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Image:  2U and edX, two major players in the online learning ecosystem, announced Tuesday that they would combine to create an entity that would reach 50 million learners and serve most of the best universities in the United States and the world. 2U, the publicly traded company that is by far the largest of the online program management providers, said it would pay $800 million to buy the assets of edX, the nonprofit online course provider that Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology teamed up to create nearly a decade ago. The assets of the transaction will flow to a new nonprofit organization managed by Harvard and MIT that will focus on "inclusive learning and education," the new partners said in a news release. "Guided by the efforts and insights from Harvard and MIT research on the dynamics of learning, the nonprofit will collaborate with educational institutions, governments and other organizations to develop and evaluate new a...

Image:  One day during this past academic year, Byanca Moore realized she needed help. The rising junior at Le Moyne College, in Syracuse, N.Y., had medical expenses to pay and no food to eat. So, she turned to the college’s Jesuit Fund , which provides students with up to $500 in emergency funding. Moore applied for the assistance and received what she needed. “They do care for students, and they see which needs you need,” Moore said. “It was helpful.” But the Jesuit Fund is only a quick fix, noted Moore. She and her classmates who face financial challenges need more of a long-term solution. That’s what Representative Norma Torres, a Democrat from California, realized when she saw one of her sons making four sandwiches for a two-hour class at the community college he was attending. “I’m looking at him like, ‘You're going to eat all of that?’” Torres told Inside Higher Ed . “And he said, 'No, not for me, Mom. There are so many kids that are there the entire day but...

Image:  The Board of Trustees for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will hold a special meeting Wednesday, reportedly to vote on tenure for journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones . The board’s Monday announcement about a special meeting included no details about the agenda. But quoting two unnamed trustees, NC Policy Watch reported that the board will hold a vote on tenure for Hannah-Jones. Lamar Richards, Chapel Hill’s student body president and therefore an ex officio trustee, petitioned the board last week to hold a special meeting to discuss the Hannah-Jones case. He would have needed five other board members to make similar requests to force such a meeting, but it’s unclear if that’s why the meeting was scheduled. The board chair can call a special meeting at any time. In a 180 from its previous stance on the Hannah-Jones case, the board is reportedly eager to hold a vote before Thursday. That’s when six trustees, including board chair Richard Stevens,...

Image:  The Maine Community College System will launch a free training program to prepare over 700 rural students for remote jobs over the next three years. Students living in rural areas of the state will be able to take six- to nine-month-long online courses in fields especially conducive to remote work, such as IT support, customer service and medical transcription. Participants will receive training and earn a certificate in remote work skills. The program will also offer a certificate course for supervisors on how to manage remote workers. Administrators plan to start the Remote Work for ME program next January with a cohort of about 60 rural students. The $1.2 million program will be funded by a $535,000 seed grant from Ascendium Education Group, a philanthropic organization focused on postsecondary education, as well as funds from the John T. Gorman Foundation, the community college system and its foundation. “Over the years Maine has tried a variety of ways...

Blog:  Call to Action: Marketing and Communications in Higher Education As we talked about returning to in-person meetings and presentations, my colleague mused, “I don’t know if I remember how to talk in front of a real live audience, and I think I completely lost the ability to have a conversation.” We laughed, but the exchange made me realize that communicators need to polish skills we may not have tapped during the pandemic, particularly because our past year focused primarily on written communications, website postings and hours of back-to-back daily Zoom meetings (made bearable by the puppies, cats and even goats who sometimes crashed our meetings). So much of our effectiveness as communication strategists relies on the ability to craft powerful language that resonates with our audience, and to read a room, based on our attendees’ body language, eye contact and engagement. We can better advance our priorities by adapting those well-honed in-person skills to reflec...

The San Mateo Community College District in California will double its tuition-free program and expand dual enrollment for local high school students with one-time funding its board approved last week. The Board of Trustees approved a one-time boost of $6.75 million for the district’s Free Community College Strategic Initiative as part of a tentative $470.4 million budget. The new funding includes $3 million for the district’s Promise Scholars program. The program covers tuition and fees and provides money for textbooks for full-time students. The program currently supports 2,000 students. Additional funding will allow the district, which enrolls about 20,000 students, to expand program access to 4,000 students, said Aaron McVean, vice chancellor for educational services and planning for the district. “What we’re trying to do is make community college free for as many students as possible,” McVean said. “If we had all the resources in the world, it would probably be ...

While we’ve heard widening discussion on diversity and inclusion among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer students at colleges and universities across the nation, little of that conversation has focused on the importance of LGBTQ leadership at these institutions. The demographics of leadership in higher education skews toward homogeneity -- older, white, male and straight is by far the norm. Entrée into academic leadership roles has been challenging for many groups, including women, BIPOC and LGBTQ people. As higher education seeks to correct structural discrimination, we must recognize the power of elevating members of these communities to leadership roles within our institutions. To bring systemic change within a college or university, leadership must be representative of the diversity of the human family. Increasing the number of an institution’s LGBTQ leaders can positively influence the student body and overall culture of the institution. For example, studies sugges...