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The latest US┬áStudent and Exchange Visitor Program┬ádata has revealed that despite a slight decline in the number of visa-holding international students in 2018, the total number of records for active students in the country was more than 1.5 million, with 75% “calling Asia home”.

According to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, in 2018 international students on F-1 or M-1 visas for both academic and vocational studies hailed from 232 countries and pursued 1,347 different primary majors in the US.

However, overall student records were down 1.7% in 2018, reaching a total of 1,551,373.

“Only the continents of South America and Australia/Pacific Islands saw growth in the student population”

The data, released in a report and via an interactive map, showed Asia remained the top continent of origin for international students with 75% (1,165,483) of the total in 2018 but marked a 1.9% decrease on 2017 figures.

SEVIS data showed that China (478,732), India (251,290) and South Korea (88,867) sent the largest number of students in both 2017 and 2018.

Of these countries, only the number of students from India increased from 2017 to 2018 (4,157), while the number of students from China (-147) and South Korea (-6,403) decreased over the same period.

Rounding out the top five sending countries were Saudi Arabia and Japan, both of which sent fewer students (-10,879 and -2,138 respectively) in 2018.

While Europe was the second most popular continent of origin with 129,407 records in total, like Asia, it saw a decrease in the number of students studying in the US (-3,474 on 2017 figures).

However, there was fluctuation across different European countries, with enrolments from Germany (-600), Sweden (-536) and the UK (-461) declining, while numbers from Spain (141), Greece (83) and Albania (116) increased.

North America saw the largest proportional decline in the number of student records in 2018, decreasing by 2,736 from 2017 to 2018, resulting in 90,249 students studying in the US in 2018.

Africa also saw a drop in student numbers (-110), marking a total of 67,731 students in 2018.

“Only the continents of South America and Australia/Pacific Islands saw growth in the student population, increasing by 2,703 (3.2%) and 102 (1%) records respectively,” noted a report on the data.

The number of students coming into the US from South America reached 88,338, with “growth from Brazil (3,927), Peru (211), Colombia (154)┬áand Chile (142) helped to counterbalance the decrease in enrolment from Venezuela (- 1,977)” according to the report.

Meanwhile, there were 10,008 active student records from the Australia/Pacific Islands, with 96% of these enrolments hailing from Australia (7,257) and New Zealand (2,324).

SEVIS noted that the majority (85%) of international students on F-1 or M-1 visas pursued higher education degree programs in 2018, equating to about 1.3 million records, which is on par with 2017 numbers.

A total of 145,564 students that reported working via optional practical training in 2018 (a 5% decrease on 2017) and 69,650 in STEM OPT (up 8%), while 151,525 (up 14%) were engaged in Curricular Practical Training as part of their studies.

Overall, California hosted 302,073 students ÔÇô the largest percentage (19.5%) of any US state.

New York, Texas and Massachusetts each hosted more than 100,000 students and rounded out the top states for enrolment in 2018.

Assistant dean,┬áInternational Strategy┬áand┬áPrograms at┬áSan Diego State University World Campus, Eddie West told┬áThe PIE News that the state’s proximity to Asia is one of the key reasons that California remains one of the most attractive international student destinations in the US.

“The data shows that the vast majority of international students in the States are from Asia, and from cost of flights and time to travel-perspectives, the West Coast is appealing to students┬áin the Pacific Rim,” he said.

“Also, California is home to big immigrant populations from Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and India – and so there are many family and friend connections here in the Golden State that serve as natural pull factors.”

West told The PIE that the sheer number of multi-cultural and inclusive communities in California are a big draw for international students the world over.

“San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego are known to be open, inclusive and diverse places”

“It’s an unfortunate reality that with the political climate in the States being what it is many international students and parents are rightly concerned about their safety and whether they might be the targets of anti-immigrant sentiment while here,” he noted.

“San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego are known to be open, inclusive and diverse places, and I don’t think we should underestimate the importance of that today.”

With regards K-12 programs of study, SEVIS revealed that 84,840 students were enrolled, with about 92% in secondary school programs (grades 9-12).

China sent more K-12 students (42,122) than any other country ÔÇô comprising about half of the K-12 international student population in 2018 ÔÇô with South Korea, Vietnam, Mexico and Brazil rounding out the top five.

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The University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted on Friday to censure a trustee of East Carolina University, one of its constituent institutions. Another trustee resigned.

The two men in question, Phil Lewis, who resigned, and Robert Moore, who was censured, were both accused of meddling in student government elections at ECU by offering campaign contributions to a former student government president if she ran again and agreed to support them. The student government president is a member of the ECU Board of Trustees. Their goal was to shift the board's leadership.

Censuring Moore was the strongest action the Board of Governors could take, as he was appointed as an ECU trustee by the state Legislature and could not be removed by the Board of Governors. The news was first reported by North Carolina paper The News & Observer.

Chair of the Board of Governors Randy Ramsey expressed disappointment at the events. “Personally, if I could remove the entire board today, I probably would,” he said at a meeting Friday, The News & Observer reported. “This has got to end.”

Moore said at the meeting that he and Lewis acted with good intentions. Meeting with student candidates is the norm, he said, especially when there's a divided board.

Jeff Popke, a professor of geography and chair of the faculty at ECU, said that the actions of the trustees and the recent commentary around the university -- with one editorial calling the college “a great embarrassment” -- have taken an enormous toll on university morale.

“It is difficult to overstate the level of outrage that was expressed on our campus, and there is a clear sense among faculty that their behavior not only violated UNC System policy, but also runs counter to the values of our community and the minimal expectations for responsible and ethical Board conduct,” Popke said via email.

He said that the governing boards should focus on fiduciary oversight and long-term strategy rather than political agendas and micromanagement.

“Our faculty have lost confidence in the ability of our governing boards to play a constructive role in support of our work and ECU’s mission,” Popke said via email. “This begins with the Board of Governors, which under the current Republican legislature has become increasingly partisan and meddlesome, and has in turn tended to appoint trustees cut from the same cloth.”

The scandal follows a string of high-profile incidents in the UNC system. The system’s Board of Governors has shown itself willing to be political and clash with administrators. Early last year, Carol Folt, chancellor of UNC at Chapel Hill, had her resignation accelerated by the board when she announced she would be taking down the remnants of Silent Sam, a Confederate soldier monument abhorred by outspoken students. Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and president of the UNC system, left office that same month. Cecil Staton, then-chancellor of ECU, announced last March he was departing in a resignation he "did not initiate."

Many have called for the Board of Governors, which has some hand in electing trustees for the constituent institutions, to reform its practices and be less influenced by state politics. The North Carolina General Assembly appoints all governors to the board, a practice some have said must change.

Erskine Bowles, former president of the UNC system and White House chief of staff under President Clinton, and Richard Vinroot, Republican former mayor of Charlotte, together wrote an opinion piece in The News & Observer decrying the process and calling for reform.

“There seems to be a feeling now among some in the General Assembly and on the UNC Board of Governors that the Chapel Hill campus in particular, and the UNC ‘system’ in general, are infected with a liberal bias and that university leaders and students, for that matter, need to be ‘taught a lesson’ with more heavy-handed oversight,” Bowles and Vinroot wrote. “Republican lawmakers have named conservatives of their own party to the Board of Governors and changed the governance rules to diminish any appointive authority in the governor’s office. This type of action risks turning the Board of Governors into a purely political organization doing the bidding of our legislative leaders.”

A campaign website, Reform UNC System Governance, currently lists 1,767 supporters.

Popke said he agreed the system needs to change. “Faculty and students across the system have a right to expect that their governors and trustees will be selected based upon their qualifications and not their political fealty, their potential contributions rather than their campaign contributions,” he said via email. “We deserve better.”

David Powers, chair of the governing committee within the Board of Governors, said that the next meeting would include a review of board policy on self-governance, including discipline of board members.

“The committee plans to begin reviewing the board’s policy on sanctions of Board of Trustee members, including procedures for how to request actions be taken by the board,” Powers said in a statement. “I will also form a working group, in consultation with Board of Governors Chair Randy Ramsey, composed of student body presidents, chancellors and members of Board of Trustees and Board of Governors to review student election procedures and ensure adequate anti-tampering procedures are in place.”

"While our policy allows for a petition to the BOG to remove a campus trustee that the BOG appoints," Powers said via email, "the procedure for such actions is vague. Furthermore, the only disciplinary measure outlined in the current policy is removal and does not explicitly describe other available alternatives such as reprimand or censure."

Powers said examining student elections is important to prevent any inappropriate interference. Student presidents are voting members of their respective institutions' boards.

Lewis, the trustee who resigned, had complained that due process had not been upheld before his meeting with the Board of Governors. The ECU board chairman originally asked the two men to resign. When they didn't, he filed a complaint with the governors.

David Green, a professor of law at North Carolina Central University and chair of the UNC system Faculty Assembly, said he was pleased with Powers's leadership.

"Powers has regularly shown a commitment to the principles of shared governance and inclusiveness in decision making,” Green said via email. “Moreover, I was pleased that in forming a working group regarding student election procedures, he is including student leaders, chancellors, members of Board of Trustees and Board of Governors.” Powers has also reached out to the system faculty assembly for discussion, Green said.

UNC’s reputation, many have said, will depend on this reform.

“It should not be too much to ask that our board members be individuals of high character who will put the interests of the institutions that they serve above and beyond personal or political agendas. But in recent years, we at ECU have not always seen this,” Popke said via email.

“The resulting governance dysfunction is, I am afraid, doing lasting damage to the UNC System and its constituent institutions.”

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Faculty members at Lee College, outside Houston, don’t have tenure. But longer-serving faculty members did have the job security that came with renewable three-year contracts.

No more. Last summer, when many instructors were away from campus, the community college’s then-president, Dennis Brown, notified instructors via email that the Board of Regents would be considering moving to one-year faculty contracts at its next meeting. The note came just one month before the vote. Also proposed was a move to eliminate academic division faculty chairs and replace them with associate deans.

Faculty members universally opposed a move to one-year contracts. They mobilized to fight that proposal, contacting individual board members and organizing who would speak on which of their arguments in favor of three-year contracts at the meeting.

It was a losing battle. At that August board gathering, members voted unanimously for single-year appointments. Most members also voted in a favor of budgeting for a reorganization of division chairs into a system of deanships -- presumably a consolidated one.

How and if that restructuring would happen was left up to the college’s incoming president. The proposals’ exact origins remain something of a mystery to faculty members, who say that they’ve heard different rationales at different times by different regents and administrators. But Brown pushed both proposals forward just as he planned to retire.

Instructors at Lee now hope that the arrival of President Lynda Villanueva this term will bring a return to the kind of shared governance they say they once enjoyed. Even so, the change to one-year contracts is a done deal, and one that faculty members say has already weakened their morale.

“I’m not afraid to speak openly about anything that’s happened to me at this college, and primarily I’m very proud that we’ve had shared governance for the majority of the time I’ve been here,” said Jerry Hamby, an English professor who is retiring this year after 31 years at Lee. “But that has changed dramatically over the past six or seven years,” during Brown’s tenure.

Hamby said the move to one-year contracts didn’t influence his decision to retire. Yet the timing is good for him -- just not his colleagues, who will be moving to one-year contracts as soon as their current three-year terms expire.

“I think it’s a travesty. I think it’s a terrible thing to do a faculty member,” Hamby said. “My contribution to the college isn’t valued as much as it once was -- that’s what this says to me.”

The American Association of University Professors would probably agree. The group says that faculty members who have served the length of a typical tenure probationary period merit the due process protections of tenure, even if they don't have technically have it. Administrators at Lee note that faculty members there have the right to appeal contract non-renewals. But the professors say that one-year contracts make it that much easier to get rid of an unpopular or outspoken instructors for any alleged policy violation.

Were he younger and staying on at Lee, Hamby said, “I’d pick up and move, or consider it.” He’s done it before: Hamby began a career at Lamar University on one-year contracts, but says he moved to Lee instead, as it provided some sense of employment security.

Citing a common argument against tenure and continuing contracts -- that they don’t exist outside academe -- Hamby said the “business community doesn’t have to deal with academic freedom issues.” Academic freedom is misunderstood, he said, but it's simply “the freedom to teach your content in good faith and not have to be scared of petty reprisal. But with one-year contracts, that safety net is gone.”

Lee says that it’s simply aligning its own policies with many of its peers. At the August board meeting, Brown cited an internal study of 50 state colleges and community college districts. According to that study, 38 have one-year contracts. Four have two-year contracts, seven have three-year contracts and one college has no contracts. Tenure is possible at 11 of the 50 institutions. 

Brown assured faculty members that the change had nothing to do with the college’s past financial crisis, which resulted in it having to take out a $4.8 million loan from a local bank in 2017 to temporarily cover regular expenses, including payroll. As of August, Brown said then, the college was in the strongest financial position he’d seen it in, with steady enrollment and cash reserves at $14 million and growing.

Mark Hall, board chair, said in an interview that flat enrollment amounts to good news in oil country in a strong economy, as student numbers tend to rise and fall inversely with available -- and high-paying -- jobs. Enrollment hovers under 8,000 students.

“I know a kid, well, a 23-year-old, who dropped out of school in seventh grade, and I can’t get him to get a G.E.D. because he’s working on pipeline construction for $100,000 a year,” Hall said. “That’s the reality here."

Hall said that the board voted as it did primarily based on the study of other colleges. Echoing Brown’s comments at the August meeting, Hall also said that administrators recently moved to one-year contracts, and that faculty contracts are now aligned. The president's contract is still for three years, however.

Another faculty member who did not want to be named, citing fear of retaliation -- especially now that contracts last just a year -- said that multiyear contracts and even tenure remain at peer institutions, just not the majority. So the change feels like “More of a way to say, ‘Shut your mouth’” than anything else.

Hall said there’s “always a tension between what you offer faculty and trying to stay financially prudent, and we’ve always tried to say within the top 10 in terms of pay at Lee College.” Faculty members have never been laid off, either, he said, and there is no plan to eliminate positions now. Yet the new contract system provides the college more “flexibility” to respond to various changes. As an example, he cited the possibility of having to carry faculty members through three-year contracts in the event of a closure for a catastrophic hurricane.

Weather events are a very real threat on the Gulf Coast. Asked whether the college could declare financial exigency in such an event, or whether it had any other protections, Hall said he didn't know.

Hamby said the proposal to eliminate division chairs is just as controversial as one-year contracts, in that chairs, unlike deans, are faculty members. Chairs supervise their colleagues to some degree, but they are disciplinary peers who understand the work their fellow instructors do, he said. By contrast, deans serve at the will of the administration.

“If that person [a chair] is not there, in my mind, faculty have no advocate and no voice, and are totally at the whim of administrators."

Veronique Tran, vice president of instruction, and two deans also opposed moving forward with the restructuring plan immediately, according to a letter obtained by faculty members through an open records request. The August letter from Tran to Brown said that faculty and staff members and administrators “have not had the opportunity to provide input,” that national searches for qualified associate deans would take time, and that the change could result in negative publicity for the college.

Tran said that if division chairs are eliminated, then the “burden of managing all departments falls on the two deans while the associate dean search is ongoing.” She also expressed concern about adequate program coordination as required by the college’s regional accreditor, and so proposed the inclusion of program coordinators where appropriate in any plan.

Hamby has served on Lee’s representative Faculty Assembly in some form for most of his time at the college. The campus president is a full member of that body, which has made for a strong tradition of communication and shared governance, he said. And while there were no major confrontations between the faculty and Brown, Brown’s leadership style was guarded.

In particular, Hamby and other instructors said, assembly members were concerned as to how the college fell into the recent financial crisis.

“Personally, I never found that satisfactory answers were given,” Hamby said. Brown could not immediately be reached for comment. The college has since adopted a financial plan with multiple layers of budgetary oversight. 

Villanueva, Lee’s new president, said that the college has “no plans to eliminate faculty chairs.”

“The board determined, prior to my tenure, to provide the fiscal resources to determine the most appropriate organizational structure to achieve our mission,” she said. “To that extent, I am working with the Faculty Assembly president to design new pathways that provide the best-quality education to our students and the community we serve.”

As for the current financial state of the college, Villanueva said that it now has $34 million in unrestricted cash and that an audit recently gave it the highest rating of “unqualified opinion.”

Karen Guthmiller, an instructor of kinesiology and Faculty Assembly president, said she'd asked the board to delay any changes until the arrival of a new president. As for the other proposal, which the board did leave up the new president, she said, “We have no plans to eliminate faculty chairs."

“Our new president supports faculty chair positions” and “made it clear that they are integral to a college’s ability to respond to the needs of its students,” she said in an email. “Dr. Villanueva has repeatedly stated this in her presidential interview, college convocation and our faculty meetings, and I believe her.”

Guthmiller added, “She has consistently stated she will work with the college community to find ways to better support student learning, which will include faculty chairs, and so far her actions have unequivocally shown her to be a person of her word.”

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Five small community colleges in Minnesota plan to merge by 2022 as higher education in the state over all suffers enrollment declines.

The Northeast Higher Education District, which includes Hibbing Community College, Itasca Community College, Mesabi Range College, Rainy River Community College and Vermilion Community College, already shares a president, business services, summer academic programming and more.

While rural community colleges nationally are struggling with enrollment, one advocate says the plan in Minnesota is unique for rural institutions and could be a good model for others to follow suit.

Uniting the colleges under a single accreditation will be the largest change under the merger, according to Mike Raich, interim president of the district and a former dean and provost. Budgets, academic programming and enrollment management systems will also be shared, but sports teams will stay independent.

"The process has been evolutionary," Raich said.

The decision comes as the system tries to right itself against falling enrollments.

Over all, the Minnesota state system has lost about 20 percent of its enrollment over the past decade, according to Bill Maki, interim vice chancellor for finance and facilities at the system. While officials work to improve recruitment and retention, the system's persistence rate has been relatively flat over the past decade.

The majority -- 28 -- of the 37 institutions in the system also showed operating losses last year, but Maki said that is just one measurement, which happens to include noncash items like depreciation of facilities.

Measured on a cash basis, the system is "very stable," he said.

At the Northeast Higher Education District, the enrollment drop has been more precipitous, with a decline in full-time-equivalent students of about 35 percent since 2011.

The main reasons for the decline are the district's rural locations and its demographics, the strong economy, and the low unemployment rate, Maki said.

"It’s tight for our rural schools," said Randy Smith, president of the Rural Community College Alliance. "When we take a chart and list the issues that rural colleges face, financial challenges are always going to be No. 1, and enrollment management is always going to be No. 2."

Smith believes the merger will help the district financially. The district has already successfully balanced sharing services while maintaining the individual institutions' identities, he said, so this could also serve as a good model for other colleges facing similar challenges.

The single accreditation will make the Northeast Higher Education District more efficient, Raich said. While it's doing well financially on a cash basis, he said the enrollment loss has been challenging.

After merging accreditation, staff will have single databases to look at student records, bills and personnel lists, as opposed to having to toggle between five databases. Raich didn't say that the district is planning staff cuts, but rather that it wants to be more efficient with the staff it already has. He added that staffing levels will depend on enrollment, and the district would utilize attrition and retirements rather than layoffs if cuts were necessary.

It will also be easier for students to transfer within the district, and the colleges will no longer be competing with each other for students.

The plan to merge started at the grassroots level, according to Maki, who was previously president of the district. While enrollment and finances played a role, the district also wanted to make the experience easier for students and create closer relationships with employers and the K-12 systems.

"Having five separate accreditations created many internal barriers to move between institutions, so by merging, many of those barriers will be removed," he said.

As far as opposition, Raich said there was "not as much as I would've expected."

While there is concern about maintaining local pride, he said having the district work together through the changes has helped bring people around to the idea of a merger.

"We’ve really come to the realization that we’re talking about a vision for our future," he said. "A vision that we’re stronger together."

Aaron Brown, a full-time speech communications instructor and chair of the academic affairs and standards council at Hibbing Community College, said it "hasn't been as contentious as many thought it might be because it's been coming for a long time."

"The reality is, our declining enrollments have really forced our hand institutionally to figure out a different way of surviving," Brown said. "Because we're already collaborating, all this does is further formalize the arrangement, and it allows us to do things like share students."

Brown is hopeful that the merger will allow the colleges to maintain their existing ratio of full-time instructors to adjuncts.

While faculty members at Hibbing aren't excited about the arrangement, he said, they know it's necessary and that they could either come together to help students or "whine and complain."

It helps that faculty have a good relationship with the current administration, Brown said, and that faculty members have been involved in the process.

Matt Williams, president of the Minnesota State College Faculty union, provided a statement saying, “Obviously, the merger of five schools is a significant change and change of this magnitude brings a range of emotions. We’ve communicated to the Minnesota State System our desire that all members of these campus communities -- faculty, staff, administrators, and even students -- are treated with dignity, respect, and compassion throughout this process.

"Right now there are a lot of questions and uncertainties regarding the implementation of this merger, and we will continue to work to ensure faculty feel supported and their concerns are heard as the path forward comes into focus.”

Sharing resources while maintaining local identities and commitments to the college's local communities will be a key part of the merger's success, Smith said.

Rural colleges tend to shy away from mergers because they don't want to lose their identities, according to Smith, and the rural communities tend to want more independence.

But the financial challenges these colleges are facing "are certainly there, and I don't see them going away any time soon."

"I think other rural communities can take this model and learn from that," Smith said. "The financial challenges are going to be an issue, and [the colleges] are going to have to think about this."

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Wayne State University fired three leaders of the university's press -- including the editor in chief -- on Friday.

The reasons for the dismissals are unclear.

Annie Martin, who had been editor in chief, did not respond to a request for comment.

A statement sent by the university to the press's faculty editorial board, and obtained by The Detroit News, said the decision to let the leaders go was "reached only after careful and deep consideration at every level … We believe, moving forward, our future can be created through leadership and staff collectively committed and open to new ideas, deeper community connectivity."

A statement from the university said, "As has occurred with other long-running and distinguished university presses, the host university, Wayne State, recently considered a new path of support for the press, believing the reporting change will help create a sustainable business model that leads to future successes."

The statement apparently refers to a switch in reporting structure. In the fall, the university press would report to the libraries, not the provost, as had been the case.

The press publishes 35 to 40 books a year and 11 journals. It is known for books on Detroit and Michigan, Jewish studies, film and media studies, African American history and culture, and folklore.

The Detroit News article quoted Kathy Wildfong, who was interim director before retiring in the summer, as saying that presses are built on close relationships between staff members and authors. "I am very concerned that this is a first step in closing or changing in some really profound way what the press is and what it does," Wildfong said. "I'm terribly worried about my former colleagues, both those who are staying and those who've been let go."

Matt Lockwood, a spokesman for the university, said via email to Inside Higher Ed, "There were some personnel moves, but not involving the interim director. Wayne State remains committed to its press and it will continue to operate and publish books as it has for more than 75 years."

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Neal Lester thinks that├ó┬Ç┬Ös a clich├â┬®. The real question is, How do we communicate the value of the humanities without getting bogged down by defining it?

How a Texas State University course on sexuality became a battleground in America’s partisan divide.

A deal between the Watkins College of Art and Belmont University highlights the importance of long-term planning, transparent communication, and common institutional values.

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The Boarding Schools’ Association has launched a new agent certification scheme to help boarding schools ensure they are working with agents who have the ÔÇ£highest standardsÔÇØ in recruitment, safeguarding and student placement.

As part of the scheme, agents will receive regular updates from BSA on training, changes to legislation (including UKVI). They will also sign up to a code of conduct. 

ÔÇ£By introducing a certified scheme we aim to provide reassurance and a kitemark of excellence to studentsÔÇØ

BSA is the largest association of boarding schools in the world and represents more than 600 independent and state boarding schools, over 500 of which are based in the UK. 

ÔÇ£The BSA Certified Agent Scheme has been designed for education consultants and agents who are seeking valuable accreditation and a kitemark of quality,ÔÇØ said Aileen Kane, chief operating officer at BSA.┬á

ÔÇ£In addition to this, the scheme provides unrivalled access to every UK boarding school and the greater BSA membership.┬á

ÔÇ£Safeguarding is the number one priority for all boarding schools, and we designed the BSA Certified Agent Scheme with this in mind.

ÔÇ£By introducing a certified scheme we aim to provide reassurance and a kitemark of excellence to students coming to study at our schools,ÔÇØ she added.

Kane explained that BSA certification will provide agents with the necessary tools and information required to be the ÔÇ£best of the bestÔÇØ when it comes to student recruitment.┬á

ÔÇ£BSA will provide training and updates on UKVI, boarding school standards and safeguarding legislation. Our schools will also benefit from the scheme as it will provide a definitive list of reliable, well-trained and assessed agents with which to partner,ÔÇØ she added.┬á

The BSA code of conduct has 17 points that agents are required to follow. These rules include agencies having to have a good knowledge of the visa application process and an ability to provide support with UKVI paperwork. 

The rules also require agents to ensure that any overseas pupil introduced to a school has a guardian arrangement in place with the UK who will take responsibility for the pupil during exeats and other holidays and organise or facilitate travel arrangements to and from the school.

In 2019, Robin Fletcher, chief executive at the BSA, argued for a review of the Department for EducationÔÇÖs minimum standards for boarding schools.┬á

ÔÇ£At the moment, schools do not have to get involved directly in [the] guardianship area, and a lot of schools do not, and leave it to parents to get a guardian.┬á

ÔÇ£Not all schools even recommend using an AEGIS accredited guardian,ÔÇØ he told delegates at the British Association of Independent Schools with International Students conference in Birmingham.

The BSA Certified Agent Scheme costs £3,000 to register plus £250 membership per year, which includes registration for three years and a host of other benefits.

The post BSA launches certified agent scheme appeared first on The PIE News.

Study abroad organiser CISAustralia,┬áthe Australian branch of CIS Abroad, has introduced the ‘Green Book’ initiative to inform students as to how they help combat climate change while studying overseas.

The initiative aims to help students to think about how they can reduce their carbon footprint due to the high contribution that travel makes to carbon emissions.

ÔÇ£We have tried to invent a tool where students can go overseas with minimal impact”

ÔÇ£We have tried to invent a tool where students can go overseas, with minimal impact, learn about local environmental challenges and even further immerse themselves in the local culture,ÔÇØ founder and executive director of┬áCISAustralia, Brad Dorahy, said in a statement.

The Green Book initiative contains facts, figures and tips to help educate students going abroad and provides further information on how they can continue to make a positive impact after they return home.

He told The PIE News: ÔÇ£we workshopped the idea and knew we needed something as our customers were really wanting to engage with the environment and learn more about it”.

He said the initiative has been greatly received with partner universities now including it in their pre-departure material along with professional bodies in both the US and UK wanting to learn more about it.

ÔÇ£Climate systems are changing rapidly as a result of human activity, primarily from burning fossil fuels. Record high temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events are occurring in Australia and all around the world,ÔÇØ Dorahy stated.

He further stressed that ÔÇ£much of the worldÔÇÖs progress has been powered by economic growth which has come with a heavy environmental price tag attached and we are now stretching the earthÔÇÖs resources to the breaking pointÔÇØ.

He also emphasised that while the small steps people make may not seem like they have a great impact, ÔÇ£the satisfaction of knowing you are making a differenceÔÇØ will encourage people to continue making those small changes.

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One in four private, nonprofit US college board members believes their institution is spending “too little time” recruiting international students, while around 20% of public institution trustees say the same, according to a report from┬áthe Association of Governing Boards┬áof Universities and Colleges.

Featuring a survey of 919 AGB members, the report found that┬áover two-thirds of trustees believe recent changes to US immigration laws have had “some impact on the number of international students enrolled at their institution or system”.

It showed that 22% reported a “major impact”, while around 50% of trustees reported a “minor impact” from the policy shifts on international student enrolment.

“I expect that we will see renewed efforts to recruit international students, although it will be more difficult”

Additionally, the report also revealed that trustees are increasingly showing concern about the future of the US higher education sector.

Around 85% of those surveyed said that they had concerns in 2019 ÔÇô up from 73% in 2018 ÔÇô with┬áfinancial sustainability and price for students and their families as the most pressing areas.

Meanwhile, about a quarter of private nonprofit board members said “too little time” is spend recruiting international students, while 20% of public institution trustees said the same.

But vice president/ vice provost of International Affairs at Lehigh University in┬áPennsylvania,┬áCheryl Matherly, said that suggesting too little time is being spent recruiting international students┬á“oversimplifies the issue”.

She reminded that between 2001ÔÇô2018, the number of internationally mobile students increased from┬á2.1 million to 5 million globally, while the US’s share declined from┬á28% to 21%.

Matherly told The PIE  that factors contributing to the stagnation of international student enrolments in US institutions include visa application delays, the uncertainty of the political climate, rising costs of US college and university tuition, more competition with other countries, and concern for physical safety in the country.

In a competitive market, the US will not “reverse this trend by simply┬áspending more time on recruiting without considering larger forces reshaping┬áthe global higher education┬álandscape”, she explained.

“It is well known that the enrolment of international students at US universities bailed out many institutions, especially public institutions, after the 2008 recession,” Matherly continued.

“However, given the issues affecting international students’ decisions regarding study in the US, it is unlikely that we could depend upon this in the next downturn,” she said, adding that she was surprised the ABG report did not mention the “looming┬ádemographic cliff” that is coming in 2025.

“The number of students attending college is projected to crater between 2025 and 2029 by 15%, and this is going to put much more pressure on institutions to find creative ways to fill empty seats,”┬áMatherly noted.

“I expect that we will see renewed efforts to recruit international students, although it will be more difficult than in the past.”

She said that US institutions that find successful ways to stabilise enrolments,┬áincluding international student enrolments, will “be best prepared for this period ahead”.

Associate vice provost for international education at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, David Di Maria, argued that too little time is spent engaging in “strategic international recruitment”, rather than┬árecruiting international students.

He cited a 2018 NAFSA survey that revealed that 32% of respondents indicated that their institution spent less than US$10,000 annually on international recruitment travel.

“Most institutions lack a campus-wide international enrolment management plan ÔÇô 0nly 18% according to the NAFSA survey,” Di Maria told┬áThe PIE.

“Having no plan and no resources dedicated to international recruitment makes an institution highly vulnerable to external factors, such as the rise and fall of government scholarship programs.”

Di Maria added that STEM institutions, in particular, are reliant on international students for funding.

Both international and domestic students are concerned about finding a job post-graduation, and there is pressure for institutions to demonstrate the ROI of their degrees, Matherly at LU indicated ÔÇô a sentiment echoed by┬áDi Maria.

“In the US, we have a situation where the cost of education continues to rise while the return ÔÇô such as practical training programs and post-graduation work opportunities ÔÇô is perceived to be less certain,”┬áhe noted.

“Having no resources dedicated to international recruitment makes an institution highly vulnerable”

The AGB report also found that only 35% of respondents agree that US college graduates have the skills they need to be competitive in the global economy.

With only around 10% of US undergraduates participating in an education abroad experience before they graduate, it is more pressing to ensure that they interact with international students in the country, Di Maria said.

“We canÔÇÖt rely on outbound mobility alone to prepare our graduates to succeed in the global economy.

“International students bring unique perspectives to our classrooms, laboratories and communities. In effect… they help make global learning more accessible to all,” he added.

Both Matherly and Di Maria contend that US institutions should consider pushing ahead transnational education strategies, going forward.

Di Maria said he implored US institutions to “explore models for offering academic programs abroad via transnational education”, as by doing so, he believes colleges would help to deal with two barriers to international student enrolment: cost and visa denials.

“I am expecting that we will see more US institutions offering expanded online programs, degrees offered outside the US, and other┬áhybrid options, in an effort to deliver a high quality US degree at a lower price point,” Matherly told The PIE.

“US higher education is very complex, and leadership is grappling with a number of issues that are reshaping the industry in┬ávery significant ways,” she said, adding, “‘business as usual’ is not an option.”

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Higher education lobbyists are concerned that colleges and universities could be disqualified from getting millions of dollars in federal grants under a draft Trump administration rule, which is aimed at increasing the legal rights of campus religious groups to be able to exclude gay students and others.

Colleges could face substantial penalties under the proposal, said Terry Hartle, the American Council on Education’s senior vice president for government and public affairs.

“Like any proposed rule, it’s as serious as a heart attack,” he said. “If legally binding requirements are going to be imposed on a very diverse industry, we want to make sure we understand the proposal in advance.”

In addition, Americans United for Separation of Church and State described the proposal as a way to sidestep a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the right of colleges to require student groups be open to all types of people in order to be recognized or receive funding.

Despite that ruling, the draft rule would bar higher education institutions from denying religious student organizations the same rights, benefits and privileges provided to nonreligious student groups, based on their "beliefs, practices, policies, speech, membership standards or leadership standards."

In other words, a college couldn’t withhold recognition or funding from a student group because -- based on the group's religious beliefs -- it bars LGBTQ students from joining or holding leadership positions, said Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

In addition, Cohn said, public colleges could lose Education Department grants for refusing to recognize a group because of membership restrictions. That’s because the draft rule would disqualify institutions from being eligible to receive grants, except federal student loans, if they treat religious student groups differently from secular groups.

Even if an institution were to demand that all student groups, religious or not, be open to all people, Cohn said it would be deemed discriminatory toward religious groups under the rule. The ability to set membership rules tends to be more important to these campus organizations than to secular groups, Cohn said.

"Forcing a chess club to accept everyone who wants to join or run for office doesn’t compromise a chess club’s mission in the same way," said Cohn. "Applying that rule to a chapter of Hillel, for example, could undermine the group’s identity as a Jewish organization."

Colleges and universities in particular could find their federal funding threatened if the only groups they do not recognize are religious ones, said Kim Colby, director of the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom.

Public colleges also would be disqualified from funding under the proposed rule if they are found by the courts to have violated First Amendment rights, Cohn said, such as by disciplining a faculty member for making controversial comments.

The department unveiled the draft rule last month in part to implement an executive order President Trump signed in March 2019 on “Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities.” Trump’s order aimed “to avoid creating environments that stifle competing perspectives, thereby potentially impeding beneficial research and undermining learning.”

Hartle said other agencies covered by the order that provide research grants to universities could follow suit, including the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services. The Education Department is the first to issue a proposed rule.

Possible Conflicts With State Laws

The rule comes amid a debate over whether religious student groups should be allowed to get recognition, receive funding and use publicly funded college facilities if they exclude groups of people. Many colleges have an “all comers” nondiscrimination policy requiring recognized groups to be open to anyone.

However, in one case, the Christian Legal Society’s chapter at the University of California, Berkeley's Hastings College of the Law sued the university after it was denied recognition based on a "statement of faith" that chapters have to agree to, including that sexual activity should not occur outside marriage between a man and a woman. The law school believed that requirement would exclude people from the group who are gay or have different beliefs.

A federal judge last year also ruled in favor of a campus group called Business Leaders in Christ, which sued the University of Iowa for not granting it recognition after it wouldn’t allow a gay student to be vice president.

Taking the side of religious groups, the department said the draft rule is intended to “restore religious liberty and prevent discrimination against faith-based organizations and to act in a manner consistent with our obligation to be neutral in matters of religion.”

To its supporters, the rule would keep colleges from preventing groups from being able to set standards in the same way an environmental group would want to require that its president believe that climate change is real, Colby said.

Cohn said the rule could have a chilling effect on campuses.

“Rather than end discrimination, these policies perversely chill the ability of students who want to form and run groups organized around sincerely-held beliefs to do so,” said Cohn in an email. “A better way to promote diversity and inclusion is to foster an environment where a diverse array of student organizations are part of the campus community and where the barrier to creating new belief-based student groups is low.”

But a concern, said Hartle, is that the draft rule could conflict with laws in some states and the Supreme Court decision.

Some states have antidiscrimination laws, so upholding them could mean violating the department's rule and a potential loss of federal funding. Not following the state law, meanwhile, could open the institutions to sanctions or civil suits.

“Universities shouldn’t be in a situation where they are caught between federal and state law,” he said.

In addition, the rule appears to run contrary to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hastings Law School suit, which found that it was reasonable for Berkeley to withhold recognition of the Christian student group.

Hartle noted that the draft rule doesn't mention Supreme Court ruling.

"If we are in fact reading it correctly, the proposed rule puts public universities in an untenable spot," he said, "caught between a Supreme Court decision that gives schools a specific authority and an executive branch regulation that takes it away."

Dena Sher, assistant director for public policy at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said she thought the administration's goal was to do an “end run” around the court’s decision to allow colleges to set antidiscrimination policies.

“In that case, the Supreme Court said the nondiscrimination policies are entirely permissible,” Sher said in a statement. “Yet these proposed rules would severely punish public colleges and universities -- and their students -- for doing precisely what the Supreme Court held that they have the right to do.”

Hartle and Craig Lindwarm, vice president of congressional and governmental affairs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, said their groups are still researching the proposal before submitting comments before a Feb. 18 deadline.

Lindwarm said First Amendment rights are “fundamental” to public universities, and that these disputes should be settled in the courts. Instead, Lindwarm said, the threat of potentially losing federal funding if an institution were to lose a lawsuit would raise the stakes for colleges. “It will do nothing more than force an increase in spending on lawyers when we want to invest more on students,” he said.

The proposed rule excludes private colleges and universities from its portions dealing with student groups but requires them to follow its “stated institutional policies regarding freedom of speech, including academic freedom” to be eligible for federal grants.

“Freedom of expression is a core value for private, nonprofit institutions of higher education, however, this proposal is likely to provide inappropriate incentives for litigants to file frivolous lawsuits,” Jody Feder, director of accountability and regulatory affairs for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said in a statement. “Given the variation in how courts in different jurisdictions handle free speech claims, we’re also worried that the proposed rule could lead to inconsistent findings and sanctions against institutions for the same conduct.”

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Ashley-Shae Benton, a student at the University of Louisville, was “stunned” to hear about an anti-gay incident that recently occurred on campus. It was not something she expected at a university known for being welcoming of people of all sexual identities.

“Since the time I’ve gotten here, Louisville has preached about inclusivity,” said Benton, a senior who came out as lesbian four years ago. “Students are prideful about being out in their sexuality. Coming to Louisville was my saving grace. I was able to come out and be myself. But now it makes me question whether I should be out.”

Benton is not the only student worried since a fellow student entered a classroom where an Introduction to LGBTQ Studies course is taught and placed a pamphlet equating homosexuality with sin on each desk. The pamphlet was titled “God and Sexuality,” said Charlotte Haydon, a student in the class. The more than 30-page pamphlet, published by the Christian organization Living Waters, starts off by describing a woman locked in a car that is sitting on train tracks and about to be hit by an oncoming train and likens the dangerous scenario to being gay or “sympathetic toward homosexuality,” reported The Courier Journal, a Kentucky newspaper.

“I want to convince you that you are sitting in a car on a railroad track with a train coming, and you don’t know it,” the pamphlet said.

The young man who left the pamphlets, was not enrolled in the course and arrived 20 minutes before the start of the class to distribute the pamphlets. The professor who teaches the course said he then "lurked outside" in the hall once the class began, The Courier Journal reported. The entire episode left many LGBTQ students in the class and on campus feeling unsettled and unsafe, especially after the university said the student was within his rights when he visited the classroom to distribute the literature and could not be legally prevented from returning and doing the same thing again.ÔÇï

Haydon, a first-year transfer student and trans woman, said she and others in the class felt targeted and uncomfortable. She later learned that the student waited outside the classroom while it was in session and hid in a spot where he could not be seen by the students but could see them. Haydon believes such behavior constitutes stalking.

“So far we haven’t seen a whole lot about what that inclusivity means because we weren’t able to take action against a student who was invalidating our existence,” Haydon said. “At the moment, it’s just one of those things that Louisville is going to have to stand by or it’s going to lose its credibility.”

Under Kentucky law and university policy, students cannot be prevented from entering classrooms and expressing their free speech rights, unless a class is in session and as long as they are not disrupting a class, said John Karman III, the university's director of media relations.

The Dean of Students' office has spoken with the student, whom the university did not name, and determined he made no threats and did not “exhibit any violent behavior” or “express the wish to harm anyone,” Karman said.

"According to our attorneys, the pamphlets he was distributing did not qualify as hate speech," Karman said. "He’s expressing his First Amendment rights, and he’s allowed to leave the literature."

Still, university administrators decided to place a police officer outside the classroom where the Introduction to LGBTQ Studies course is taught for the remainder of the semester, he said.

Karman said Louisville's policy follows a Kentucky campus free speech law enacted in 2019 that broadly protects the First Amendment rights of faculty members and students. Under the law, which mirrors several other campus free speech laws enacted by various states over the last four years, the university and other public institutions in the state are required to guarantee that the “free exchange of ideas is not suppressed because an idea put forth is considered by some or even most of the members of the institution’s community to be offensive, unwise, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, or radical,” the law states.

The legislation outlaws “free speech zones” on campuses, prohibits viewpoint discrimination against invited speakers and in the fees associated with bringing speakers to the campus, and allows “spontaneous outdoor assemblies or outdoor distribution of literature” without a permit. The law does not explicitly discuss assembly or distribution of materials inside institutional buildings, but it does mention free classroom expression in reference to academic assignments and discussion.

The Kentucky Family Foundation, a Judeo-Christian organization, was supportive of the law when it passed through the state Legislature last spring, said Martin Cothran, a spokesman for the foundation. He said foundation members are at “at odds” with many political positions held by the LGBTQ community and believe marriage should be between men and women.

“We are concerned about this idea that if you don’t agree with gay rights groups, that your opinion should somehow be restricted in some way,” Cothran said. “This has been a problem at the University of Louisville for a number of years -- there’s safe spaces for gays who are celebrated and no safe spaces for conservatives who are in many cases ridiculed.”

More than 17 states have enacted similar laws to reinforce First Amendment rights on college campuses, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, a civil liberties watchdog organization.

But the laws should not prevent professors from being able to lead and moderate class discussions without outside interruption, said Adam Steinbaugh, director of FIRE’s individual rights defense program.

“To the extent that the university is telling students they cannot obstruct a class, that is not objectionable,” Steinbaugh said. “I think if they are outside of a classroom, as long as they are not preventing coming or going from the class, I think they can be allowed to do so, so long as that is a non-disruptive and viewpoint-neutral policy.”

If the student continues to repeatedly target students who clearly do not want to interact with him, it could eventually be considered harassment, in which case the university could respond, Steinbaugh said.

“Once or twice does not amount to hostile harassment under the law, and absent a hostile environment, the university cannot punish someone for their speech,” Steinbaugh said. “If he’s preventing students from learning, that would be cause for the university to do something.”

Louisville’s Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities does say students and organizations “must not in any way interfere with the proper functioning of the university” and that the university “reserves the right to make reasonable restrictions as to time, place, and manner of the student demonstrations.”

“While the student’s actions caused concern among the students and faculty in the classroom, he apparently followed the law and university policy when distributing the literature,” Karman said in a statement. “The university values diversity in all its forms, including diversity of opinion. That said, student safety is our top priority. We will continue to monitor the situation and will take steps to ensure an environment that supports the highest level of learning.”

That's not how some students and faculty see things. Ricky Jones, chair of the Pan-African studies department, wrote in an opinion piece for The Courier Journal that Louisville “made the decision to interpret” the state and university policy in a way “that did not cast the student’s behavior as menacing, harassing or impinging upon other students’ ability to learn in peace.”

Jones, who did not reply to requests for comment, wrote: “U of L has made it clear that it is more concerned with a possible lawsuit from the student or conservative backlash than the protection of a faculty member and rattled students who are being targeted and harassed because of their sexual orientation.” 

Some students, especially those in the LGBTQ community who now question their safety on campus, are not satisfied with the “neutral standpoint” the university has taken on the issue, Benton said.

“Today it could be propaganda, and tomorrow it could be violence,” she said.

Haydon said the incident has disrupted the LGBTQ Studies class, which has not been able to return to regular coursework since the incident occurred.

“The distinguishing feature is if he was handing things out on campus, he didn’t have the motivation to seek people out,” Haydon said. “He was willing to spread hate speech and actively seek groups of people out that he doesn’t agree with on a fundamental and unfounded basis.”

University president Neeli Bendapudi and other administrators met with students and Professor Kaila Story, who teaches the course, during their class time on Feb. 6 and explained why the university was limited legally in how it could respond to the incident, Haydon said. Story did not respond to requests for comment.

“I can understand the standpoint. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I can understand that that’s the way it is. It speaks a lot to the state of the country,” Haydon said. “It prompts a discussion on what we can do as a university, as a community, to address the needs of people who are targeted by hate speech.”

Students suggested to Bendapudi a few ways to improve inclusion of the LGBTQ community on campus, including not making the meeting times and location of LGBTQ studies courses public, and mandating a freshman course on the LGBTQ community, Haydon said.

“She seemed really open and receptive to these ideas, and I really hope these are followed through on,” Haydon said. “These are really good solutions -- the issue is having them enacted.”

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Nursing assistant certification can get students through a program and into a job in a few weeks. But the value of those certificates tends to be low, and there's no clear path to advancement, according to health-care and workforce experts.

While the work certified nursing assistants, or CNAs, do is critical, the reality of the job can make it undesirable. In many cases, CNAs are paid barely more than minimum wage. Nationally, the typical wage for a CNA in 2018 was $13.72 per hour, which comes out to less than $30,000 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"One solution to that problem is to help people get out of those jobs," said Michelle Van Noy, associate director of the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University. "But that doesn't affect the problem itself."

Some health-care programs are trying to tackle this issue and others with special pathways, articulation partnerships and intermediate certificates. These options can help students who earn CNAs from getting stuck in low-paying jobs while not requiring them to spend two, four or even more years in college to receive a nursing degree when that time commitment might not be plausible for everyone.

Bergen Community College in New Jersey received a $15 million Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant to build a health professionals consortium. With those funds, the college was able to let noncredit certificate courses be counted as credits if the students wanted to continue their education in health care, according to Susan Callahan Barnard, dean of health professions at the college.

While the credits may just fill elective requirements for nursing assistants pursuing a registered nursing, or R.N., degree, that's better than nothing. The state also recognizes patient care technicians, which not every state does. That position can be a step up from earning a CNA in terms of pay.

The College of Health Care Professions in Houston switched to a stackable model that lets students move up the pay scale in their careers while furthering their education. Students can start by earning certificates in nine months, sometimes doubling their salaries.

But the college doesn't offer a nursing assistant certificate, said Eric Bing, CEO of the college.

"The CNA program is a super-short program where you’re just learning the very basics," Bing said. "There’s just not a lot there."

Instead, the college offers stackable pathways where it makes more sense. For example, a student can get a radiology certificate, then move on to become a technician, then get a radiology bachelor's degree or go the business route and open an urgent care center.

For "adult learners that have such complicated lives, the earn-and-learn method is such a great way to move up," Bing said.

There's a caveat: the college "spent a tremendous amount of time and money in developing programs and making sure pieces work."

Some, however, believe that ladders could be built out of CNA programs.

Paul Osterman, co-director of the Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of "Who Will Care for Us?" on the workforce for long-term care, said it's unrealistic to think that nursing assistants can easily become registered nurses because of the time needed to achieve the latter. But, he said, there are jobs in different settings that could naturally follow from a CNA position, like patient care technicians and phlebotomists.

Others believe the system needs to be taken apart. Roy Swift, executive director of Workcred, a not-for-profit aimed at evaluating the quality and effectiveness of workforce credentials, believes health-care programs need "more transparent pathways and mapping and latticing." While CNAs could move on to other programs or certifications that are better paying, "that mapping and latticing is not clear to people, and there are gaps."

Swift believes competency-based learning could help this issue. If programs were built as pathways to ensure there were no gaps between certifications, and the education was based on competencies of skills rather than checking boxes on certain classes, it would be easier for students to move through programs and switch institutions.

Right now, institutions often don't trust each other's programs, Swift said, so articulation between health-care programs can be difficult.

Cheryl Feldman is executive director of the District 1199C Training and Upgrading Fund, a Philadelphia labor management partnership created by bargaining agreements between health-care facilities and the local affiliate of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees. The fund's mission is to provide workers access to career pathways through education and training and to build the region's workforce. Colleges in Feldman's area make some articulation easier, she said. It's not the case in every city or every state.

"It depends on the region as to what the opportunities are," Feldman said. In Philadelphia, the licensed practical nursing, or L.P.N., program is a technical degree not for college credit. But the Community College of Philadelphia will waive the first semester of registered nursing courses for L.P.N.s who achieved a certain grade point average in their programs.

Feldman said she believes it should be easier to roll time spent in lower-level health programs into further education. But "making that happen is another challenge," she said.

"I don’t know if it’s doable, because every state has its own state board of nursing," she said. "So how do you align all of that nationally?"

Swift said it will take time to make the changes he believes are necessary. But he thinks the industry will need to adapt eventually.

"A lot of these occupations are going to change drastically because of how we change health care," he said. For example, as the industry has more of a need for home health aides and community health workers, those workers will need to be competent in several skills taken from different health-care professions. But they won't necessarily need to be experts in any one area.

One certain thing is the nation will need workers like CNAs in the near future.

"We desperately need CNAs, and we also need home health aides," Osterman said. "There’s going to be a big increasing demand for long-term care as baby boomers get older."

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A leading German university has been plunged into scandal after it emerged that it had signed a contract binding it to abide by Chinese law while accepting hundreds of thousands of euros from China to set up a professorship to establish a Chinese-teacher training program.

German lawmakers have criticized the Free University of Berlin (FU) over the terms, which critics fear give the Chinese government leverage to prevent teaching about subjects such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and Tibet.

The contract, obtained by the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel, allows the Chinese side to reduce or halt funding if any element of the program contravenes Chinese law.

Other clauses also place the FU at the mercy of political pressure from China, critics argue. Each year, Hanban -- the agency that runs controversial Confucius Institutes in Western universities and is the contractual partner of the FU -- is allowed to revoke the agreement at its discretion, according to Tagesspiegel. If the FU wants to end the agreement, however, the conditions are more onerous.

The revelations have drawn condemnation from some German lawmakers. “The interference of China at FU Berlin clearly shows how China envisages ‘cooperation’ with our educational institutions. Independence of science is one of the most important freedoms and must be guaranteed,” tweeted Renata Alt, a federal parliamentarian for the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Jens Brandenburg, another FDP lawmaker, tweeted that the deal bound the FU into a “tight corset.”

“With this agreement, the FU submits to Chinese laws and Chinese jurisdiction,” he said, which threatens the freedom of teaching and research at the institution.

Pressure had been growing on the FU even before these latest revelations. On Jan. 20, a group of FU alumni signed a joint letter expressing grave concerns about the university’s academic independence.

The arrangement was “untenable,” the letter said, because it meant that it was impossible to rule out Chinese Communist Party influence over teaching content at the FU. One signatory, David Missal, a Sinologist expelled from China in 2018, said the only acceptable way forward now was to cancel the contract.

Berlin’s Senate has also said it will investigate the contract, which is worth almost 500,000 euros ($551,000) over five years, and is designed to train up to 20 Chinese teachers a year.

It has also emerged that the Federal Ministry of Education and Research had concerns about the arrangement going back as far as 2018.

Critics have also voiced concerns about the language that the FU has used to defend the agreement. In a response to Tagesspiegel, the university said that forbidden topics in China, such as the “incidents of 1989,” would still be included in teaching. Some considered such terms to be an overly detached and neutral way of describing the killing of demonstrators.

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• F. King Alexander, president of Louisiana State University, has been appointed president of Oregon State University.
• Marc C. Conner, provost of Washington and Lee University, in Virginia, has been named president of Skidmore College, in New York.
• Reginald DesRoches, dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University, in Texas, has been selected as provost there.
• Steve Gammon, dean of the College of Letters, Sciences and Professional Studies at Montana Technological University, has been promoted to provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs there.
• Kevin M. Guskiewicz, interim chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been named to the job on a permanent basis.
• Timothy Sherwood, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Oakland Community College, in Michigan, has been named vice president for academic affairs at Harford Community College, in Maryland.
• Neil Terry, dean of the Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business at West Texas A&M University, has been promoted to executive vice president and provost there.
• Willie L. Todd Jr., provost and vice president for academic affairs at Wiley College, in Texas, has been chosen as president of Denmark Technical College, in South Carolina.
• Bentley Wallace, director of business and transportation technology at Arkansas State University Newport, has been appointed president of South Arkansas Community College.

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Campuses, with their treasure-trove of data, are often overmatched by hackers. But education and broader responsibility can help bolster security.

Campuses, with their treasure-trove of data, are often overmatched by hackers. But education and broader responsibility can help bolster security.

When a marginalized group sensed danger, it demanded action. Administrators said the law limited their options.

The incident is the latest in a series of attempts to influence student-government elections in recent years.