‘Education deserts’ are a staggering problem

Yahoo! Finance 22 February 2020

It’s one thing to not be able to afford a college education. It’s an entirely different issue altogether when you don’t even have a college around you, writes Aarthi Swaminathan for Yahoo! Finance.

A recent report from Jain Family Institute (JFI) reveals that access to college isn’t just about the cost of college. Physical access to public higher education institutions across America has also been highly unequal. Specifically, regions in America’s West have little to no access to an institution of higher education, compared to the East Coast. Laura Beamer, higher education finance project lead at JFI and one of the two authors of the study, told Yahoo Finance: “Though financial access is extremely important, geographic access is also a very important piece of this dialogue and should be talked about more.” The unequal access has wide-ranging implications for prospective students, most of them negative.

Parts of the US where there is “little to no access” to a higher education institution “are prime hunting grounds for for-profit institutions”, the authors said. The for-profit higher education sector has seen tremendous growth since the financial crisis. In 2016, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York noted that enrolment at for-profit higher education schools had “skyrocketed” as the country emerged out of the Great Recession. For-profit colleges have also been known to saddle graduates with high levels of student debt, and in some cases, provide low-quality education with false promises of job placement.
Full report on the Yahoo! Finance site

Receive email updates from UWN

Global newsletters    Africa newsletters    Other
    (other includes related events and webinars)

Data will be processed according to our standard terms & conditions.

Research focuses on production of jet fuel from halophytes

UAE University staff

With an eye to developing a clean, alternative aviation fuel to reduce carbon emissions, researchers at the United Arab Emirates University have been focusing on the production of jet fuel from sustainable resources such as halophytes, which are salt-tolerant plants that could be cultivated on a wider scale in the region’s coastal areas.

The value of being human: How teachers can work alongside AI

Michael Milligan

Artificial intelligence is now a part of our evolution in technology and teachers need to be encouraged to find ways to bring AI into the classroom and have students use it in a way that is beneficial to them in the long term.

Ground-breaking research on seawater biodesalination

UAE University staff

As water scarcity reaches critical levels globally, a research team at the United Arab Emirates University seeks to revolutionise seawater desalination practices, offering a path to mitigate water scarcity while championing environmental preservation.