currently ruling Israeli government. Philosemitic McCarthyism sums it up quite well. A way to silence people under the pretext of supposedly supporting Jews,” Fraser said.

In an interview with Die Zeit addressing the issue of Germany’s responsibility as perpetrator of the Holocaust for protecting Jewish life, Fraser said this duty was being wrongly applied to exclude criticism of the Israeli government.

“I completely agree that Germans have a special responsibility towards the Jews in light of the Holocaust. But to equate criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism is simply wrong. And may I add that as a Jew I also feel a special responsibility. But … that doesn’t mean giving this government carte blanche. What is happening in Gaza should not happen – and especially not in my name. I strongly reject the equation of Israel and Judaism. Judaism has a rich secular and, above all, universalist tradition. It pains me when it is reduced to Israel’s current hyper-ethno-nationalist politics.”

Asked why she thought the philosopher Judith Butler had been allowed to assume the same professorship in 2016, despite having been highly critical of Israel, Fraser said: “In Germany, the panic of doing something wrong has increased. In addition the war in Gaza is now rekindling the feverishness.”

Fraser has said she will continue to hold the lectures she had planned to deliver in Cologne, both at the New School and at another location in Germany.

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“It has been suggested that I give the lectures elsewhere in Germany under the slogan: ‘This is what you weren’t allowed to hear in Cologne’.”

In a letter to Joybrato Mukherjee the rector of Cologne University, the interim president of the New School, Donna E Shalala, described his decision as “simply outrageous”, and “insulting”, and asked him to reconsider. She commented that Albertus Magnus, the 13th-century free-thinking philosopher, scientist and bishop after whom the professorship is named, “would have been appalled”.

In the 1930s, the New School, she pointed out, had “rescued intellectuals seeking refuge from the Nazis” – including the political theorist Hannah Arendt, the psychologist Erich Fromm and the composer Hanns Eisler.

“We continued the body of critical thought that had been wiped out – promoting the remarkable traditions of the German academy,” she wrote.

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