From Inside Higher Ed

☞
March 28: Inexorable March to a Part-Time Faculty

New data from the U.S. Education Department confirm what faculty leaders increasingly bemoan: The full-time, tenure-track faculty member is becoming an endangered species in American higher education.

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that of the 1,314,506 faculty members at colleges that award federal financial aid in fall 2005, 624,753, or 47.5 percent, were in part-time positions. That represents an increase in number and proportion from 2003, the last full survey of institutions, when 543,137 of the 1,173,556 professors (or 46.3 percent) at degree-granting institutions were part timers….

March 29: Portrait of the Occupational Student:

…A report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Education Department attempts to provide more information about the subset of college students — one that is more diverse and disadvantaged than students on average — that is seeking occupational training.

… The group was predominantly female (57 percent), and had higher rates of underrepresented minority groups than other sectors do: 16 of the students are black and 9 percent are Hispanic. The average age of these students when they started their programs was 24.

…Generally, students seeking certificates or associate degrees are less likely than are those seeking a four-year degree to complete their programs — whether the credential they are seeking is vocational or academic. And the new study offers additional confirmation.

…The top reasons cited by those who left their programs were: job or financial demands, family demands and moving to another city or state. In some cases, people citing these reasons did not abandon their quest for a credential but enrolled in less demanding programs.

March 29: Ohio U revokes degree:

Ohio University announced Wednesday that it has revoked the master’s degree of a former student in mechanical engineering, having concluded that the student’s thesis contained plagiarism. The action is the first degree revocation coming out of an investigation into numerous theses, which was prompted by another former student’s charges of widespread plagiarism in the department.

March 28: Distance ed not so distant:

In theory, distance education is supposed to open up an era when all students have a range of options not limited by geography. But a new report from Eduventures finds that most distance students enroll at distance programs run by institutions in their own geographic regions, and that more than a third of these students take online courses offered by an institution within a 50-mile radius.