Topic: Educational Transformation
Past Event
March 5, 2024
Shark Tank: Edu Edition
SXSW EDU 2024 Session
The Chronicle of Higher Education’s ninth annual pitch-a-thon pays homage to the TV show, but with a twist. The panel of experts bring a mix of viewpoints—from a journalist, a college-president-turned-equity expert, and an entrepreneur—weighing in on transformative ideas from contestants representing new companies, nonprofits, and big dreamers for improving the college experience. Panelists include Goldie Blumenstyk (The Chronicle of Higher Education), Catharine Bond Hill (Ithaka S+R), and Paul Freedman (Guild Education). Learn more about the panel, on…
Past Event
February 22, 2024
Third-Party Agreements
Risk Assessment, Negotiation & Quality Control
Third-party agreements help institutions tap the expertise and resources of external providers. Third-party agreements can also be complex and fraught with risk. On February 22 at 2pm ET, join institutional law and policy experts as they share actionable insights for skillfully developing and managing a range of third-party and online program management agreements. In this webinar, panelists will explore critical elements to weigh before using third parties, risk assessment, negotiation, quality control, due diligence and monitoring. This complimentary webinar is…
Past Event
March 14, 2024
Improving Accreditation through NACIQI Oversight
At the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) Annual Conference on March 14, 2024, Ithaka S+R’s Bethany Lewis will present findings from a qualitative study examining the relationship between the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) and individual higher education accrediting organizations, with a focus on meaningful ways NACIQI can influence accreditors’ behaviors that may lead to improved student outcomes. Learn more about the conference.
Blog Post
January 18, 2024
Understanding ROI on Postsecondary Education
Using Data to Support Strategic State Investments
The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) recently shared findings from their annual survey, shedding light on the top ten policy priorities among the public executives in each state responsible for overseeing postsecondary education. Topping the list were three key areas: (1) supporting workforce and economic development, (2) ensuring adequate funding for public colleges and universities, and (3) addressing the growing concern among students and the public regarding the value of a college degree. States need better data…
Past Event
February 21, 2024
The Enormous Benefits of Credit Mobility Transparency: CUNY Transfer Explorer as a National Model
National Institute for Transfer Student Success Annual Conference
Having faculty work together to articulate courses and programs across institutions is notorious for taking years to complete, if it completes at all. In a session at the National Institute for Transfer Student Success Annual Conference in St. Louis, MO, Ithaka S+R’s Martin Kurzweil will join Lexa Logue and David Wutchiett to describe an alternative approach for facilitating student transfer consisting of obtaining high-quality credit transfer information and then making it public, enabling students intending to transfer and those persons…
Blog Post
November 30, 2023
Improving Data Collection and Management Practices to Understand Stranded Credits
Institutional debt is an understudied and overlooked type of student debt that hinders stopped-out students’ ability to complete or further their education. This specific debt often results in “stranded credits”—earned credits that students cannot access because their former institution is withholding their transcript or blocking registration until they settle their unpaid balance. Institution record systems are not designed to facilitate easy access to understanding who is affected by stranded credits. But, with small changes and greater collaboration, institutions…
Blog Post
November 10, 2023
What’s Next? Ideas for Future Exploration in Student Veteran Access and Success
This October, we embarked on a blog series focusing on the experiences of student veterans in higher education, sharing takeaways from our conversations with eight campus-based programs and non-profit organizations that support student veterans’ college success alongside the latest enrollment data. Those conversations provided insights into many best practices that institutions can employ to recruit, enroll, and graduate veteran students, while also introducing new questions and ideas for future work. In this installment, we identify…
Blog Post
November 9, 2023
Who Has Stranded Credits?
Insights from a New Ithaka S+R Survey
In August 2022, the Ohio College Comeback Compact (“Ohio Compact” or “Compact”) was launched to offer a pathway to re-enrollment for stopped-out college students with stranded credits in the Northeast Ohio region. The Compact allows stopped-out students to return to any of the eight participating public colleges and universities despite owing institutional debt and having their transcript withheld. Through the Compact, students are eligible to receive up to $5,000 in debt forgiveness and a release of their transcript…
Research Report
November 9, 2023
Institutional Supports for Students with Stranded Credits
Survey Results from the Ohio College Comeback Compact
As of 2023, 43.6 million borrowers owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. The burden of debt negatively impacts borrowers' ability to provide for their families, purchase a car, or buy a home. However, there is another, often overlooked, institutional debt that students may owe their former institutions after stopping out. It is estimated that 6.6 million students owe $15 billion in unpaid balances to their institutions.
Blog Post
November 8, 2023
Op-Ed in The Hill Highlights Opportunities Following Education Department’s New Transcript Withholding Ban
Almost exactly three years after Ithaka S+R first published national research on “stranded credits”—credits that students have earned but can’t access because their college is holding their transcript and blocking registration until they pay a balance due—the federal government is on the verge of eliminating transcript withholding as a debt collection practice. In a new op-ed in The Hill, we discuss a package of regulations issued by the US Education Department and aimed at protecting beneficiaries of…
Past Event
November 30, 2023
Comprehensive Recruitment and Transfer Advising Tools for Student Success
Promoting Transfer Equity and Transparency in Higher Education
At the New York State Transfer and Articulation Association Downstate Meeting, Ithaka S+R’s Emily Tichenor will join Nechelle Calhoun, Lexa Logue, and Chris Buonocore in a panel on recruitment and transfer advising tools for student success. The session will include a presentation on the Ithaka S+R Articulation of Transfer Credit (ACT) project as well as a demo of CUNY T-Rex Transfer Explorer and Universal Transfer Explorer. The panel is scheduled for November 30 at 10am ET.
Blog Post
November 1, 2023
The Importance of Student Veteran Belonging
Over the past summer, we spoke with institutional and organizational leaders committed to supporting student veterans in higher education, and in every conversation, we heard about the importance of belonging to student veteran success. Many of these administrators and leaders observed that today’s student veterans are not who most faculty members, administrators, and other students think they are. For more than a decade, the image of the typical student veteran was shaped by the public image of combatants returning…
Blog Post
October 24, 2023
The Trouble with Transfer for Student Veterans
The US military affords servicemembers a variety of opportunities to engage in postsecondary education, taking courses and earning academic credit, during and following their service. Those opportunities are a prominent selling point for enlistment and remain a priority for those considering joining up. There is a bitter irony in the high value that many service members put on these benefits because they do not yet know how difficult it will be to use the credits they have earned to complete…
Past Event
October 17, 2023
Student and Credit Mobility: Key Topics in Research and Practice
Modern students are increasingly mobile and acquire validated learning and college credits from more sources, and over longer periods of time, than ever before. But far too often processes, policies, inaccurate or invisible information, and poor inter-institutional collaboration block students from applying their past learning to college degrees. Institutions, state systems, and organizations across the country are working to better understand and overcome these challenges and boost degree completion. At the Oklahoma Statewide Transfer Student Success Conference, on October…
Blog Post
October 17, 2023
Best Practices at the Institutional Level
Enrolling and Supporting Student Veterans
Last month, my colleagues and I spoke with institutional representatives from five different institutions: Columbia University, Cornell University, Syracuse University, Texas A&M, and the University of Chicago. These institutions all have a strong commitment to student veteran enrollment, but are at different stages of the process. For example, Cornell and UChicago have been actively scaling up the enrollment of veterans over the last few years, while Texas A&M has long enrolled many hundreds of veterans each year. At Columbia and…
Blog Post
October 12, 2023
Veterans Enrollment: What Do the Data Show?
In 2019, Ithaka S+R published a paper discussing the underrepresentation of student veterans at high-graduation-rate institutions and outlining the various barriers—ranging from financial aid policies to transfer credit limitations—that prevent veterans from enrolling in such institutions. As we explained in that paper, these barriers partly explain why, as of 2015-16, only one in 10 veterans using GI Bill benefits were enrolling at institutions with graduation rates above 70 percent, while approximately one-third of veterans were using GI Bill benefits…
Blog Post
October 12, 2023
Student Veteran Blog Series
Introduction and Overview
The ending of the formal COVID-19 public health emergency offers an opportunity to reflect on how the upheaval of the past few years has impacted many facets of life and society, including higher education. At Ithaka S+R, we are taking this opportunity to revisit some of our previous work focused on the experiences of student veterans (see note on language below) that was completed just prior to the…
Blog Post
October 10, 2023
Understanding the Impact of Work-Based Learning
Ithaka S+R to Evaluate a 25-Institution Pilot Program with the Council of Independent Colleges
Colleges and universities are under increasing pressure to better prepare students for the world of work and integrate career preparation into their degree programs. There are many avenues to pursue in these efforts, including enhancing career services offices, revising general education curricula, and coordinating academic offerings with local workforce needs. One particularly promising approach is offering more experiential learning opportunities, like study abroad, service-learning, and undergraduate research. These experiences allow students to apply what they…
Blog Post
September 29, 2023
Improving Quality Assurance in Higher Education
Takeaways from the NACIQI Summer 2023 Regulatory Sub-Committee Report
In early August, the federal Department of Education held a little known but statutorily required convening to maintain the balance of the higher education quality assurance ecosystem. Almost all US colleges and universities operate in this regulatory ecosystem, often described as the Triad, which consists of state governments that authorize institutions to operate, accreditation agencies that assure educational quality, and the federal government that administers student aid programs. Most higher education stakeholders will likely be familiar with accreditation…
Blog Post
September 27, 2023
After Successful Pilot, the Ohio College Comeback Compact Moves to Full Implementation
The Ohio College Comeback Compact successfully concluded its pilot year, demonstrating proof of concept for a novel program aimed at re-enrolling college students with stranded credits and settling the institutional debt they owed their former institutions. The Compact is advancing to a full implementation at the eight original public colleges and universities in Northeast Ohio for the 2023-24 academic year. And, with generous support from Lumina Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation, Ithaka S+R will be…