If you want future developers of technology to create new things for your product, try giving it to engineering students for free. Amazon is experimenting with that at one college, giving away an Echo Dot (list price $49.99) to every student in a new dorm at Arizona State University. [More]
college
Huge Collection Fees Making It More Difficult For Cash-Strapped Students To Afford College
By 8.7.17
Each year, millions of college students rack up student loans that won’t come due until they leave school. But even with financial aid, some students have trouble keeping up with the soaring costs of tuition, and once that debt ends up in the hands of a collection agency, the amount can mushroom out of control while the student is still in school. [More]
Instead Of Busing College Students To Stores, Target Opens New Locations, Tests Pickup Options
By 7.31.17
As back to school season kicks into high gear, retailers across the country are competing to fill students’ backpacks with supplies and adorn their dorm rooms with TV, mini-refrigerators, and other college-esque paraphernalia. Target just happens to be one of those retailers, and the big box store is upping its back to school game by opening smaller format stores, offering new pickup options, and hosting pop-up shops on campuses. [More]
Education Dept. Civil Rights Chief Sorry For Saying 90% Of College Rape Claims Are Result Of Bad Breakups
By 7.12.17
As Education Secretary Betsy DeVos moves forward with her plan to review the federal government’s policy regarding sexual assault and harassment on college campuses, the acting head of the Department’s Civil Rights division is now apologizing for making an unsubstantiated and unsourced claim that nine in ten of these assault allegations are baseless and can be tied back to nothing more than too much drinking and bad breakups. [More]
Dozens Of Organizations Come Out In Support Of Gainful Employment, Borrower Defense Rules
By 7.12.17
A week after two separate lawsuits were filed by 19 state attorneys general and a group representing students accusing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of breaking the law by delaying protections for student loan borrowers, a coalition of more than 50 consumer groups have stepped forward to join the opposition against a “reset” of regulations put in place to protect students at for-profit colleges. [More]
Memphis Offers To Help Pay For City Employees’ Student Loans
By 6.12.17 — Updated: 6.13.17
While the Department of Education looks ready to drop its program that forgives the debt of federal student loan borrowers who work for the government, one city is picking up the slack, saying it will help its workers pay down their student loan bills. [More]
Chipotle Offers Employees Accelerated Business Degree Program
By 5.2.17
Last summer, Chipotle joined the ranks of Pizza Hut, JetBlue, Starbucks, and others in offering to foot the bill — or at least some of it — to provide employees with a college education. Today, the company expanded that program, offering workers the ability to combine real-world experience with classroom time in order to earn a business degree in less than two years. [More]
Students Claim For-Profit College Operator Deliberately Let Their School Fail
By 5.2.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Former students at one for-profit college allege that the school’s parent company, Laureate Education, committed fraud by deliberately allowing their college to fail and close down. [More]
Purdue University Buys For-Profit Kaplan University, But Is It A Good Idea?
By 4.28.17
On the surface, Purdue University and Kaplan University don’t have a lot in common: One is a public university from Indiana and the other is a for-profit chain mostly offering online courses. But now they have one rather large thing in common: ownership. Purdue has purchased Kaplan — for a dollar. [More]
New York To Offer Free Tuition At Four-Year Public Universities
By 4.10.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Hundreds of thousands of New York residents mulling the idea of going to college at a public university could soon enroll for free, as the state’s lawmakers passed a budget over the weekend that included a program that would allow students from middle- and low-income families to attend college for free. [More]
One Major University Now Offering Scholarships For Gamers
By 4.5.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Are you a big-time gamer? Want to go to college, but worried about the high price of admission? The University of Utah might have a viable option for you: The school now offers scholarships for competitive video gaming. [More]
DeVry Will Pay $2.75M To Settle State’s Allegations Of Misleading Advertising
By 1.31.17
One month after DeVry Education Group agreed to pay $100 million to settle federal regulatory charges that it used deceptive ads to recruit students, the for-profit educator has come to a multimillion-dollar settlement that should close the book on one state-level investigation. [More]
Student Loan Debt For Recent College Graduates Increases Again, Now At $30K
By 10.18.16
With college tuition continuing to increase, it probably won’t surprise many people to learn that college graduates are leaving school burdened with more loan debt. According to a new report, the average amount of student loan debt for new graduates has passed $30,000 for the first time. [More]
Cheap Prime, On-Campus Kiosks Meant To Get College Students Hooked On Amazon
By 10.11.16
How do you get newly minted adults hooked on your service for life? If you’re Amazon, the secret is to provide them with everything that they need at a discount, and deliver it as quickly as possible. The combination of discounted Prime service and easy on-campus pickup is meant to hook college students on Prime during their formative years, and it’s turning out to be very effective. [More]
Digital Textbook Codes Mean No Selling Used Books, Higher Prices
By 9.23.16
While the price of course materials has fallen overall, there’s one specific course material that’s pricey and possibly unexpected. Digital content codes give students access to materials like quizzes, study materials and digital-only extra books, but much like digital music or ebooks, they can’t be exchanged or resold. That means publishers set the price, and there’s no secondary market. [More]
DeVry Education Group Will Limit How Much Federal Aid Its Schools Accept
By 9.20.16
The so-called 90/10 rule says that for-profit colleges can’t derive more than 90% of their revenue from federal financial aid. In the wake of the collapse of ITT Tech, which had to shutter after the government clamped down on its access to federal funds, the DeVry chain of for-profit schools says it will cap the amount of federal aid it receives at levels below what the rules require. [More]
Former ITT Employees Sue Over Sudden Closures
By 9.7.16
While it was no doubt a shock for 40,000 ITT Technical Institute students to learn they no longer had a place to pursue their education, 8,000 employees of the company also lost their jobs. Now some of those laid-off workers have sued for-profit operator ITT Educational Services for failing to give them adequate notice their jobs would be eliminated. [More]
Loan Discharges, Transferring Credits: What ITT Tech Students Need To Know
By 9.7.16
Nearly 40,000 now-former ITT Technical Institute students are now left picking up the pieces after the for-profit college operator abruptly closed all 130 of its campuses this week. The Department of Education wants to help those students to be aware of all options — and to avoid getting pulled in by shady offers that are too good to be true.
[More]
