Free Republic

American higher education is in retreat. It’s shrinking. The for-sale signs have gone up. It’s time for “inventory reduction.” Forty-nine colleges have closed since 2020. Forty others have merged with neighbors. The Huron Consulting Group says that 400 colleges are at risk of closing in the next decade. The prospect of insolvency has now moved beyond small colleges. Larger ones are closing programs and laying off faculty. Not counting community colleges, trade schools, online-only outfits and clandestine thinkatoriums, some 2,700 four-year institutions are currently authorized to hand out college degrees in the US. That compares with 4,150 licensed hot dog...

There’s about to be fewer feet sticking to frat floors and hands slapping the bag. US colleges are facing an enrollment cliff after the population of Americans aged 18 peaked last year. Undergraduate enrollment is projected to decline by 13% in the next 15 years, according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Meanwhile, many schools are already in a pickle: Families are increasingly bargain hunting for the most generous financial aid as they doubt the value of a higher education. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has restricted international student visas, denting enrollment in the process.

A California man was charged Monday with operating a ring of illegal test-takers who helped dozens of Middle Eastern nationals obtain U.S. student visas by passing proficiency and college-placement exams for them. Eamonn Daniel Higgins, 46, of Laguna Niguel made an appearance in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud as immigration agents arrested 16 of his suspected clients who remained in Southern California... The allegations revealed a potentially dangerous security breach in the country's student visa system and underscored the vulnerability of a tracking process that relies on schools to verify...

Caveat emptor! The number of colleges that cost more than $100,000 per year to attend has sky-rocketed this year — but few of these pricey schools offer a strong return on investment, according to rankings. Fifteen higher ed institutions cracked the six-figure pricetag this year, up from a just two the previous year, according to an analysis from the the Washington Post. That means students at those schools will be shelling out nearly a half-million dollars over four years of schooling. Another another nine colleges were also mere dollars away from breaking the six-figure mark, data from the Princeton Review...

We are two Muslim women who have each had a death warrant, a fatwa, placed on our heads—not for committing a crime, but for opposing the extremists who claim to speak for our faith. One of us, Anila, came to America from Pakistan and built a life here as a public school teacher. After September 11, Anila founded an organization to empower Muslim women and confront extremism. The other, Dalia, fled Egypt after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. Dalia was targeted for opposing the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and has spent the years since tracing the money...

Schools and colleges should be places where all students can learn, grow, and build their futures -- not traps for deportation. Yet, every single day, immigrant students and families across the country are being forced to live with uncertainty and fear. DACA recipients are facing renewal delays that put their futures at risk. Students are navigating growing attacks on immigrant communities and higher education while ICE continues to threaten the safety of our neighborhoods, colleges and public schools. That’s why Communities for Our Colleges, a project of the National Campaign for Justice, is kicking off the ICE Out of Our...

MIAMI – Florida is expanding its school safety playbook to colleges and universities under a new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prompted in part by last year’s active‑shooter incident at Florida State University. DeSantis signed HB 757, calling it a continuation of a years-long push to harden campuses and tighten threat response. “We implemented the most far‑reaching school safety program anywhere in the country,” DeSantis said, noting that “just since 2019, we’ve invested $3.1 billion in student safety.” The law requires public colleges and universities to adopt active assailant response plans, establish threat management teams, conduct annual security risk...

First they asked, “Have you ever pretended to hold more progressive views than you truly endorse to succeed socially or academically?” Among the students they interviewed, 88% said yes. Then they broke it down into specific questions: 80% said they’d submitted classwork that misrepresented their views to align with professors. 78% said they self-censor their own beliefs about gender identity.

Some college programs whose graduates earn less than workers with only a high school diploma could lose access to federal student loans under the Republicans' "big, beautiful bill" act, a change that could impact about 40,000 U.S. college students, according to a recent analysis. About 2% of U.S. associate and bachelor's degree-granting programs are at risk under the new provision, called "do no harm," which takes effect in July, according to research from the HEA Group, a higher-education research firm. The provision, part of the GOP tax and spending law's overhaul of student loans, requires programs to show that graduates...

Higher education is approaching a period of profound disruption, and many colleges may not survive, Arthur Levine, the newly appointed president of Brandeis University, said during a recent event. Levine estimated that between 20 and 25 percent of colleges will close in the coming years, while community colleges and regional universities move increasingly online. He made these remarks during a recent American Enterprise Institute event titled “Tackling Higher Education’s Challenges: A Conversation with Frederick M. Hess and Brandeis University President Arthur Levine.” Wealthier institutions may have the resources to withstand the transition, but many others do not. Levine said that...

Qatar has allegedly pumped more than $20 billion into American colleges and other top institutions as part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s decades-long plan to infiltrate the US and “destroy” democracy from within, a leading research institute warns — while adding that the nefarious funding could be staggeringly higher. The Qatar Foundation, which is bankrolled by the country’s ruling Al Thani royal family, has apparently been injecting tens of billions of dollars into institutions to help the Sunni Islamist group carve out toeholds in the educational system, according to a new report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism...

SNIP But according to my research, many of our most prestigious private colleges are still providing financial benefits and other perks to undocumented students — shortchanging Americans in the process. On Sept. 22, Kentucky agreed to a tentative settlement with the Justice Department that will end in-state tuition benefits for illegal-immigrant students. The Bluegrass State’s policy — like those of many other states — allowed undocumented immigrants who graduate from a Kentucky high school to pay much lower in-state tuition rates at Kentucky’s state colleges. In June, Trump’s Justice Department took the state to court, arguing the policy violates federal...

“We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few.” — Democratic Socialists of America The neo-Marxist youth movement today is more confused than ever. Antifa and its comrades have an ugly influence. They seek our college kids and those susceptible to radical ideas. Believing their ideology can give an angry and confused person meaning in life. They’re among the most disturbed young socialists. They claim they’re anti-fascist, but use fascist tactics and violence. Their benefactors’ Marxist rhetoric exposes their cartoonish fraud. They’re communists violently attacking...

Shots have been fired at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, sparking a massive police response on Thursday afternoon. Dozens of students and staff were seen fleeing for their lives after gunshots rang out at the school's campus in Dorchester, the Boston Police Department told WCVB. Gunfire was reported at 3:45pm near Morrissey Boulevard, the outlet reported. Several UMass Boston alerts warned students that the incident is a 'public safety threat' and is in or near a residence hall in the school's East Building. SWAT teams rushed to the dorm building, as people were urged to avoid the area. Sky5...

One international student after another told the University of Central Missouri this summer that they couldn’t get a visa, and many struggled to even land an interview for one. Even though demand was just as high as ever, half as many new international graduate students showed up for fall classes compared to last year. The decline represents a hit to the bottom line for Central Missouri, a small public university that operates close to its margins with an endowment of only $65 million. International students typically account for nearly a quarter of its tuition revenue. “We aren’t able to subsidize...

President Trump said his administration will welcome more Chinese students than ever into the United States to enroll in higher education as trade talks press on with Beijing. Trump announced Monday that he plans to open the floodgates to another 600,000 Chinese college students, though it’s unclear when. There are currently around 270,000 Chinese students enrolled in US universities. “I hear so many stories that we’re not going to allow their students,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re going to allow their students to come in. It’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important. But we’re going to...

NEW YORK (MainStreet)— The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Student Loan Ombudsman Rohit Chopra recently responded to those who asked the CFPB about the status of the $1 trillion that has already been borrowed to pay for college tuition. An August 5 article by Chopra paints a bleak portrait. Chopra found ...

Progressives have long wished that the federal government would more aggressively enforce civil-rights law in higher education. Did they wish upon a monkey’s paw? Since Donald Trump retook the White House, his administration has used the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to trap dozens of colleges in the federal equivalent of a headlock, forcing them to submit to sweeping demands or else have their federal funds frozen or foreign students banned. According to Team Trump, it is targeting academics who violate civil-rights laws—by discriminating against Asian Americans in admissions, allowing biological males to compete with females in athletics, tolerating a...

Students from universities including Yale, Stanford and UCLA have been refusing to eat in solidarity with Palestinians at risk of starvation in GazaWhen I speak to Iman Deriche, she hasn’t eaten in five days. “There are some moments of fatigue,” she says. “But I’m doing well.” The 21-year-old Stanford University student is one of 24 students and three faculty members who are taking part in a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. They aren’t alone: students and faculty at universities across the US are going on hunger strike with activist organisation Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), from...

Former President Barack Obama and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Thursday night attacked the 47th president’s actions as dangerous and “unconstitutional.” Obama, during an on-stage interview at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, chided Trump’s efforts to right-size the federal government and crack down on rampant illegal immigration among other actions to fulfill his “America First” agenda. “It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me, or a whole bunch of my predecessors,” Obama said.