CUNY Medical School to Open in Next Year

A new medical school by the City University of New York or CUNY will open with first class in fall 2016 in the wake of getting preparatory accreditation, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office declared on Tuesday.

The school, the CUNY School of Medicine, to be based at City College in Harlem, will start with 70 understudies and have an association with the St. Barnabas Health System in the South Bronx, Michael Arena, a representative for CUNY, said.

He included that there are arrangements for unobtrusive development in class sizes throughout the following decade.

The school, the seventh in the city to be licensed by the national Liaison Committee on Medical Education, can get full accreditation after its starting class is in its last year.

source: nytimes

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Former School Inspector, Sir Chris Woodhead Pass Away

Sir Chris, who was matured 68, was a prominent leader of the Ofsted instruction guard dog somewhere around 1994 and 2000. He had been determined to have engine neurone infection in 2006.

His reactions of classroom models and "uncouth instructors" had made him a dubious figure.

In any case, the Ofsted boss had contended: "I am paid to test average quality, disappointment and lack of concern."

PM David Cameron has tweeted: "Chris Woodhead began a vital open deliberation on school guidelines and change. Gatherings with him were never dull. My considerations are with his crew."

'Confronting complacency'

Training Secretary Nicky Morgan portrayed him as an "enormous figure in the realm of instruction".

"His determination to guarantee that each tyke had the best instruction conceivable raised yearnings and changed lives. He was somebody unafraid to talk his brain or test built up orthodoxies and our instruction framework is the better for it," said Mrs Morgan.

The current Ofsted boss, Sir Michael Wilshaw said that when he was acting as a head instructor, amid Sir Chris' chance running Ofsted, he had "enormously refreshing the bravery and boldness he indicated in going up against a self-satisfied training foundation. He said the uncomfortable things that should have been said".

Sir Chris was a standout amongst the most prominent figures in instruction in the 1990s, related to restricting dynamic instructing routines.

He had persuasive parts in forming the national educational program and England's exam framework.

He came to open noticeable quality as head of Ofsted, where he cautioned about the standard of instructing. Sir Chris was Ofsted's second boss monitor, yet he came to characterize the part of the testing guard dog of training.

This incorporated the questionable case that there were 15,000 "inept educators" in England's classrooms.

Yet, when blamed in 1999 by MPs for being excessively threatening, Sir Chris said: "There's no point at all in having a school investigation framework on the off chance that it gives acclaim where it isn't expected."

In 1999 he was likewise gotten up to speed in a contention about when he had started an association with an understudy he had taught while he had been an educator in the 1970s. He had demanded that it had grown strictly when they had both left the school.

David Blunkett, instruction secretary amid Sir Chris' last years as head of Ofsted, praised his "grit".

"He wasn't simply overcome in these last years with engine neurone ailment which is an unpleasant sickness, additionally he was overcome in tackling personal stakes."

Mr Blunkett said: "Incidentally we conflicted, really all the more frequently in the background we concurred."

source: bbc

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New Law Requires Hot Car Child Death Education

One family whose tyke passed on subsequent to being left in a hot auto is trusting their excruciating lesson will spare the lives of others. Presently, they have the sponsorship of state pioneers.

In 2011, Krisiti Cavaliero's spouse neglected to drop off their daughter, Ray, at day mind on his approach to work. Since 1990, many folks have committed the same error, prompting the passings of almost 700 kids the nation over.

"We chose together to build up a call framework called Ray's Pledge," said Cavaliero.

Beam's Pledge intends to verify the number does not rise. It is double duty to wellbeing encompassing that morning day consideration drop off. The call framework would work between the day care and guardian. There is likewise a model with an implicit ready reminding folks to check the rearward sitting arrangement.

In any case, Cavaliero said overlooking your kid is not by any means the only threat.

"A considerable measure of hot auto passings happen after a kid get it together of auto keys," Cavaliero included. "They get inside the vehicle and after that can't get out."

Cavaliero never needs this to happen to another guardian.

"I think this is a basic first stride to ideally verify folks mindful of this threat," said Cavaliero.

Data in regards to passings of youngsters left in hot autos will now be required for folks of infants. The new law goes live Sept. 1.

Auto temps rise quick

It doesn't take long for a hot auto to turn into a threat zone for kids. As indicated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, temperatures inside an auto can rise more than 20 degrees in just 10 minutes. Regardless of the fact that it is 60 degrees outside, the auto can achieve 110 degrees inside.

source: kxan

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Penn State Frat Suspended Over Facebook Photos May Lead to Criminal Charges

A brotherhood at Pennsylvania State University has been suspended after police blamed individuals for working a mystery Facebook page that offered photographs of bare ladies evidently taken when they were oblivious.

As per WJAC, police in State College, Pa. were given a tip around two Facebook pages where individuals from the Kappa Delta Rho brotherhood supposedly posted pictures of medication exchanges, preliminaries, and incompletely naked ladies. The ladies in the pictures seemed, by all accounts, to be "passed out or dozing," as per police.

The Facebook pages, titled "Secret Business Transactions" and "2.0," were welcome just. After the "Secretive" page was closed down, "2.0" showed up in its place. The page had no less than 150 individuals, including current understudies and graduated class.

The Penn State Interfraternity Council said in an announcement it has suspended the full section and it will experience a "behavior audit session."

source: time

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Yale Universities

Yale University is a private Ivy League research college in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the "University School" by a gathering of Congregationalist pastors and contracted by the Colony of Connecticut, the college is the third-most seasoned organization of advanced education in the United States. In 1718, the school was renamed".

Yale College" in distinguishment of a blessing from Elihu Yale, a legislative leader of the British East India Company. Built to prepare Connecticut serves in philosophy and hallowed dialects, by 1777 the school's educational module started to join humanities and sciences. Amid the nineteenth century Yale steadily fused graduate and expert direction, granting the first Ph.d. in the United States in 1861 and arranging as a college in 1887.



Yale is composed into twelve constituent schools: the first undergrad school, the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and ten expert schools. While the college is administered by the Yale Corporation, each one school's workforce supervises its educational program and degree programs. Notwithstanding a focal grounds in downtown New Haven, the University possesses physical offices in Western New Haven, including the Yale Bowl, a grounds in West Haven, Connecticut, and woods and nature safeguards all through New England. The University's benefits incorporate an enrichment esteemed at $23.9 billion as of September 27, 2014.

Yale College students take after a liberal expressions educational module with departmental majors and are sorted out into an arrangement of private schools. The Yale University Library, serving every one of the twelve schools, holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-biggest scholarly library in the United States. Just about all workforce show college classes, more than 2,000 of which are offered annually.students contend intercollegiately as the Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Division I Ivy League.

Yale has graduated numerous remarkable graduated class, including five U.s. Presidents, 19 U.s. Incomparable Court Justices, 13 living billionaires,and numerous outside heads of state. What's more, Yale has graduated many parts of Congress and numerous abnormal state U.s. ambassadors, including previous U.s. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current Secretary of State John Kerry. Fifty-two Nobel laureates have been associated with the University as understudies, staff, or staff, and 230 Rhodes Scholars (the second most in the United States) moved on from the University.

source: Yale wikipedia

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King University

King University (formerly King College) is a private university in Bristol, Tennessee. Graduate programs are offered in business administration, nursing, and education. Founded in 1867, King is independently governed with covenant affiliations to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).

Academics

The University offers a few expert studies programs for working experts: Associate of Arts, Bachelor of Arts in English, Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Information Technology, Bachelor of Science in Communication, Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Administration, Bachelor of Science ever, Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Nursing for Registered Nurses, and Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Projects are accessible in customary and online formats.

Ruler likewise offers three graduate projects: Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), and Master of Education (MEd). Lord will start offering the Doctor of Nursing Practive (DNP) starting fall 2014.

Schools

• Ruler University is sorted out on a little college model with five schools:
• Ruler College of Arts and Sciences
• Lord School of Applied Science and Technology
• Lord School of Behavioral and Health Sciences
• Institute of Business and Economics
• Peeke School of Christian Mission
• Lord School of Education
• Lord School of Nursing

Libraries

E.W. Lord Library (principle grounds): The E.W. Lord library contains a gathering of more than 140,000 things and is spotted on the north side of the grounds Oval.

Kingsport Information Resource Center: This core serves the College's understudies who go to classes in Kingsport, TN, and the encompassing area.

Knoxville Learning Center: This core serves the College's Graduate and Professional Studies (GPS) understudies who go to classes in Knoxville, TN, and the encompassing area.

Faculty

Lord utilizes more than 80 full-time employees and has a student:faculty proportion of 16:1.

Curriculum

The Core Curriculum of King University was last modified by the workforce amid Spring, 2009. The Core is made out of a Common Experience, four semester hours of courses that all graduates must take at the school, and General Education, thirty-six hours of courses that compass the conventional liberal arts.

Common experience

• Lord 1000: First Year Seminar -or- KING 2000: Transfer Year Seminar (1 credit)
• ENGL 3010: Research & Writing (2 credits)
• Ruler 4000: Christian Faith & Social Responsibility (1 credit)
• Diverse Experience (0 credits however an obliged experience)

General education

• RELG 1001: Christian Scriptures & Traditions (4 credits)
• ENGL 1110: Composition & Speech (4 credits)
• Lab Science - can pick among science, science, material science (4 credits)
• Quantitative Reasoning - can pick math essentials or analytics (4 credits)
• History - U.S. then again World History that must be brought simultaneously with writing (4 credits)
• Writing - American or World Literature that must be brought simultaneously with history (4 credits)
• Human Creative Products - can pick among music, workmanship, theater (4 credits)
• Human Culture - present day dialect or, if capability illustrated, social science or brain research (4 credits)
• U.S. & Global Citizenship - political science or financial aspects (4 credits)

Experience DC

As a component of the school's First Year Experience Program, every year the whole rookie class goes to Washington, D.C. for an experiential learning trek known as Experience DC. Amid the excursion, understudies visit workplaces of officials, national galleries, global associations, workmanship displays and different open venues. Members are tested to investigate their perspectives on expressions of the human experience, religion, shifting societies and issues confronting humanity. The excursion likewise helps understudies analyze profession options.

source: king wikipedia

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Post University

Post College is a restrictive organization that was established in 1890. It has an aggregate undergrad enlistment of 7,371, its setting is suburban, and the grounds size is 58 sections of land. It uses a nonstop based scholastic logbook. Post College's positioning in the 2015 release of Best Universities is Local Schools (North), Level 2. Its educational cost and charges are $27,450 (2013-14).

The principle grounds of Post College in Waterbury, Connecticut, offers little class sizes and more than 25 four year certification and authentication programs. There are just around 800 understudies on the principle grounds, and about 50% of them drive. Post College likewise has provincial destinations in the urban areas of Danbury and Wallingford, and an online quickened degree program, which is intended for working grown-ups with occupied timetables. Members can take courses online or amid nights and weekends at all grounds areas.



Post College understudies can get included in the Understudy Government Affiliation and investigate more than twelve clubs on grounds. Understudy players can play with the Post College Falcons varsity groups, which are parts of the NCAA Division II Focal Atlantic University Gathering and contend in around 15 games.

Administration
The organization is currently a private for-profit school.The President and CEO of Post University is currently Don Mroz, Ph.D. Post University is owned by Generation Partners located in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Accreditation
Post University is Accredited by the Department of Higher Education through the State of Connecticut as well as through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). The state of Connecticut periodically reviews most study material and lessons in Post's online and offline programs to ensure their quality.

Majors offered
Post offers bachelor's degrees in accounting, business administration, biology, criminal justice, computer information systems, environmental science, equine management, finance, early childhood education, legal studies (paralegal), management, human services, psychology, and sociology, as well as an MBA in Corporate Innovation or Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Finance, Leadership, and a Master of Science in Human Services. They also offer Master of Education in Instructional Design & Technology, Higher Education Administration, and Teaching & Learning. Post University has distinguished itself with its programs in equine management, accounting, business administration/management, education, human services, and legal studies.

Athletics
Post University, known athletically as the Eagles, is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II, primarily competing in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, sprint football, swimming, tennis, and track and field; while women's sports include basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, and volleyball.

source: Post wikipedia

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New York University

New York College (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian American research college situated in New York City. NYU's principle grounds is spotted at Greenwich Town in Lower Manhattan. Established in 1831, NYU is one of the biggest private philanthropic foundations of American advanced education.

NYU was chosen to the Relationship of American Colleges in 1950. NYU numbers 35 Nobel Prize victors, three Abel Prize winners,10 National Award of Science beneficiaries, 16 Pulitzer Prize champs, in excess of 30 Institute Honor victors, four Putnam Rivalry champs, Russ Prize, Gordon Prize, and Draper Prize champs, Turing Grant champs, and Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Recompense champs among its employees and graduated class. NYU additionally has Macarthur and Guggenheim Association holders and National Foundation of Sciences and National Institute of Designing parts among its over a significant time span graduates and workforce.

NYU is composed into more than 20 schools, universities, and organizations, placed in six focuses all through Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn, and more than twelve different locales over the world, with arrangements for further extension. As per the Foundation of Universal Training, NYU sends a bigger number of understudies to study abroad than whatever other US school or college, and the School Board reports more online looks by global understudies for "NYU" than for whatever other college.

Budget and fundraising

NYU has effectively finished a seven-year, $2.5 billion crusade, surpassing desires by raising more than $3 billion over the seven-year period. Begun in 2001, this fight was the college's biggest in its history, in which they wanted to "raise $1 million every day for grants and budgetary support, employees building, new scholastic activities, and upgrading NYU's physical offices". The battle incorporated a $50 million blessing from the Tisch family (after which one building and the craftsmanship school are named) and a $60 million blessing from six trustees called "The Accomplices Trust", went for enlisting new employees. On October 15, 2007 the college affirmed that the Silver family gave $50 million to the School of Social Work, which will be renamed as a result.this is the biggest gift ever to a school of social work in the United States.

The 2007�2008 scholarly year was the best raising money year to date for NYU, with the school bringing $698 million up in just the initial 11 months of the year, speaking to a 70% increment in gifts from the earlier year. The College additionally as of late affirmed arrangements for NYU's Call to Activity, another activity to ask graduated class and contributors to help budgetary support for understudies at NYU.

The college has published a 25-year key advancement arrangement, booked to agree with its bicentennial in 2031. Included in the "NYU 200" arrangements are expanding inhabitant and scholarly space, employing extra praiseworthy staff, and including the New York City group in a straightforward arranging procedure. Also, NYU would like to make their structures all the more naturally benevolent, which will be encouraged by an assessment of all grounds spaces. As a piece of this arrangement, NYU acquired 118 million kilowatt-hours of wind force amid the 2006�2007 scholarly year � the biggest buy of wind power by any college in the nation and any establishment in New York City. For 2007, the college extended its buy of wind force to 132 million kilowatt-hours. Accordingly, the EPA positioned NYU as one of the greenest schools in the nation in its yearly School & College Green Force Chal

New facilities

Since the early 2000s, NYU has created new offices on and around its Washington Square Grounds. The Kimmel Community for College Life was implicit 2003 as the essential area for the college's understudy administrations work places. It likewise houses the Skirball Place for the Performing Expressions, the Rosenthal Structure, the Eisner & Lubin Assembly hall, and the Loeb Understudy Focus. The School of Law assembled Furman Lobby in 2004, consolidating components of two notable structures into the new exterior, one of which had been possessed by writer Edgar Allan Poe.

In 2005, NYU declared the improvement of another life science office on Waverly Put, the first new NYU science building since the opening of Meyer Lobby in 1971. In November 2005, NYU declared arrangements to assemble a 26-story, 190,000-square-foot (18,000 m2) home corridor on twelfth Road. The habitation corridor, named "Organizers Lobby", suits pretty nearly 700 students and contains an assemblage of other understudy offices. It is as of now the tallest building in the East Town.

Other campuses and facilities

The New York University School of Medicine is arranged close to the East Waterway waterfront at 550 First Parkway between East 30th and East 34th Roads. The grounds has the therapeutic school, Tisch Doctor's facility, and the Rusk Organization of Recovery Medication. Other NYU Focuses over the city incorporate NYU Clinic for Joint Ailments and the Bellevue Healing center Focus. NYU's Silver School of Social Work (earlier Ehrenkranz School of Social Work) oversees extension grounds programs in Westchester Province at Manhattanville School, in Rockland District at St. Thomas Aquinas School, and on Staten Island at the City College of New York's School of Staten Island.

In Sterling Woodland, close Tuxedo, New York, NYU has an exploration office that contains establishments, specifically the Nelson Foundation of Ecological Solution. The Midtown Focus at 11 West 42nd Road is home to the NYU Schack Organization of Land. The Woolworth Assembling in the budgetary region is home to NYU's proceeding with expert studies and instruction programs.

NYU has two units spotted on the Upper East Side. The Organization for the Investigation of the Old World, a discrete element inside NYU, free of some other school or branch of the college, is placed on East 84th Street, while the New York College Establishment of Expressive arts, a master's level college of workmanship history and expressive arts, is found at the James B. Duke Building at 1 East 78th Road.

The New York College Polytechnic School of Designing has areas in Brooklyn and Manhattan. It is one of the most established private building schools in the United States.

NYU has worldwide houses on its Manhattan grounds, including the Deutsches Haus, La Maison Fran�aise, Casa Italiana Zerilli Marim�, the Glucksman Ireland House, the Lord Juan Carlos I of Spain Focus, the Hagop Kevorkian Focus, an Africa House and a China Hou.

source: New york univ wikipedia

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How Obama�s Action on Immigration Will Affect Higher Education

President Obama gave a shout-out on Thursday to immigrants fighting to stay in college: "I�ve seen the courage of students who, except for the circumstances of their birth, are as American as Malia or Sasha; students who bravely come out as undocumented in hopes they could make a difference in a country they love."

By Katherine Mangan

President Obama�s decision to extend limited legal status to up to five million of the nation�s 11.4 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally will open the doors to college to more people. But Republican governors who are fuming on the sidelines may try to stand in the plan�s way. Here�s a look at what colleges can expect:



What higher-education benefits are at stake here?

Beneficiaries of Mr. Obama�s executive actions will be eligible to apply for cheaper, in-state tuition and state scholarships in many more states, but federal student aid will still be off the table.

Many will also be eligible for driver�s licenses, Social Security cards, and work authorization, making it easier to commute to campuses and participate in internships and work-study programs, said Michael A. Olivas, a professor of law and a national immigration expert at the University of Houston.

Being able to work legally at part-time or summer jobs will make college more affordable to them. And students will be able to travel outside their states without worrying about being deported when they show up at the airport.

Who will the new benefits apply to?

Most recipients will be parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who have been in the United States at least five years and have not committed serious crimes. Many of them are above the traditional college-going age, but some are likely to pursue a higher education to get better jobs and provide financial security for their families.

Another group to benefit are the siblings of the so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children. A 2012 executive order known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, gave them a temporary reprieve from deportation and allowed them to get work permits and Social Security cards.

But the program applied only to those under the age of 30 who arrived in the United States before they were 16.

The president�s actions will lift those age restrictions. People can obtain deferred action by enrolling in college, so community colleges may see an influx of new students who are interested in adult basic education, certificate programs, and degree programs.

Cesar Vargas, co-director of the Dream Action Coalition, a group that lobbies on behalf of Dreamers, said his 35-year-old sister, who was too old to qualify for the 2012 presidential action that helped spur him through law school, will be able to give up her waitressing job and attend college.

The president, in a televised address on Thursday night, gave a shout-out to the young immigrants who he said are fighting for the right to study and contribute to American society. "I�ve seen the courage of students who, except for the circumstances of their birth, are as American as Malia or Sasha; students who bravely come out as undocumented in hopes they could make a difference in a country they love."

Who�s left out?

While the parents of youths born in the United States will be covered, the parents of Dreamers, who have only a temporary reprieve, will not. That�s a huge disappointment to people like Erika Andiola, a graduate of Arizona State University who has been fighting her mother�s deportation to Mexico.

"When we first heard about the plan, my mom asked me if she should start getting prepared, and I had to say, �Mom, there�s a possibility you won�t be included.� That�s hard to take," said Ms. Andiola, the other co-director of the Dream Action Coalition.

Still, there�s hope for many of them, according to Michael Fix, president of the Migration Policy Institute. About 70 percent of the young people who received deferred action have siblings who are legal citizens, he said, so their parents will get legal protection through them.

That still sounds as if many people could be heading to college. What factors might limit that result?

For one thing, at least 18 states, including those with the biggest percentage of immigrants in the country illegally, already offer in-state tuition to such immigrants, and a smaller number provide them with financial aid. The order would extend those tuition and scholarship benefits to the rest of the states. Some Republican governors who are angry about the executive order have vowed to block benefits like tuition breaks.

Another potential roadblock is a requirement in some states that discounted tuition and scholarships go only to people who graduated from high schools in those states. That would exclude many of the beneficiaries of the president�s plan who attended high schools in their native countries.

Any changes that will affect college graduates?

The president�s actions will strengthen and extend on-the-job training for foreign students studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at American universities, according to a fact sheet the White House released on Thursday evening. The changes will affect what�s known as Optional Practical Training, temporary work that is directly related to a student�s major.

"Are we a nation that educates the world�s best and brightest in our universities, only to send them home to create businesses in countries that compete against us?" Mr. Obama asked in his televised address. "Or are we a nation that encourages them to stay and create jobs, businesses, and industries right here in America?"

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Comparing College Costs the Easy Way

If you�re a shoestring start-up trying to get noticed in an enormous industry, there�s nothing that helps more than having big players try to ban you. But from financial services to airlines, the pattern repeats itself again and again, as the lumbering giants seek to destroy rather than cooperate.

And so it goes with higher education, its trillion-dollar student debt tally and a tiny little outfit called College Abacus. It has a web tool that allows people applying for college to enter financial and other personal data. Then it spits out three estimates of the price they might actually pay once colleges offer them scholarships. It does so by harnessing calculators on individual colleges� websites. And it turns out that many of those colleges don�t like the idea very much.


Your Money: Appealing to a College for More Financial AidAPRIL 4, 2014
Steve Boedefeld loaded wood from a downed tree to heat his Boone, N.C., home. Mr. Boedefeld, 25, attends Appalachian State University.Degrees of Debt: College Costs, Battled a Paycheck at a TimeFEB. 9, 2013
Just over a year ago, schools from Spelman to Wesleyan to the University of Oregon to Texas Christian University blocked College Abacus from pinging their websites. So now that some time has passed, I wondered: How could institutions in the business of information dissemination justify blocking families who are trying to make one of the biggest financial decisions there is? And might they be willing to reconsider?

Abigail Seldin created College Abacus to give students and families a sense of the net price they might pay after scholarship aid is factored in. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Last year�s collision course began innocently enough on two separate tracks. In 2011, colleges accepting federal money had to start posting a tool called a net price calculator on their websites. Students and families can enter their financial information and get a sense of the price they might pay after all grants and scholarships are factored in. The hope was that the calculators would help lower-income families avoid sticker shock at list prices that now top $65,000, as their actual price would most likely be much lower than that.

That�s Track 1.

On Track 2 was the co-founder of College Abacus, Abigail Seldin, 26, who has spent her life on a very fast track of her own. She skipped sixth grade, co-curated an exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania museum at age 20 and became a Rhodes scholar. In England, she met another Rhodes scholar, Whitney Haring-Smith, whom she later married. His mother happened to be the president of Washington & Jefferson College, and she fretted aloud about the families who were going to have to put all of their data into net price calculator after net price calculator until their eyeballs melted.

As the college president, Tori Haring-Smith, described the problem during a long, rainy car ride in 2011, Ms. Seldin and her future husband looked at each other and realized that they could solve for that. And so they did, hiring coders to build an aggregation engine that would take in the prospective applicant�s data, put all of the right data into the calculators hosted on the websites of up to three schools at a time, fetch the results and present them all in one place, where they could be easily compared.

What they came up against very quickly was pushback from the handful of vendors supplying the calculators to many schools.

Wes Butterfield works for one of them, and he remembers the ruckus College Abacus caused in its early days. �As soon as we heard about it, my phone started ringing off the hook with people asking us for a solution,� he said, noting that they weren�t sure whether they wanted to allow College Abacus�s tool to grab data from their own calculators or block it.

Continue reading the main story
Mr. Butterfield, an associate vice president for a firm called Noel-Levitz, wasn�t in favor of schools� blocking College Abacus. �If students are using an aggregator because they think it�s going to be easier, then hopefully they�ll come back to the college�s own site for more rather than feeling blocked or censored,� he said. Still, his firm chose to offer a tool to block College Abacus that colleges could turn on if they wanted to. Fewer than 10 percent of its clients ever switched it on.

Other consultants took the opposite approach. When I asked Oberlin about its block of College Abacus, I got a response noting that a firm called Hardwick Day administers its net price calculator. �Hardwick Day tested College Abacus and found the results to be inconsistent and less accurate than outcomes that result when Oberlin�s net price calculators is directly accessed,� according to a statement by Rob Reddy, the college�s director of financial aid.

I asked Hardwick Day for some proof, twice, and but they did not offer any.

Another consultant lobbed similar accusations, according to Cameron Feist, director of financial aid at Hamilton College. �The last time we evaluated College Abacus, we took the advice of our vendor, Student Aid Services, that we should not permit College Abacus access to Hamilton�s net price calculator,� he said in an emailed statement. �Their primary concern was accuracy of data.�

An example of what College Abacus provides: students enter financial and other personal data and receive estimates of the net price at three schools.
Matthew Summer, vice president of business development for Student Aid Services, sent me screen shots and summaries of tests the company had done that showed College Abacus results varying by several hundred to a few thousand dollars from the results produced by the colleges� own net price calculators.

That isn�t supposed to happen. College Abacus sends the data it collects to those colleges� calculators; it doesn�t crunch any numbers itself. Moreover, every time it adds new schools to its tool, it claims that it tests the results to make sure there isn�t any variation like the ones Student Aid Services found.

One possible explanation is this: College Abacus, in combining the inputs for three universities, sometimes rewrites the different questions schools ask when those schools are all actually seeking the same single piece of information. If Student Aid Services� testers misunderstood College Abacus�s rewritten questions, then the results would be wrong. Indeed, I found College Abacus�s questions about retirement assets and 529 plans to be confusing, and I think about this stuff for a living.

In the last year, Ms. Seldin has done a few things to try to get more universities on her side. She pledged not to sell families� data, ever. Then, she and her husband sold the service to the nonprofit student loan guarantor ECMC, because she believed it would allow her to keep the service free forever. ECMC has a reputation for roughing up troubled borrowers and playing fast and loose with the facts, but Ms. Seldin said it had kept its promises to her so far.

Several universities chose not to block College Abacus. A Washington University spokeswoman said it didn�t want to stand in the way of families trying to navigate the sometimes overwhelming process of shopping for an affordable college. A Yale spokesman said that it had concluded that College Abacus exercised due diligence when linking to its own calculator.

Sarah Ray, director of media relations at Middlebury, went further in a statement. �We spoke with some of our peers who also utilize the Student Aid Services net price calculator as well as folks at the College Board to get others� perspective on the situation,� she wrote. �When it came down to making a decision, we thought it was in the best interest of students and families to be able to use the College Abacus tool and provide the transparency they are searching for.�

This week I communicated with representatives at the following blocking schools who said they are in various stages of reconsidering or considering reconsidering: Skidmore, Davidson, Texas Christian and Hamilton, which called College Abacus to set up an appointment to talk. Lancaster Bible College said it would be unblocking College Abacus in a few days.

At the University of Arkansas, the staff wasn�t aware that they were blocking College Abacus until I called, and the university is now examining its options.

If you�re a parent or an applicant, you�re entitled to throw up your hands at this point. Every party in this drama has an interest in making the process easier and more accurate for families about to spend up to a quarter of a million dollars per student at the universities.

They should stop blocking and start talking, and I look forward to coming back to this matter in 2015 to see how much progress they�ve made.

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What University Life is like on a 'Forgotten' Campus

As well as their main sites, many universities also encompass one or more secondary campuses, usually in a much smaller town. Students based at them study and live miles from their main university campus.

I am one of those students living based on a �forgotten� campus.

I applied to my university two years ago based on how well it performed in subject based league tables. The University of Kent was topping the charts in journalism and I don�t regret choosing to study here. But outside of my degree there is little to do as a student at the campus where I study.



The University of Kent say: �Our Medway campus is an integral part of the university and the facilities and initiatives offered to students there are comparable with those offered at the main campus. Integration between students on both campuses is encouraged and facilitated.�

However I find the choice of societies sparse, the nightlife mediocre and that we often have to battle for funding � such as when our only campus shop was threatened with closure.

But my university experience � or lack of � has been relatively positive when compared to other students based on secondary campuses.

Sophie Tumber, 21, had been studying for two years at the Canterbury Christ Church Folkestone campus when it was announced that it wasn�t considered financially sustainable and would be closed.

The final-year performing arts student had to relocate just months later to the main campus in Canterbury, Kent, for her final year.

She estimates that the process of cancelling tenancy agreements and deposits over the last two years has resulted in her forking out �3,000.

Tumber says: �Like many others, I found it extremely stressful. We didn�t get a say or any financial help in moving to a completely different area.

�We only got one tour of the new campus and even then, it wasn�t completed.

�Now we have to share a huge campus with thousands of other students and limited facilities, whereas in Folkestone we had a whole building and theatre to ourselves.

�I was told one night from a student on the main campus that we were the �forgotten campus�.�

For others, the choice to leave their campus was difficult, but one they made themselves.

Katie Riddoch, 21, felt as though she had to move from the Cornwall campus of the University of Exeter in order to achieve the best possible career prospects.

During her year-long time at the university she felt �disconnected� from the main campus and decided to reapply and study neuropsychology at the University of Bangor in Wales instead.

Riddoch says: �We had to abide by their rules and regulations yet had to fight so hard for any funding from them. It is so hard to get a job nowadays so I chose to go for a well established, well funded, main campus.�

However, life on a secondary campus isn�t always all doom and gloom.

Clarissa Place, 21, graduated from the University of Kent last year, where she was based on a secondary campus in Medway. During her final year she ran for a role at the student union, which while �tricky�, resulted in the campus being better recognised by students in Canterbury.

Competing with another student from the secondary campus for the same position meant the vote was split between them. However, Medway saw a record number of students voting.

Clarissa said: �I personally feel that I had a very enriching experience with a smaller and more varied group of students.

�I felt very comfortable around campus and was very aware of the services and extra curricular activities I could partake in if I wanted to.�

Like Clarissa, I wouldn�t change my decision to study here as the smaller class sizes mean I have got value for my money and I feel part of a community.

So if you�re thinking of applying to a secondary campus, don�t write it off completely � just be aware that it may not provide the full university experience that you were hoping for.

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More UK Students Choosing Universities in the US

A rising number of students from the UK are choosing to go to US universities.

More than 10,000 students from the UK were at US universities in 2013-14, up by 8% on the previous year, according to annual figures from the Institute of International Education.

These students applied in the autumn of 2012, as tuition fees of �9,000 were introduced in England.

The analysis of overseas students in the US says the UK students were worth $338m (�216m) to the US economy. But the UK remains a small proportion of the record number of 886,000 international students in the US.

Global students

The overall figures show the growing number of Chinese students in the US higher education system - rising by 17% to more than 274,000.

The figures, gathered by the Institute of International Education and the US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, show that three Asian countries - China, India and South Korea - account for about a half of all the international students in the US.

There has also been a big increase in students from Saudi Arabia and Iran.

But the biggest group of European students in US universities are now from the UK - the 13th biggest national group and overtaking the number of students from Germany.

There are now 10,191 UK students in the US, rising for the sixth successive year.

Many of the leading US universities cost more than $50,000 (�32,000) per year, much more than students would pay in the UK - although scholarships and financial support might be available.

But there are many more US students heading towards the UK - with the most recent figures showing more than 36,000 in UK universities. The UK government has been encouraging more students to consider studying abroad. Last week a project was launched to get 25,000 UK students to study in India. Universities in the US and from European countries such as the Netherlands have been holding recruiting events in the UK.

"As the globe shrinks it is wonderful to see young British students taking advantage of the opportunities to study abroad," said Penny Egan, executive director of the US-UK Fulbright Commission, which promotes educational exchanges between the two countries.

"Outward mobility is high on the agenda and where better to head to than some of the best universities in the world?"

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University Funding System 'Worst of both Worlds'

The funding system for England's universities of tuition fees and repayments is the "worst of both worlds", says an independent study. The Higher Education Commission has cast doubt on the long-term financial sustainability of the current system.

It warns students are paying more but the government is still writing off high levels of student debt.

"We have created a system where everybody feels like they are getting a bad deal," says the study.

The Higher Education Commission was set up to create a better informed debate on the university sector, with representatives from education, business and political parties.

This study from the commission has examined the sustainability of the financial arrangements for England's universities, taking evidence from 60 expert witnesses. It has produced a highly critical report on the current arrangements - but admits there is no "magic bullet" in trying to design a better alternative.

The report says that the funding arrangements are unsatisfactory for students, universities and the government.

"The current funding system represents the worst of both worlds.

"The government is funding higher education by writing off student debt, as opposed to directly investing in teaching grants," says the study.

"Students feel like they are paying substantially more for their higher education, but are set to have a large proportion of their debt written off by the government.

The commission is concerned that so much is spent on writing off student debt

"Universities are perceived to be 'rolling in money' in the eyes of students, as their income from tuition fees has tripled, yet the cuts to the teaching grant are not well understood by students and a fixed fee cap means an annual erosion of real terms income.

"We have created a system where everybody feels like they are getting a bad deal. This is not sustainable."

Repayment costs

The inquiry was chaired by Ruth Thompson, former director general for higher education at the former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, and Lord Norton of Louth, professor of government at the University of Hull.

The commission's report says it is particularly concerning that graduate "middle earners", such as teachers, will be unlikely to pay back their student loans within the 30-year repayment period.

There are no "magic bullets" for university funding, says the report

The commission says that it "fundamentally questions any system that charges higher education at a rate where the average graduate will not be able to pay it back".

The study suggests a range of alternative measures - and highlights that they would each have negative as well as positive consequences. Lowering tuition fees to �6,000 would reduce student debt, but it would leave an estimated �1.72bn funding gap for universities

A graduate tax would require government to borrow �4bn to fill the gap between ending fees and the arrival of tax revenues - and such a tax would mean there was no clear link with the value of a particular course.

Removing the �9,000 upper limit on fees would allow more money for universities and clearer competition, but higher fees would mean even higher levels of public subsidy for loans

Different charges for different universities or courses could also reduce the number graduates from expensive courses with high fees even if they were essential for the economy.

Balancing act

"Striking the balance of contribution between students, universities and government is fraught with difficulty," said Lord Norton. "What is clear is that the current balance is far from assured."

The National Union of Students has published its own "roadmap" for shifting the burden away from individual students to public funding for higher education.

"Forcing debt onto students as a way of funding universities is an experiment that has failed," said NUS vice-president, Megan Dunn.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the government would "look closely at the findings from the commission".

"The UK enjoys a world-renowned reputation for the quality of its universities, which we have protected and enhanced through our reforms.

"In fact, the OECD recently described the UK as one of the few countries that has developed a sustainable funding system for its universities."

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A Cost Crisis, Changing Labour Markets and New Technology Will Turn an old Institution on its Head

HIGHER education is one of the great successes of the welfare state. What was once the privilege of a few has become a middle-class entitlement, thanks mainly to government support. Some 3.5m Americans and 5m Europeans will graduate this summer. In the emerging world universities are booming: China has added nearly 30m places in 20 years. Yet the business has changed little since Aristotle taught at the Athenian Lyceum: young students still gather at an appointed time and place to listen to the wisdom of scholars.

Now a revolution has begun (see article), thanks to three forces: rising costs, changing demand and disruptive technology. The result will be the reinvention of the university.

1. In this section
2. Creative destruction
3. The third arrow
4. Europe�s unlikely star
5. FATCA�s flaws
6. A half-smoked joint
7. Reprints
8. Related topics
9. United Kingdom
10. Brazil
11. Distance and Online Education
12. Colleges and universities
13. Higher education
14. Off campus, online

Higher education suffers from Baumol�s disease�the tendency of costs to soar in labour-intensive sectors with stagnant productivity. Whereas the prices of cars, computers and much else have fallen dramatically, universities, protected by public-sector funding and the premium employers place on degrees, have been able to charge ever more for the same service. For two decades the cost of going to college in America has risen by 1.6 percentage points more than inflation every year.

For most students university remains a great deal; by one count the boost to lifetime income from obtaining a college degree, in net-present-value terms, is as much as $590,000 (see article). But for an increasing number of students who have gone deep into debt�especially the 47% in America and 28% in Britain who do not complete their course�it is plainly not value for money. And the state�s willingness to pick up the slack is declining. In America government funding per student fell by 27% between 2007 and 2012, while average tuition fees, adjusted for inflation, rose by 20%. In Britain tuition fees, close to zero two decades ago, can reach �9,000 ($15,000 a year).

The second driver of change is the labour market. In the standard model of higher education, people go to university in their 20s: a degree is an entry ticket to the professional classes. But automation is beginning to have the same effect on white-collar jobs as it has on blue-collar ones. According to a study from Oxford University, 47% of occupations are at risk of being automated in the next few decades. As innovation wipes out some jobs and changes others, people will need to top up their human capital throughout their lives.

By themselves, these two forces would be pushing change. A third�technology�ensures it. The internet, which has turned businesses from newspapers through music to book retailing upside down, will upend higher education. Now the MOOC, or �Massive Open Online Course�, is offering students the chance to listen to star lecturers and get a degree for a fraction of the cost of attending a university.

MOOCs started in 2008; and, as often happens with disruptive technologies, they have so far failed to live up to their promise. Largely because there is no formal system of accreditation, drop-out rates have been high. But this is changing as private investors and existing universities are drawn in. One provider, Coursera, claims over 8m registered users. Though its courses are free, it bagged its first $1m in revenues last year after introducing the option to pay a fee of between $30 and $100 to have course results certified. Another, Udacity, has teamed up with AT&T and Georgia Tech to offer an online master�s degree in computing, at less than a third of the cost of the traditional version. Harvard Business School will soon offer an online �pre-MBA� for $1,500. Starbucks has offered to help pay for its staff to take online degrees with Arizona State University.

MOOCs will disrupt different universities in different ways. Not all will suffer. Oxford and Harvard could benefit. Ambitious people will always want to go to the best universities to meet each other, and the digital economy tends to favour a few large operators. The big names will be able to sell their MOOCs around the world. But mediocre universities may suffer the fate of many newspapers. Were the market for higher education to perform in future as that for newspapers has done over the past decade or two, universities� revenues would fall by more than half, employment in the industry would drop by nearly 30% and more than 700 institutions would shut their doors. The rest would need to reinvent themselves to survive.

A new term
Like all revolutions, the one taking place in higher education will have victims. Many towns and cities rely on universities. In some ways MOOCs will reinforce inequality both among students (the talented will be much more comfortable than the weaker outside the structured university environment) and among teachers (superstar lecturers will earn a fortune, to the fury of their less charismatic colleagues).

Politicians will inevitably come under pressure to halt this revolution. They should remember that state spending should benefit society as a whole, not protect tenured professors from competition. The reinvention of universities will benefit many more people than it hurts. Students in the rich world will have access to higher education at lower cost and greater convenience. MOOCs� flexibility appeals to older people who need retraining: edX, another provider, says that the median age of its online students in America is 31. In the emerging world online courses also offer a way for countries like Brazil to leap-frog Western ones and supply higher education much more cheaply (see article). And education has now become a global market: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered Battushig Myanganbayar, a remarkably talented Mongolian teenager, through an online electronics course.

Rather than propping up the old model, governments should make the new one work better. They can do so by backing common standards for accreditation. In Brazil, for instance, students completing courses take a government-run exam. In most Western countries it would likewise make sense to have a single, independent organisation that certifies exams.

Reinventing an ancient institution will not be easy. But it does promise better education for many more people. Rarely have need and opportunity so neatly come together

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SESP Receives $4 Million Grant to Train Education Researchers

Developing excellent researchers to work on improving U.S. education in significant ways is an important goal for the School of Education and Social Policy. Now SESP has received a new $4 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences to train doctoral candidates as highly qualified education researchers through its Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences (MPES).

MPES will prepare young scholars from across Northwestern University to conduct and disseminate rigorous and relevant research in education. Over the five-year duration of the grant, the program will bring together 24 doctoral students from multiple disciplines, from psychology to economics, human development and social policy, and engineering.

�We aim to prepare educational researchers who are not only cutting-edge empiricists but also are equipped to work on topics that are both useful to and usable by decision-makers in schools and education systems,� says associate professor Diane Schanzenbach, director of the MPES program.

Each doctoral candidate will pursue a dissertation on an education topic and participate in course work, bimonthly seminars and a research apprenticeship with an affiliated faculty member. The current grant will support four cohorts of six doctoral students each for a period up to three years.

The new five-year grant builds on the success of the current MPES program. This award marks the third time that SESP has received five-year grants � first in 2004 and then again 2009.

The six doctoral candidates selected as the first cohort are Elizabeth Debraggio, Richard Morel, Meghan Salomon, Jake Schauer, Ryan Svoboda and Carolyn Pichert Swen.

New opportunities through the MPES program will allow students to apply their research to real-world policy and practice. All fellows will participate in a practicum to address applied research questions at Evanston Township High School. In addition, a summer internship at the American Institutes for Research in Chicago is available. Finally, new courses will examine design and the policy and implementation process.

To prepare students for meaningful research that is useful for policy and practice, the program aims to provide the following:

1. multidisciplinary course work
2. training in rigorous research methods
3. research collaborations in education policy and learning
4. grounding in policy and practice

The MPES curriculum, which is unified by connecting policy and practice, incorporates intensive courses in rigorous research methods. The curriculum includes courses in quantitative methods, qualitative methods, evaluation, cognition and student learning, human development, education policy, design, and reading and mathematics learning.

Core faculty members will teach, mentor and collaborate with the doctoral fellows �to prepare them for careers connecting their research closely with policy and practice,� Schanzenbach notes. SESP faculty members participating in the MPES program include Emma Adam, Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Cynthia Cohurn, Thomas Cook, Mesmin Destin, Matthew Easterday, David Figlio, Jonathan Guryan, Larry Hedges, Michael Horn, Kirabo Jackson, Eva Lam, Carol Lee, Douglas Medin, James Rosenbaum, Schanzenbach, Bruce Sherin, James Spillane and David Uttal.

To be eligible to apply, students must be first-year PhD students at Northwestern in engineering, human development and social policy, learning sciences, psychology, sociology or statistics. Second-year PhD students in economics are also eligible to apply. Applicants must also be U.S. citizens.

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. IES is dedicated to providing rigorous evidence on which to base education practice and policy and also to sharing this information broadly.

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Oxford student vote declared void over 'serious irregularities'

A referendum of students at Oxford University has been declared void, following allegations of serious electoral malpractice during a vote on whether Oxford should remain affiliated with the National Union of Students (NUS).

Following the result, which saw the �No� campaign win by a slim margin of 1,652 to 1,780, students raised concerns that a thousand votes had been faked. A committee at Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) later announced that the election was invalid, when it was revealed that around 1,100 �spare� unique voter codes were used online during the referendum.

It now appears that around 70 per cent of students voted for the �Yes� campaign.

The allegations emerged after weeks of campaigning over whether OUSU should maintain its link with the NUS, the body which represents seven million students across the UK.

Following the result last Wednesday, suspicions were raised after an unexpectedly high turnout.

Jack Matthews, who led the �No� campaign, submitted a complaint alleging �serious irregularities� as it appeared that large numbers of �No� votes had been cast in clusters, close to the deadline.

On Saturday, a joint statement by the leaders of both the �Yes� and �No� campaigns said: �We are both concerned that the result of the referendum did not accurately reflect the views of students.

�We await the decision of the junior tribunal, and will be working together over the coming weeks to ensure that the democratic principles of OUSU are upheld.�

In a statement, Mr Matthews said: �Since I�ve been involved in the student movement, one of my core convictions has been student democracy, and ensuring that what students want is at the heart of everything we do.

�It is because of this that I have sought to overturn the result of this term�s NUS Referendum.�

He continued: �If there is one lesson that can be learned from this, it is that there is always a need for those who will challenge the powerful, hold the elected to account, and work to uphold our rules.�

In the wake of the announcement, returning officer, Alex Walker, a second year chemist, resigned his position.

In a letter posted at the university student union, he said his position was �no longer tenable�, commenting: �The grave situation with the NUS referendum happened under my watch.

�Although we do not currently understand how this happened, I do not believe that I should continue in this position.�

Oxford University has hinted that students could face disciplinary action if the allegations of malpractice are proven. A spokesperson said that the Proctors, the officials responsible for maintaining university rules, "are aware of the complaint made to OUSU and are monitoring developments."

A decision on whether to hold another referendum will take place today at OUSU Council, the main decision making body of Oxford's student union. Tom Rutland, president of OUSU and the leader of the �Yes� campaign, said he was "pleased" the result had been overturned, commenting: "I will be bringing a motion to the union council to reaffiliate to NUS later this term."

A spokesperson for NUS said it was �disappointing� to hear the allegations of malpractice but said: �We congratulate those at OUSU on the swift action they took to ensure they were investigated and their decision to uphold the union�s democratic principles by declaring the result invalid."

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