Education News

MPR News keeps track of the latest education news in Minnesota so you can understand the events shaping the future of learning and how it impacts students at any level.

Stay informed about local education events, policies and more happening in schools and colleges across Minnesota.

Nice Ride coming to St. Paul college campuses
Students at the St. Paul campuses of the University of St. Thomas, Macalester College, Hamline and Concordia universities will soon have access to the Nice Ride bike rental system, now that the program is spreading from Minneapolis to St. Paul this summer, my old colleague Fred Melo at the Pioneer Press reports. (Nice Ride also…
Why are so many students still failing online?
Rob Jenkins, associate professor of English at Georgia Perimeter College, writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education that it’s time colleges really analyze the ups and downs of online education — and not just blindly use online courses as a cash cow. Considering the “abysmal” success rate of such courses, he writes, something is way…
Daily: Bruininks' legislative efforts too little, too late
Just as MnSCU Chancellor James McCormick has been hit by a newspaper editorial on his way out, so has University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks — but he’s got the student paper after him. The Minnesota Daily says he accepted years of tuition cuts too readily, and that his recent “I’m hot as hell about…
Moving home: When college grads face uncertain futures
In it’s big piece, “Moving Home: When College Grads Face Uncertain Futures,” The Huffington Post looks at college grads and what they’re going through to cope with crushing debt and a poor job market. It profiles art history grad Sabrina Malik, who through a year and a half of futile searching, has been doing odd…
$100,000 To Forgo College? The Thiel Foundation today named the first winners of its controversial “20 Under 20” fellowship program, which hands young people $100,000 to pursue entrepreneurial ideas rather than a university education. It’s a limited program designed to showcase a bigger — and for many, a troubling — idea: That higher education is…
Gov. Mark Dayton on Wednesday directed the state's education department to apply for the federal "Race to the Top" program, just hours after the Obama administration announced new funding for the initiative. Minnesota lost out on a previous round of competition for the funds.
In the lull after Dayton’s veto of the higher-education bill, I thought I’d give you the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) roundup of other legislation that would affect the system. You can find this on MnSCU’s nifty Friends Action Network blog (bold type mine): Lawmakers passed some legislation that affects the Minnesota State Colleges…
How problematic is stadium drinking?
The bill that would have allowed the U to sell alcohol in selected seats has essentially died, since it was not taken up by the Senate higher-education committee. But I thought of it and the whole University of Minnesota’s stadium-alcohol-sales flap when I read this Chicago Sun-Times piece on the prevalence of problem drunks —…
Just putting this out there. The Washington Post writes about a recent report by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, run by libertarian/conservative Richard Vedder — a controversial figure among academics. Post writer Daniel de Vise says this one’s sure to rile them up: Twenty percent of faculty at the University of Texas-Austin teach…
This just in from St. John’s University: May 25, 2011 Dear Members of the Saint John’s and Saint Benedict’s Communities, With the close of this academic year, I will have completed my second year as president of Saint John’s University and one additional year remains on my three-year appointment.  After much reflection, I have decided…