Microsoft’s Nook Deal, Aiming at Amazon, Sets Up Battle in E-Books

May 1, 2012 By

Microsoft agreed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Barnes & Noble’s Nook division on Monday, giving the bookstore chain stronger footing in the hotly contested electronic book market and creating an alliance that could intensify the fight over the future of digital reading.

The deal, which gives Microsoft a 17.6 percent stake, values the Nook unit at $1.7 billion — roughly double Barnes & Noble’s entire market value as of last Friday — and bolsters the bookseller’s efforts to make its digital business the linchpin of its future growth.

Microsoft’s Nook Deal, Aiming at Amazon, Sets Up Battle in E-Books 

Filed Under: All Things Digital, e-books

What America Owes In Student Loans

April 27, 2012 By


Americans now owe more on student loans than they owe on their credit cards.  The amount of student debt being taken on every year has been rising rapidly for years now.  See the charts and graphs.  They are pretty telling.

What America Owes In Student Loans 

Filed Under: Community Colleges, Private Colleges, Research Universities, Student Loans

Community Colleges Not Up to 21st-Century Mission, Their Own Report Says

April 21, 2012 By

Calling the American dream imperiled, the American Association of Community Colleges issued a report on Saturday intended to galvanize college leaders to transform their institutions for the 21st-century needs of students and the economy.

Released here on the opening night of the group’s annual conference, the report acknowledges the sector’s historic growth and success but also argues that even so, far too many community-college students do not graduate. The study also found employment preparation inadequately connected to the needs of the job market, and a need for two-year colleges to work more closely with high schools and baccalaureate institutions.

Community Colleges Not Up to 21st-Century Mission, Their Own Report Says 

Filed Under: Community Colleges, Globalization, Life Long Learning!, The New Normal

Student Loan Interest Rates Loom as Political Battle

April 21, 2012 By

President Obama begins an all-out push on Friday to get Congress to extend the low interest rate on federal student loans, White House officials said, an effort that is likely to become a heated battle along party lines. If Congress fails to act, the interest rate on the loans, which are taken out by nearly eight million students each year, will double on July 1, to 6.8 percent.

Student Loan Interest Rates Loom as Political Battle

Filed Under: Generations, Student Loans

A huge student loan scam brought to you by ultra-conservative North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx

April 16, 2012 By

As it turns out, ultra-conservative North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx Foxx herself is benefiting from the waste and abuse of federal tax dollars. Among the top 20 financial contributors to Foxx in the 2011-2012 cycle are the Association of Private Sector Colleges/Universities, the Apollo Group owner of the University of Phoenix, and Corinthian Colleges. Since federal student loans comprise the vast majority of the revenues of those for-profit schools, it follows that their campaign contributions to Foxx are also made possible by U.S. taxpayers.

A huge student loan scam brought to you by ultra-conservative North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx Foxx

Filed Under: Debt, For Profit Schools, Insanity

A new way to measure college graduation rates

April 12, 2012 By

College acceptances have been coming in the past couple of weeks, which means now might be a good time to start asking a couple of follow-up questions. Like how big is my financial aid package going to be? Or how successful is a given school at actually producing graduates?

Community colleges have taken a lot of heat on that last one lately, but they may be getting a break. The Department of Education says its going to change the way it measures success.

From the Marketplace Education Desk at WYPR in Baltimore, Amy Scott reports.

A new way to measure college graduation rates 

Filed Under: Community Colleges

DePaul’s community college partnership aims to streamline transferring

April 11, 2012 By


The idea of a four-year college partnering with a two-year college isn’t new. But rarely is the four-year institution a large, private university with selective admissions that offers advising throughout the student’s time at a community college. It is rarer still for the four-year school to award credit that students can use to finish their associate degrees.

But students in the DePaul Admission Partnership Program are guaranteed a spot at the nation’s largest Roman Catholic college if they finish their community college studies with a 2.0 GPA, and they receive $2,000 a year after transferring if they achieve a 3.0.

DePaul’s community college partnership aims to streamline transferring 

Filed Under: Admissions, College Access, Community Colleges, Private Colleges

New research on how elite colleges make admissions decisions

April 10, 2012 By

A new survey of admissions officials at the 75 most competitive colleges and universities (defined as those with the lowest admit rates) finds that there are distinct patterns, typically not known by applicants, that differentiate some holistic colleges from others. Most colleges focus entirely on academic qualifications first, and then consider other factors. But a minority of institutions focuses first on issues of “fit” between a college’s needs and an applicant’s needs.

New research on how elite colleges make admissions decisions 

Filed Under: Admissions

California College Drops Plan for 2-Level Course Pricing

April 10, 2012 By

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Following a week of student protests and a request from the chancellor of the California community college system to hold off, Santa Monica College has canceled its plan to offer certain popular courses at higher prices this summer.

California College Drops Plan for 2-Level Course Pricing 

Filed Under: College Access

Trying to Find a Measure for How Well Colleges Do

April 7, 2012 By

New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability, a coalition of higher education groups. “We used to hear a lot more of, ‘The value of college can’t be measured,’ and now we hear more of, ‘Let’s talk about how we can measure.’

”In January, the New Leadership Alliance released guidelines calling on colleges to systematically “gather evidence of student learning” — though not explicitly advocating standardized tests — and release the results. The report was endorsed by several major organizations of colleges and universities.

via Trying to Find a Measure for How Well Colleges Do

Filed Under: Insanity, The New Normal
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