All articles tagged with #higher education
Clemson named Ben Ayers, Georgia's provost and former dean of the Terry College of Business, as its next president, the school's 16th, after Kevin Guskiewicz chose to remain at Michigan State. Ayers, who starts in early August, previously led UGA's largest academic unit—about 11,000 students, 400 faculty/staff, and a $95 million budget.
A Brown University economics professor, Roberto Serrano, banned take-home exams after a mass cheating incident in his class: about 40 of 86 students earned 100 on a take-home midterm (average around 96), prompting a review. The professor then shifted to an in-person final; of 59 who took the final, 19 failed, with many submitting blank papers. Serrano, who is blind, argues the episode underscores the need for genuine learning and hard work, and he will void the midterm if the final’s grade distribution differs from the midterm’s.
Clemson University selected University of Georgia provost Benjamin Ayers as its 16th president after the initially chosen Kevin Guskiewicz reversed his decision to join Clemson; Ayers, who oversees UGA’s academic enterprise, will begin Aug. 1, 2026, succeeding Jim Clements and guiding Clemson through a presidential transition that followed a high-profile search and interim leadership.
An Eleventh Circuit panel ruled that Florida's Stop WOKE Act violates professors' First Amendment rights and affirmed a district court's finding that the law restricting how race- and gender-related topics are taught in public universities is unconstitutional; the decision signals that lawmakers cannot impose broad, viewpoint-based limits on campus instruction, even as they retain some authority to shape curriculum.
A federal appeals court (11th Circuit) ruled that Florida's Stop Woke Act’s higher-education provisions—restricting what professors can teach about race and gender—violate the First Amendment, upholding an injunction and marking a setback for the governor's campus-ideology agenda.
A federal appeals court (11th Circuit) ruled 2-1 that parts of Florida's Stop WOKE Act unlawfully chill academic speech by restricting what public university professors can discuss about race, gender and bias, upholding an injunction against enforcement and signaling First Amendment limits on the law’s reach in higher education. The decision follows years of controversy over DEI and anti-woke legislation; Florida may seek full-court rehearing or Supreme Court review. The ACLU praised the ruling as a win for academic freedom.
Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz scrapped his plan to resign and move to Clemson after weeks of reflection and conversations with the MSU community, saying he and his wife love the university and want to stay; he defended his earlier criticisms of some board members as part of bold leadership, while acknowledging governance tensions and signaling a renewed effort to work as one team to move MSU forward—there was no single deal behind the reversal.
In a 2-1 decision, the 11th Circuit held Florida's Stop WOKE Act violates the First Amendment by restricting how race- and gender-related topics are taught in colleges, reinforcing the prior ruling that the law censors unpopular ideas in the classroom. A dissent argued the First Amendment does not require the state to endorse every viewpoint. The ruling keeps in place blocks on enforcement as Florida continues its legal battles with FIRE and the ACLU.
A federal judge in Massachusetts (U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun) struck down the Trump administration’s revised Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility rules, ruling they unlawfully allowed disqualification of employers for DEI or other policy positions not enacted into law, and the decision came just before the PSLF rule was to take effect.
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville settled for $1.9 million with Tamar Shirinian, a former anthropology professor fired after criticizing Charlie Kirk on social media; Shirinian sued, claiming her dismissal violated First Amendment rights, and the case underscores ongoing campus free-speech battles without reinstating her position.
A federal judge in the District of Columbia voided the Education Department’s rule that narrowly defined 'professional' degrees for higher loan borrowing caps under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, saying Congress intended the statutory definition to govern and that ED’s extra eligibility criteria went beyond what law requires. The ED had limited higher loan eligibility to 11 programs (e.g., pharmacy, dentistry, law, medicine, etc.), excluding others from the higher caps. Howell stayed the rule pending further litigation; the ED is reviewing the ruling and has not indicated whether it will appeal. The decision creates uncertainty about which programs qualify as 'professional' and could impact funding for advanced healthcare and other fields.
A UK IFS analysis finds degree earnings vary by subject: medicine can add up to about £400,000 over a lifetime versus non-graduates, while economics also yields strong returns, whereas arts, philosophy, and languages often offer little or negative financial advantage. On average, graduates earn roughly £100,000 more across a lifetime, but about a quarter may be financially worse off than non-graduates. The findings come as the government considers capping low-return courses and introducing minimum English-language requirements for student finance, with debates on whether alternative routes like apprenticeships can offer viable paths.
Rep. Sam Liccardo unveiled the SKILL Act, a policy to spur private investment in AI-ready training by authorizing $500 million annually in state-distributed tax credits for companies that fund curricula development, internships, apprenticeships, labs, and other learning initiatives at colleges and universities; eligible employers would get $2,500 for each student who completes a program and an extra $2,500 for each graduate they hire, with support from lawmakers like Rep. Jimmy Panetta and industry groups such as Nvidia, TechNet, the Digital Chamber, and the Chamber of Progress.
The Education Department announced that borrowers who enroll in autopay will receive a 1-percentage-point discount on their loan’s interest rate, up from the usual 0.25 points, with the discount taking effect July 1 and running through June 30, 2028. The policy could save borrowers hundreds to thousands over the life of their loans and is estimated to cost about $6 billion. The package also introduces new repayment options, including an income-driven plan, as part a broader set of student-loan affordability changes.
China’s universities are rising in the QS World University Rankings, closing the gap with the US and UK, which still dominate the top 10. MIT remains first and Imperial College London second, while Oxford and Cambridge sit 4th and 6th. China has 85 institutions in the list (up 13), including 3 in the top 30 and 10 in the top 200, as government funding fuels growth in science, engineering and health. US and UK numbers have slipped as international student numbers decline, though broader metrics like patents and citations underscore China’s increasing influence; QS cautions about methodological and transparency concerns.