Higher Ed Community (2024)

FAQs

How to answer how would you contribute to our college community? ›

Have you shown leadership, initiative, or brought unique ideas to the table? Consider how those qualities could be applied in the context of the college community. For example, if you've organized events, talk about how you could contribute to campus life through event planning.

More than 80% of employers in a new American Association of Colleges and Universities survey said they believe higher education prepares college graduates for workforce success — though some executives find students lack certain skills.

The 2007-2009 plummet in births can attributed to the Great Recession, but since then birth rates have continued to fall. The declining birth rate is one major reason why college enrollment rates are not expected to increase significantly until 2037 or so.

Yes, colleges have their problems. They have made both common and extraordinary missteps in managing their finances, overbuilt campuses into a deferred-maintenance crisis, and accumulated significant debt, with the burdens often passed on to students in the form of tuition increases.

Shop local. Donate to local organizations. Sponsor a local event. Support a GoFundMe of a neighbor who could use extra support.

You can use your skills, talents, and energy for a greater cause. And to make things even better, you usually always have several local options to choose from. You can volunteer at a hospital, youth group, food bank, senior home, animal shelter, or other local non-profit organizations.

Higher-educational institutions include not only universities and colleges but also various professional schools that provide preparation in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. Higher education also includes teacher-training schools, junior colleges, and institutes of technology.

College graduates get higher-quality jobs

Graduates are more likely to participate in the labor force, less likely to be unemployed, and more likely to have full-time jobs.

What is the most important thing that higher ED institutions should be focusing on? ›

Talent Strategy is Perhaps the Most Important Leadership Imperative for Higher Ed Today.

Poor fit and lack of demonstrated interest are among the common reasons college applications are rejected. Given the volume of college applications each year, admissions officers have tough decisions to make when it comes to filling limited seats.

Ellie Bruecker, the interim director of research at The Institute for College Access and Success, a non-profit education research organization, said these numbers suggest there will likely be a decline in overall college enrollment in 2024.

The college-admissions process has long been broken, according to Jeffrey Selingo, who in 2022 called it a “poorly designed system in need of long-overdue improvements.” More students are flocking to super-selective schools, which have opaque admissions criteria and extraordinarily limited class sizes.

The biggest challenges facing education today include the low quality of human resources, the need to adapt to the fast-changing digital world, the discrepancy between classroom learning and the reality outside, and the transformation brought by new technologies.

The sky-high price tag on a college degree is stopping people in their tracks. Why it matters: Cost is a major barrier to both pursuing and obtaining a college degree or postsecondary credential and it's a reason why enrolled students consider dropping out, according to a new survey from Gallup and Lumina Foundation.

A few long-term trends have combined to create this growing crisis. One is the declining birthrate since the Great Recession, which is causing an “enrollment cliff” based on the numbers of potential students turning 18 over the next decade. The other is the decline in Americans' confidence in higher education.