After several years of stagnation and cuts, it appears the state’s main source of financial aid is on the rebound. The Minnesota Office of Higher Education estimates that college students next year should receive an average of $200 more in their State Grant awards, a 12 percent increase. That’s twice the 6 percent growth the Read more →
Remember “Scared Straight,” that late-1970s documentary in which prison inmates warned juvenile delinquents against turning to a life of crime? Watch Buzzfeed’s take for the college crowd: “Scared Straight: Liberal Arts Edition.” You can guess what happens: Down-and-out college grads with arts and humanities degrees get in the faces of a crop of liberal-arts students, yelling Read more →
Carleton College classics professor Clara Shaw Hardy tells the Star Tribune that the college’s Pathways website, which helps students figure out how to turn a liberal-arts degree into a career, reflects a relatively recent parental desire to make such education relevant: “When I got here 20 years ago, I know I would have found it almost offensive. Read more →
Ph.D holder J.D.J. Plocher, an alumnus of Macalester College and the University of Minnesota, blogs about how the misery of a failed job search may have forced him to give up his dream of becoming a music academic: “…I told myself that I was worthless, that I’d thrown away seven years of my life chasing Read more →
Corporate consultant Lindsey Pollak told The Daily Circuit this morning how cash-strapped workers are delaying retirement and thus lowering the number of positions open to recent college grads: “I’m under the impression that baby boomers are never going to retire, ever. We’re going to have 100-year-old workers taking entry-level jobs.” You can read about the discussion Read more →
I’ve been meaning for ages to get to this. A lot has been said about how many degrees and certificates workers will need in the coming years — much of it based on findings by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. But Mark Misukanis, former director of finance and research for the state Read more →
Macalester College President Brian Rosenberg writes in The Huffington Post why he disagrees with North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory’s recent remarks on how he’s drafting legislation to change higher-education funding. In essence, the Republican governor said he wants college funding “not based upon how many butts in seats but how many of those butts can Read more →
In case you missed it, MPR’s The Daily Circuit had a discussion yesterday about recent college grads and the crippling debt and demoralizing underemployment they face. You can listen to the audio above, watch the following video and read the collection of tweets and comments compiled by MPR’s Stephanie Curtis after that. Watch For College Read more →
Seems like some comments I posted by University of Minnesota chemistry professor Chris Cramer on the marketability of chemistry degrees touched a nerve with one reader, MSChemist: I have a Master of Science in Chemistry and have come to regret it intensely. Companies do not value chemists at all. The pharmaceuticals industry has been the Read more →
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system chancellor Steven Rosenstone has announced the start of the statewide jobs-skills survey he has talked about in weeks past. MnSCU, along with the state Chamber of Commerce and Minnesota Department of Employment, is performing a joint “Workforce Assessment” to analyze the “state’s skills gap.” (I’ve posted on some Read more →
Alex Friedrich