Topic: Access to higher education
Past Event
February 14, 2019
Catharine Bond Hill at NACUBO’s Endowment and Debt Forum
On Thursday, February 14, Catharine Bond Hill is presenting on “Endowments and the Challenges Facing American Higher Education” at the 2019 Endowment and Debt Forum held by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) in New York City. The talk is at 8:20 am. For more information, please see the NACUBO website.
Past Event
February 21, 2019
Catharine Bond Hill to Deliver Keynote Address at Union College’s Founders Day
On Thursday, February 21, Catharine Bond Hill is delivering the keynote address at Union College’s Founders Day. The event commemorates the 224th anniversary of the College’s charter, and Hill’s talk will center on coeducation at Union, which will celebrate the 50th anniversary of admitting women in 2020. For more information about the event, please see Union College’s website. …
Blog Post
January 10, 2019
New Report: Enrolling More Veterans at High-Graduation-Rate Colleges and Universities
In November, Ithaka S+R and the College Board hosted “Improving Opportunities for Veterans.” This conference brought together leaders from higher education, the military, and veterans service organizations who share the goal of increasing the enrollment and graduation of veterans at colleges and universities with the highest graduation rates. In our new report with Catharine Bond Hill and Martin Kurzweil, we investigate the underrepresentation of United States military veterans at colleges that graduate at least 70 percent of their students.
Research Report
January 10, 2019
Enrolling More Veterans at High-Graduation-Rate Colleges and Universities
Higher education plays a vital role in raising income, moderating income inequality, and increasing economic growth and global competitiveness. But U.S. higher education attainment continues to lag for lower-income and underrepresented-minority students, particularly at the colleges and universities that have the most resources and the highest graduation rates. As a stark example, research by economist Raj Chetty and his team found that there are more students from the top one percent of the income distribution at the Ivy-Plus colleges than…
Past Event
March 6, 2019
Veterans Serve Us. Higher Ed Must Serve Them
Catharine Bond Hill at SXSW EDU 2019
On Wednesday, March 6, Cappy Hill will join panelists Christine Schwartz (Service to School), Cristine Pedersen (Georgetown student), and Bruce Shahbaz (College Board) at SXSW EDU 2019 in Austin, Texas to discuss strategies for enrolling and graduating more veterans in the highest performing colleges. More information about SXSW EDU is available on the conference website. About the panel Veterans are among our most committed, talented citizens, and yet they are 50 percent less likely than others to enroll in…
Blog Post
December 17, 2018
American Talent Initiative Publishes First Public Report on Progress
In December 2016, 30 leading colleges and universities joined forces to address a persistent problem: Too few talented, low- and moderate-income students from across the country were enrolled at the U.S. colleges and universities with the highest graduation rates. By joining the American Talent Initiative (ATI), an initiative co-managed by the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program and Ithaka S+R, these colleges and universities committed to work together to change this reality. Specifically, these colleges and universities set a…
Research Report
December 17, 2018
A 2018 Report on the Progress of the American Talent Initiative in its First Two Years
This report offers the first look at the progress achieved during the American Talent Initiative’s first two years. Between the 2015-16 academic year (the year before ATI’s founding) and the 2017-18 academic year, ATI members increased their enrollment of low- and moderate-income students by 7,291, an increase that represents about 15 percent of the 50,000-by-2025 goal, achieved by about a third of eligible schools. During this period, more than two-thirds of ATI members increased Pell enrollment, and for about half…
Blog Post
November 14, 2018
The College Board and Ithaka S+R Host Veterans Week Conference
We are excited to be partnering with leaders from higher education, military, and veterans service organizations to increase the number of veterans who enroll in, and graduate from, college. In conjunction with a national conference we are hosting today, we issued the following press release. For Immediate Release: November 14, 2018 College Board and Ithaka S+R Host Veterans Week Conference to Increase the Number of Veterans Who Enroll in, and Graduate From, College Higher education and veteran leaders highlight solutions…
Blog Post
October 22, 2018
Martin Kurzweil in Change Magazine
Alternative Postsecondary Pathways: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and Why It Matters
Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning recently published its 50th anniversary issue, featuring invited essays offering insights on a wide range of higher education’s most pressing issues. Drawing on his prior research on the subject for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, Ithaka S+R’s Martin Kurzweil contributed a piece discussing “Alternative Postsecondary Pathways: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and Why It Matters.” As Change Editor David Paris…
Blog Post
October 3, 2018
Assessing the Impact of State Policies on Higher Education Attainment
Ithaka S+R Launches New Research Project in Partnership with the Joyce Foundation
While aspirations to attend college are now more common among high school students, the opportunity to pursue higher education and complete a degree in order to enjoy the lifelong benefits of a college education varies widely by students’ race and socioeconomic background. Through financial support of public institutions, tax benefits for private institutions, student financial aid, and regulation of the higher education marketplace, state governments have the potential to mitigate these inequities for their residents. Yet with wide…
Research Report
August 13, 2018
Amplifying Student Voices
The Community College Libraries and Academic Support for Student Success Project
The Community College Libraries & Academic Support for Student Success (CCLASSS) project examines student goals, challenges, and needs from the student perspective. Through this project, we aim to provide community colleges and their libraries with strategic intelligence on how to adapt their services to most effectively meet student needs. In spring 2018, we conducted semi-structured interviews with students at seven partner community colleges on student objectives and goals, definitions of success, challenges faced, and coursework practices. Key findings Across…
Blog Post
August 12, 2018
New Report: Supporting Student Success at Community Colleges
What goals are community college students trying to achieve through their education? What challenges are they facing? What services might help them succeed? These questions are at the center of a multi-year research project that Ithaka S+R and Northern Virginia Community College, along with six other community college partners and with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), are currently undertaking. Today, we’re issuing our first report from the project,…
Blog Post
August 6, 2018
The Talent Is Out There
So Why Don’t Elite Colleges Enroll More Low-Income Students?
Martin Kurzweil and the Aspen Institute’s Joshua Wyner published “The talent is out there. So why don’t elite colleges enroll more low-income students?” in The Washington Post. Writing in response to a recent report from the American Enterprise Institute, they argue that “both low- and middle-income students are severely underrepresented at selective institutions. The report presents a false trade-off that diverts attention from the real issue: Students in the top income bracket are extraordinarily overrepresented at our nation’s most…
Blog Post
June 27, 2018
New Research from the American Talent Initiative on Community College Transfer to Top Colleges and Universities
The American Talent Initiative (ATI) just released new research suggesting that, each year, 50,000 high-achieving, low- and moderate-income community college students do not transfer to any four-year institution. Approximately 15,000 of these lower-income students have the academic credentials to be successful at even the most selective colleges and universities, having earned a 3.7 GPA or higher at their community college. ATI’s research demonstrates that enrolling more lower-income freshman is not the only viable strategy for increasing socioeconomic diversity…
Research Report
June 27, 2018
The Talent Blind Spot
The Case for Increasing Community College Transfer to High Graduation Rate Institutions
In addition to expanding access and enhancing educational quality, there is a compelling economic case to be made for increasing transfer students. Specifically, supporting community college transfer pathways may offer four-year colleges a financially sustainable strategy to provide an affordable education to substantially more low- and moderate-income students.
Blog Post
May 22, 2018
Taking a Closer Look at College and University Endowments: New Report
A new report from Sandy Baum, Cappy Hill, and myself, out today, provides an overview of college and university endowments. We seek to inform the public policy debate by exploring how endowments are structured and used, and discussing the extent to which the favorable tax policy for higher education institutions serves the public interest. We find that the distribution of endowment assets is highly skewed across institutions. The median endowment per student for all postsecondary institutions is $12,600, while…
Research Report
May 22, 2018
College and University Endowments
In the Public Interest?
The fact that a handful of colleges and universities control billions of dollars in endowment funds has captured the attention of Congress and the public. Is it in the public interest for these institutions to continue to receive the full exemption from income taxation for the donations to and income from endowments?[1] The passage of the recent federal tax bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which imposes an excise tax of 1.4 percent on the net investment…
Blog Post
May 8, 2018
Check out Catharine Bond Hill’s Opinion Piece in Inside Higher Ed
Can Higher Ed Change America’s Negative View?
In today’s Inside Higher Ed, Ithaka S+R’s managing director Catharine Bond Hill asks “Can Higher Ed Change America’s Negative View?” In the piece she explores why higher education institutions have lost the public’s trust and sketches out how colleges and universities can regain it. …
Blog Post
April 18, 2018
American Talent Initiative Reaches 100 Schools Committed to Expanding Opportunity for More High-Achieving, Low-and Moderate-Income Students
We’re happy to share the news that the American Talent Initiative now includes 100 institutions committed to expanding opportunity for more high-achieving, low- and moderate-income students. The full press release about reaching this milestone is below. In just over a year, ATI has grown from 30 to 100 institutions working to attract, enroll, and graduate high-achieving, low- and moderate-income college students The American Talent Initiative (ATI), a Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative led by the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence…
Blog Post
March 2, 2018
Invest in Talent to Move the Dial on Socioeconomic Diversity on Nation’s College Campuses
Invest in talented young adults, and they will help us solve the world’s problems. That was the charge of Dan Porterfield, president of Franklin & Marshall College and incoming president of the Aspen Institute, to college and university presidents who gathered February 22-23 in New York City for the American Talent Initiative annual presidential summit. The effort, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and co-led by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program and Ithaka S+R, has an ambitious goal: attract, enroll and…