Notes in the Margins: Part-timers, banking deals and China’s academic ambition

Part-time students least likely to graduate on time Students who pursue postsecondary degrees exclusively part-time are the least likely group to graduate within six years, according to a new study from the National Student Clearinghouse. (USA Today)

Feds Push Financial Institutions To Disclose Arrangements With Colleges The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urged a number of financial institutions on Tuesday to disclose how much money they are paying colleges and universities to directly market their products and services to students. (The Huffington Post)

China on the fast track Beijing wants to supercharge its nation’s universities as it has its railroads, but might its ambitions falter for want of academic freedom and cultural change? (Times Higher Education)

Part-Timers Crowd Academic Hiring The trend toward employing part-time contingent faculty members, combined with slow growth in the number of tenure-track university teaching positions, is continuing to sharpen the competition facing would-be academics in the United States, Europe and some other places that were once more welcoming, including Australia. (The New York Times)

The highly educated, badly paid, often abused adjunct professors The only way to stop colleges from exploiting them is to cut off the supply. (Los Angeles Times)

• How Augsburg is going all Mark Twain
• How past U of M presidents view higher-ed today
• Metro State data breach affected 160,000 students