Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Hope College is attempting to raise $1 billion in order to move to a permanent tuition-free funding model for their students. This not only requires an immense front-end fundraising effort, but new students will also be required to sign a non-binding commitment to give money to the college every year after they graduate, in order to ensure the stability of this funding model in perpetuity.

Reported by Inside Higher Ed, letters of recommendation for Dallas Theological Seminary’s graduate programs include questions about the student’s physical condition, intelligence, teachability, sexuality, and a qualitative analysis of their relationship. These questions have raised serious concerns about the legality of asking such questions as part of an admissions decision.

Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation requiring all Illinois public colleges and universities to offer test-optional admissions, enstating into law what has been a broader willing trend in higher ed over the last several years.

Reported by EdSurge, edtech companies have amazing experimentation opportunities. The ability to A/B test a product or curriculum change within the learning management system, and see the direct impact of that change. Without this experimentation, it’s so hard to improve learning outcomes. But do students deserve to be aware of the experiments they’re a part of? After all, what if they’re in the B group that ends up losing by 13%?

Reported by Inside Higher Ed, while the Pell Grant (which currently provides $6,495 of need-based aid a year) used to cover nearly 80% of the cost of college for lower-income students, rising college costs mean that it now covers less than a third.

Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with many veterans having complained about how ITT Tech stole their GI Bill funds by misleading students about their job prospects and issuing credits students found incredibly difficult to transfer to other institutions upon the institution’s closing, 18,000 student borrowers have now had their loans canceled.

Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a full 40% of students experienced financial disruption during COVID. With 29% of undergraduates reporting losing a job or a loss of income from reduced work hours, and 9% reporting having difficulty paying for food.

Reported by eCampusNews, while more and more institutions are partnering with or integrating bootcamps or similar technical programs within their existing degree programs, it’s the collaboration, communication, and broader people skills HR managers claim our new grads are missing out on.