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Comparative data on academic freedom has been hard to come by, but a new index released Thursday assigns ratings to countries based on how free scholars are to teach and research.

The index relies on expert assessments of five measures related to freedom to research and teach, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, institutional autonomy, campus integrity (defined as the degree to which campuses are free from politically motivated surveillance or security-related infringements), and freedom of academic, cultural and political expression.

“We had two different objectives. One was an academic objective and another one more policy/advocacy related,” said Katrin Kinzelbach, a professor of political science at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, in Germany, and one of the developers of the Academic Freedom Index. The index, which goes by the abbreviation AFi, is a collaborative effort by FAU; the Global Public Policy Institute, a Berlin-based think tank; the Scholars at Risk Network, a New York-based organization that monitors academic freedom conditions and assists threatened scholars; and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, which is based at the University of Gothenberg, in Sweden.

From an academic point of view, Kinzelbach said the research team wanted to move beyond incident-tracking data -- which typically focuses on discrete events that constitute academic freedom violations -- to understand conditions for academic freedom more broadly, “not just violations but to understand improvements.”

The second objective is more advocacy-related. A paper describing the index and findings outlines how the data can be used by universities, governments, individual students and researchers, and others -- including major university rankers, which do not currently factor academic freedom into their rankings. Universities in China in particular have climbed up rankings tables quickly even as many scholars have raised concerns about deteriorating academic freedom conditions.

“Academic freedom must be resurrected as a key criterion for academic reputation and quality,” the paper states. “AFi country scores can be used to improve established university rankings. At present, leading rankings narrowly define academic excellence and reputation as a function of outputs. As a result, institutions in repressive environments have climbed the reputation ladder and now occupy top ranks. They thereby mislead key stakeholders and make it possible for repressive state and higher education authorities to restrict academic freedom without incurring a reputational loss.”

The developers of the index argue that universities' rankings could be adjusted upward or downward based on the academic freedom conditions in the countries in which they're located.

“The argument which has been made previously -- that we do not have comparative data on academic freedom and therefore cannot factor it into such rankings -- no longer holds, because we have presented data,” Kinzelbach said.

Ben Sowter, the senior vice president for QS, a major global university ranker, said QS is interested in exploring these kinds of metrics.

“We have always tried to avoid building environmental constants into institutional rankings -- for example, tuition fees or salary after graduation are problematic, because they reflect relative exchange rates from one year to the next as much as the actual achievements and capabilities of the institution,” Sowter said. “However, we are exploring ways to provide additional data alongside the rankings as tools by which a user can filter, customize and contextualize our results, and we would be interested in exploring metrics like this through that kind of mechanism as long as they are robustly compiled themselves.”

Phil Baty, the editor for Times Higher Education World Universities Ranking, another major ranker, said "THE’s approach to rankings is to proactively acknowledge that there are many different types of excellence in global higher education, from teaching and research, of course, but also including social mobility, knowledge transfer, societal impact and many other aspects. So THE has developed a wide range of metrics for a wide range of institutional missions and priorities, recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all model."

He mentioned a new ranking THE is doing to measure universities' impact on societies through the framework of the United Nations' sustainable development goals.

"When we look at universities in in relation to the SDGs, we look at their research and teaching, of course, but we also look at their stewardship of their own affairs: how they treat their staff and students, for example, how they manage their own consumption, and … whether they have strong governance systems, including clear policies on academic freedom," Baty said.

A total of 1,810 scholars contributed data for the Academic Freedom Index. The index does not report data for 35 countries -- including the United States and Australia -- for which it did not have enough expert coders. Kinzelbach said she hopes that will be fixed for the next round of data.

“Apparently it is often difficult in high-income countries to excite academics to contribute to a larger research project of this kind where they don’t have a publication related to it," she said.

Countries are divided into one of five brackets based on their overall academic freedom score (see image above). Countries falling in the worst category include China and the United Arab Emirates, two countries with which many American universities have substantial partnerships. Other countries falling into the bottom bracket as far as academic freedom is concerned are Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cuba, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Laos, North Korea, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Coders provided ratings of countries going back to 1900 or when the first university was established in a given country, whichever was more recent. The report highlights five countries where AFi scores have increased by 10 percent over the last five years, suggesting improvements: Armenia, Ethiopia, Gambia, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.

The report also identifies countries for which there was a 10 percent drop in AFi score over the last five years, suggesting a worsening of conditions: Benin, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Libya, Mozambique, Pakistan, Turkey, Ukraine and Yemen.

Brazil and India had the steepest declines over the last five years. The developers of the index say they welcome healthy debate on these findings.

"While there is evidence of a deteriorating condition for academics in both countries, the extent of the AFi score’s decline seems somewhat disproportional in comparison to earlier periods in the countries’ history, as well as in comparison to other countries over the same period," they write in the report.

"In this context, it is important to reiterate that AFi coders are typically academics who work in the country that they assess. Their concerns and fears are reflected in the data. We believe that this intrinsic feature of expert-coded data must be openly discussed. Recent deteriorating trends should be read as important warning signs that depict the current climate among academics in the country. However, we also encourage substantiated, scholarly debate on the data, as well as additional expert assessments in future rounds of data collection that allow for a retrospect evaluation of the situation."

GlobalEditorial Tags: Academic freedomInternational higher educationImage Source: Global Public Policy InstituteImage Caption: Global Levels of Academic Freedom 2019: Status Groups According to Academic Freedom Index (scale 0-1). Countries with "A" rankings have the highest score, and those with E rankings have the lowest. Countries in gray are not rated due to insufficient data.Is this diversity newsletter?: Newsletter Order: 0Disable left side advertisement?: Is this Career Advice newsletter?: Magazine treatment: Trending: Display Promo Box: Live Updates: liveupdates0

The Covid-19 pandemic has closed campuses across the nation, upending the familiar signposts of residential college life.

Colleges’ move to emergency online instruction because of the coronavirus has coincided with school and day-care closures. Here’s what that looks like for instructors with children.

Petitions for housing and dining refunds are cropping up around the country, but there is no uniform approach for reimbursement.

The settlement resolves a dispute with former faculty members and students, who alleged that the university had defamed and retaliated against them for complaining about a tenured professor’s conduc

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A new report by EAIE into the various impacts of coronavirus on international higher education has found that the coronavirus has significantly impacted the mobility of students.

Research for the ÔÇÿCoping with COVID-19: International higher education in Europe’ report started several weeks ago as the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak began to be felt in the continent.

The report is based on 805 responses to this survey from individuals working in HEIs across the EHEA.

ÔÇ£The outbreakÔÇÖs impact on academic mobility has been a subject of extensive conversationÔÇØ

According to the report, nearly three-quarters of survey respondents characterise the effects on inbound student and staff mobility as either somewhat significant or very significant.

ÔÇ£COVID-19ÔÇÖs rapid global spread has highlighted the role that international travel can play in the broad dissemination of some communicable diseases,ÔÇØ the report explained.

ÔÇ£For this reason, the outbreakÔÇÖs impact on academic mobility has been a subject of extensive conversation within the international education community in Europe and elsewhere.ÔÇØ

The survey asked several questions on the subject of mobility in an effort to find out the ways and extents to which the public health crisis is affecting international mobility in relation to European higher education. 

Inbound and outbound mobility, as well as mobility among both students and staff (academic and administrative) were considered.

More than two thirds (73%) of respondents indicated that outbound mobility of students had been affected as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, while 54% reported that outbound mobility of staff had been affected in some way.

Chart showing survey results for outbound student mobility. Image: EAIE

By contrast, 48% reported that inbound mobility had been affected in some way.

Chart showing survey results for inbound student mobility. Image: EAIE

China was the global epicentre of the outbreak at the time of the survey. As a result, the survey showed that the mobility disruption was felt most in China and Asia more broadly. 

The EAIE survey also explored how the COVID-19 outbreak might be affecting campus life and culture.

Some 70% of respondents said they had received no reports at their institution of discriminatory behaviour toward individuals from (or perceived to be from) countries affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. 

However, 13% of respondents across 21 different countries did report they had received such reports. Of this, 65 individuals provided additional information about how their institutions dealt with reports of discriminatory behaviour. 

The most commonly reported method of tackling this behaviour (46.2%) was to double down on awareness raising and information dissemination, to inform the broader community about the realities of risk and promote factual accuracy in the wider conversation about the outbreak. 

The second-most commonly reported response was to publish or circulate some type of public affirmation of support for the affected population or an indication of zero tolerance for discriminatory behaviour in general.

The post EAIE survey on impact of COVID-19 on mobility appeared first on The PIE News.

“We have been creating campaigns telling people that they should not cancel their programs but postpone for a later date,” CEO of Brazilian agency TravelMate Alexandre Argenta says. The agency has been working closely together with the country’s agency association BELTA, he adds.

Countries closing both borders and visa processing make it “hard to confirm when this later date would be” however, he notes.

Cris Zanin of Yonder Education says that his agency is “reorganising content for those who want to postpone study plans and [creating] other content to help others to manage anxiety and family distance”.

“We are using time to think of other parallel business inside the market,” Zanin explains – echoing the situation as described by other education consultants around the world.

Diogo Rodrigues, CEO of Yes Intercambio confirms that the agency had been having postponements, “but not cancellations”.

“Their concern is not about the coronavirus, but the unexpected high exchange rate we are facing”

“The fact that we are specialised on higher ed ÔÇô and that our college counselling is providing several months, sometimes years of preparations to students and their families ÔÇô their concern is not about the coronavirus, but the unexpected high exchange rate we are facing,” he notes.

Yes Intercambio has developed a list of online options to prepare students with summer semester credits online “without jeopardising their academic year”.

“Our main focus is about making sure our students are safe. And that our partners are providing all support needed,” Rodrigues concludes.

TravelMate has also launched free online English classes open to the public through Instagram “to┬ámotivate people to continue getting better prepared to travel abroad in the future”, Argenta adds.

Beyond Brazil,┬áthe pandemic represents a “short-term disaster” for Paul Moroney of Ireland-based GoLearn Agency.

“But at GoLearn we are viewing it as just that ÔÇô short-term,” he states.

Moroney expects business to resume in two to three months, “albeit at a slower pace as the economies of both Ireland and target markets recover”.

Some proactive students are planning for June or July, taking advantage of current promotions on offer, he adds. Higher education students still plan for September intakes.

The accredited schools GoLearn works with provide online classes so that the agency “can continue to cater to current students’ need to learn English”.

Similarly, Philippa Dralet ÔÇïof Futurystic based in France is promoting┬ápartner schools’ “attractive online learning packages”.

Students remain “eager to return to school as soon as they can”

“All my one-year students have returned to their home countries with online teaching put into place by their schools,” she explains.

Schools have all been quick to put effective online programs into place, Dralet adds, but students remain “eager to return to school as soon as they can”.

In Germany, the pandemic has hit members of the country’s association of language tour operators (FDSV) “very hard”, according to managing director Julia Richter.

All language schools in Germany have been closed since April 16, and outbound travel bookings are down.

“The Easter business is practically eliminated,” she explains. “Most German states have cancelled school trips until the end of the school year. General customer behaviour in relation to new bookings is of course extremely restrained due to the unpredictable situation.”

For youth travel, operators are hoping for the summer, while as far as the adult market is concerned there is hope for late summer and autumn resurgence. “But who knows when travelling is possible again?” she asks.

“Many German tour operators try to offer a travel voucher instead of repayment to the customers in order to postpone the planned trip to a later date. However, this is actually not legally possible in Germany, but it is currently being examined by the government as a possible option,” Richter notes.

“This week we will publish online language courses on our website, so that those interested in language learning can continue to develop their language studies despite the coronavirus,” she states.

“In the end, however, I am sure that we will all come out stronger from the crisis. The desire to travel is still strong and bookings will come back as soon as there are no more travel warnings.”

Erion Kosovrasti┬áCEO of Albanian agency┬áTandek Exchange your mind┬áshares Richter’s positivity.

Despite the “great social and financial” impact the pandemic has had on business ÔÇô leading to postponed or cancelled study plans, particularly to the US ÔÇô the “situation has not discouraged students to send their inquires for studying abroad or exchange programs”, he says.

“Classroom education is most popular in Albania so the students can interact with others and share their experiences in an international environment,” Kosovrasti explains.

“We cannot lose trust and hope,” he says. “We continue to process student applications in accordance with the guidance and regulations from our partners. We will support our staff by hoping that this global ÔÇ£nightmareÔÇØ called COVID-19 will be defeated and everything will come back to normal, again.”

“We try to find new products such as live stream courses or online courses”

The stark truth is that the pandemic has changed everything for now, however. Owner of Aspect Study Abroad in Ukraine, Larysa Neklyudova details that in March, all requests and bookings stopped in one day.

Aspect ÔÇô which specialises in young learner programs ÔÇô has witnessed the sector’s “dramatic┬áimpact” from the pandemic, Neklyudova notes.

“Not many families would risk sending their kids abroad if they are not sure that their health can be secure.” Neklyudova is putting faith in online provisions, too.

“At the moment we just collecting all the information about online courses and we hope that that is a good option to do something useful during a quarantine which might prolong through summer,” she says.

One of Kazakhstan’s biggest agencies, Alem Education┬áfaced “a strong wave of panic from parents the first days of coronavirus”, its CEO Dina Aisarina tells┬áThe PIE.┬áThe majority of students have opted to remain in countries where they study, however.

“Many of them decided not to go back and preferred to stay closer to their alma maters.”

Partners have effectively regularly updated Alem about safety regulations they follow in order to help international students stay safe, Aisarina indicates.

However, she highlights that transition to online study platforms has not been smooth. “Not much attention yet is paid to the options of online classes,” in her experience, but the agency is working to promote digital provisions.

Lockdowns in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and UAE have “badly effected” operations for Yes Atlas, its CEO and founder┬áHaitam Giat reveals. It is a similar story for many agents in the MENA region, he says.

“We do remote support for existing students only, who want to cancel or want to return back home,” Giat explains.

“At this stage we are learning the situation, reducing cost of operation and try to find new products such as live stream courses or online courses.”

Like in Kazakhstan, students in M├®xico have not been opting for online education, Karla Rios of Conexion Global Mexico details.

“Our priority is trying to postpone the program for upcoming students so that they do not cancel,” she says. So far the agency has not had any cancellations, but students are postponing programs until 2021.

“We are also focusing on promoting programs for September when hopefully everything will have been settled,” Rios explained, adding that Conexion Global has had to bring most of its students back to M├®xico.

The situation will be exacerbated if the coronavirus pandemic continues into summer, meaning Conexion Global will have to cancel all summer programs, including groups, Rios adds. Like Richter in Germany, the whole sector seems to have the same question: who knows when travelling will be possible again?

The post Education agencies urge students to postpone rather than cancel appeared first on The PIE News.

Testing providers are opening up access to at-home English exams with real-time human monitoring to ensure test integrity, while the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt the international education sector.

ETS has introduced an at-home testing solution for test takers affected by the coronavirus pandemic, while iTEP International is temporarily waiving test centre requirement, paving the way for test takers to use its virtual proctoring process.

iTEP announced it would begin at-home options from March 17, while ETS, which runs the TOEFL iBT® test and GRE® General Test, opened up at-home testing solutions from March 26 in response to the pandemic.

“It was imperative for us to create a timely, flexible and reliable solution”

“Our goal is to ensure test-taker health and safety while maintaining test security and integrity of scores for our partner schools,” iTEP said.

Many of the organisation’s exams had already been designed to be delivered at home, iTEP added, meaning it had been a “quick and efficient transition”.

iTEP’s Virtual Proctoring service will offer the same admissions exams and pricing, and has enhanced its Fotosure security software to ensure results remain reliable.

Human remote proctoring service ProctorU┬«┬áwill oversee ETS’s at-home exams. Unlike iTEP’s provision, ETS exams will be available in the US, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain Hong Kong and Macau to begin with.

The testing provider is working towards extending the locations of its at-home solutions, it added.

“It was imperative for us to create a timely, flexible and reliable solution to allow students the opportunity to take these tests, so that they can complete time-sensitive applications that will allow them to continue on their educational journeys,” said Alberto Acereda, executive director of the Global Higher Education Division at ETS.

ETS understands the challenges test takers are facing worldwide, and this solution will not compromise the integrity of its tests, executive director of the TOEFL®Program Srikant Gopal said.

“ETS prides itself on its test security measures, and this solution is consistent with those self-imposed high standards, which are relied upon by institutions around the world who trust that these tests provide an accurate picture of an applicantÔÇÖs abilities,”┬áGopal noted.

In March, the Duolingo English Test said it had recorded a wave of US institutions agreeing to accept the results of its test in international admissions.

IELTS and Pearson have both brought in additional health and safety precautions to protect the health of test takers and staff in locations where its test is still going ahead. Testing for IELTS and┬áPearson’s┬áPTE Academic continues to be suspended in many regions in the world however.

IELTS has introduced an online practice test to help students prepare for the exam using real IELTS questions.

The post Testing providers launch at-home exam solutions appeared first on The PIE News.

Families in Vietnam are falling victim to unscrupulous education agents charging for scholarships to US institutions, sources in the country have revealed to The PIE News.

Education agents in Vietnam are taking money upfront with the promise for accessing scholarships to study in the US, and stakeholders in the country are concerned that it will have a lasting detrimental effect on Vietnamese students seeking to study in the US.

“In Vietnam right now, there’s a massive fraud going on with agents,” said Ken Cooper, chairman of Access American Education.

“In Vietnam right now, there’s a massive fraud going on with agents”

Agents are taking a slice of non-merit scholarships ÔÇô often 20% of the worth of the scholarship ÔÇô and telling families that only through them, can students access scholarships, he added.

Scholarships can give students a deduction of fees for anything up to US$30,000 ÔÇô they are little more than discounts, Cooper suggested.

Previously, the┬áI-20 ÔÇ£Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student StatusÔÇØ┬áforms that students need for their applications had been sent to agents, who would keep them until families paid them.

An update in regulations means that those forms are now sent to students, but agents are now telling families they need to pay upfront fees.

“They’re getting upfront money. $5,000-10,000 upfront from the families in order to get the ‘discount letters’. It’s rampant. It’s massive. Lots of agents are doing it,” he said.

Agencies are now using scholarships as headlines to their marketing campaigns and running scholarship events, he added.

“My guess is that parents and students believe it’s a service they’re paying for,” explained Mark Ashwill, managing director of educational consulting company Capstone Vietnam.

“Perhaps they think the agency has some sort of special influence or connection with the institution, and/or they view it as an “investment,” not knowing that it’s unnecessary,” he said.

“[This is] one of many examples of cheating in a still largely unregulated industry. Educational consulting is still the Wild West in Vietnam and many other countries,” Ashwill contended.

According to Ashwill, smaller agencies are being “rewarded” for the scholarships that “their” students earn from good but not necessarily elite institutions.

Larger agencies are more specialised in helping students gain admission to “highly selective colleges and universities”, with packages that include help with writing essays ÔÇô in some cases, completing them on behalf of students ÔÇô and other services, including creating extracurricular activities that their clients can add to their application.

“This is yet another example of the adage ‘success without integrity is failure’,” he said.

“Companies that engage in this unethical practice are probably also taking a fee from the parents and/or a commission from the admitting institution.┬á Think of it as double- or triple-dipping.

“In short, it’s just another way to make money for companies fixated on short-term profit at the expense of ethics.”

Education USA has been a “leader” in telling families they do not have to pay agents, Cooper explained, but the message is not effectively reaching families.

“It’s just another way to make money for companies fixated on short-term profit at the expense of ethics”

“I guess it’s because it’s a rising middle class and the parents just don’t have the knowledge that these are discounts, not scholarships. Now, that being said, there are merit scholarships, but you don’t have to pay for them either. You apply to the school.”

Education USA attends events and fairs in Vietnam, Cooper added.

“I love Education USA for doing that. That’s why I beg them every time I do a fair…I’d rather the government [came to explain] students do not have to pay advance fees to agents to get scholarships.

“You don’t have to pay advance fees to get essays written. You don’t have to pay advances. Come to the American centre and we’ll help you. Go to an AIRC certified agent. They’ll help you,” he said.

US schools must be checking with students to find out whether they paid for scholarships, Cooper warned.

“I hope that schools speak to kids on Skype [and ask] ‘did you pay?’ because that’s the only way the school could be not complicit. They have to take the initiative.

“And by the way, if they get caught on this, they’re [taking] a risk. There’s no doubt if this becomes an issue where a kid says, ‘hey, I paid $10,000 for that scholarship’, they’ve got a problem.”

The post US-bound students being hit by “rampant” agent fraud in Vietnam appeared first on The PIE News.

Back in the early days of developing the #WeAreInternational campaign, we were trying to think of something which would help us express solidarity between the UK and international students.

Long before Meghan made it famous again at her wedding, there was one piece of music we thought could go alongside the images of friends across national boundaries – Stand By Me. We made our film and the soundtrack felt perfect.

Only how do you communicate solidarity when you are not only two metres apart but perhaps separated by continents and time zones?

How can you communicate not only course content and assessment regulations but ideas, reflections, friendship and warmth.

How do you let someone know they are part of an educational community, that they may be distant but they are not alone?

Discovering the answer to that question is not going to be easy but we are all learning now that online connection doesnÔÇÖt take less communication, it takes more.

Learning how to build a community at a distance is something we are all doing in real time under Covid-19 lockdown as we determine that physically distant wonÔÇÖt mean socially isolated.

One friend says her teenager is staying in touch with her friends through memes. There are virtual coffee breaks and glasses of wine. Friends are reaching out to one another across the world with pictures and affection.

People whose social media accounts were always strictly professional are loosening their stays and sharing their feelings because we really are all in this together, frightened, vulnerable, hopeful and human.

“We really are all in this together, frightened, vulnerable, hopeful and human”

And as is so often the case, music speaks. It isnÔÇÖt just the songs from the balconies of Lombardy. Musicians play together via Zoom. Soloists and choirs perform. Experiencing this builds bonds, just as a shared Spotify playlist once brought together a new cohort of students travelling across the world before they met face-to-face. Now these points of contact remind us that we can be together even when we are apart.

Which brings me back to #WeAreInternational – a campaign that began in a pub in Sheffield between students and a university, one determined to communicate solidarity on the face of division.

I remember the first time I threw out a call via Universities UK asking if others would support our efforts, not at all sure anyone world want to come to that particular party. But it turns out they did.

Pretty soon a hashtag helped identify a virtual community of stubborn Citizens of the World. I have friends because of it IÔÇÖve never met face-to-face and I call them friends because connections have deepened and we have shared both triumphs and losses. We recognised friendship and strength-in-togetherness online.

Now, wonderfully, that campaign has a new national home at UKCISA and the first-ever #WeAreInternational student ambassadors. I feel like a proud aunty. Who knew that a twinkle in the eye in a Sheffield pub would result in such a beautiful family.

But now, like all families, international education is facing perhaps its greatest ever time of challenge as we face up to something most of us never imagined. Is the party over?

Well, some things are bound to change, at least in the immediate future but I, for one, will do all in my power to ensure that it is not international education and the possibility for students to learn with one another and across national divides.

I believe that we make a better world through education and that it will take all the voices of the world to work out what that means. Our world would be impoverished if we lost that possibility of connection.

The #WeAreInternational campaign taught me that those voices are out there, we just need a means to connect them. This is communication which doesnÔÇÖt just broadcast or impose messages but which provides a forum and which learns as well as teaches. There is a global choir out there with an amazing range of voices and music.

LetÔÇÖs build on that now. In the heroic effort to put courses online and to ensure international students wonÔÇÖt have their educational dreams thrown off course, letÔÇÖs remember the more personal parts of what builds a community. It isnÔÇÖt a nice-to-have extra, itÔÇÖs what gives us courage. ItÔÇÖs what will get us through to whatever new world awaits.

ÔÇó Ruth Arnold worked at the University of Sheffield as Director of Public Affairs and is now a senior advisor for Study Group.

The post How do you show solidarity virtually? appeared first on The PIE News.

A “hard look” at the need for international travel and a shift to a combination of face-to-face and online learning provisions partially due to the innovations borne out of the COVID-19 crisis were just some of the predictions discussed during UUKiÔÇÖs International Higher Education Forum online conference.

“We as a sector are actually, in a way, another fossil fuel industry”

Focusing on the topic of┬á ‘what will international education look like 20 years from now?’, a panel of experts across higher education, edtech, climate change and sustainability put forward their thoughts on what factors are on the horizon for the future of the sector.

Director of Pomegranate Global and co-founder of Climate Action Network for International Educators, Ailsa Lamont, started the discussion with a focus on how the international education sector can step up and do more around climate change.

“We do have a slight pause on emissions at the moment…[but] this problem of climate change is not going away,” she noted.

“The fact is that we as a sector are actually, in a way, another fossil fuel industry. Our primary business model is flying around the world and encouraging people to fly.

“And I think it’s pretty clear that given all the technology that we have today and our knowledge of the carbon cost of travel, that if we were to start from a clean sheet and redesign the whole business, international education probably wouldn’t look quite like it does today.”

Lamont said the sector needs to take a “hard look” at the flights being taken and see if they really are necessary.

“The carbon cost of international educational operations needs to be put front and centre of every of our strategy…your institution might actually be able to help turn this particular [coronavirus] crisis into an opportunity to innovate and to really take some action.”

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, a large number of edtech companies are offering services to universities, schools and students to limit the disruption to learning.

At social learning platform FutureLearn, CEO Simon Nelson told delegates that there has been a “huge spike” in interest as of late, with around 90,000 enrolments from 90 countries in a new course, ‘COVID-19: Tackling the Novel Coronavirus’.

 

“I guess we will get into the questioning of whether we believe this is just a temporary blip or if this represents a paradigm shift for online learning and the transformation of higher education,” he told delegates.

“I don’t think that means it does away with the need for or the desire for face to face learning. But I think it challenges the questions about when it is important to come face to face, and when you can use the power of digital technologies to deliver a high-quality learning experience.“

Another panellist, principal and vice-chancellor at the University of Glasgow, Anton Muscatelli said that while the coronavirus crisis has acted as a catalyst for the uptake in online programs at many institutions, it has been something that Glasgow has been looking at for 24 months.

“Although it wasn’t seen as the majority of our provision, [online] is something that will take a much bigger slice,” he said.

“[Online] is something that will take a much bigger slice”

“Depending exactly on how the disease cycle works, we are looking at how we can provide more hybrid provision, and how we might be able to start a number of courses purely online.

“I actually think that from 2022 onwards, we could be in a world in which most universities will provide a combination of [online and face-to-face teaching] across the board, because of the innovations we’ve been able to introduce now,” Muscatelli added.

You can read about how the international education sector is responding to climate issues in our latest PIE Review digital magazine

The post Turn a crisis into an opportunity – IHEF online appeared first on The PIE News.

Student and employee mental health is campus leaders' top short-term concern, while financial viability and enrollment are their biggest long-term worries, survey finds.

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“Can you move the computer closer?” asks a disembodied voice. “Because we see a lot of roof.”

“Ah, I think it looks much better,” another invisible person says a few minutes later, following adjustments to the setup for Kaitlin Rasmussen’s virtual doctoral thesis defense.

Rasmussen, looking into her computer screen, half smiles and says, “I’m so excited for this to be over.” She cheers up when sees and hears that many of her friends -- including one from Australia, where it’s 1 a.m. -- are tuned in to her defense via Zoom.

Looking at the rising conference participant count on the bottom of her screen, however, Rasmussen grows nervous again. There are dozens of people here -- some 75 at one point. That’s many more than would have attended her defense in person if it were taking place as planned in her department at the University of Notre Dame.

Instead, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rasmussen is presenting from a basement near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was studying temporarily -- and where she’s stuck, in her MIT supervisor’s home, for now. A white sheet is her projector screen, and a bamboo stick from the MIT supervisor’s garden is her pointer. A hot water heater frames the shot on the right.

Yet another voice booms into the Zoom call now, breaking the tension. “Are biotechnologists allowed? I promise not to ask about the p-values.”

Making the Best of It

Rasmussen is an astronomer, not a biotechnologist. But everyone is invited to her defense. She put out a call on Twitter the day prior to make the best of a disappointing situation.

“The defense is the accumulation of all of your work for the last five or six years, so it’s kind of weird,” she said. “I’ve always had plans for this. Some people have dream weddings in mind, but I’ve always had this. I imagined I’d buy some really fancy, expensive clothes and have a really good vibe, and give this awesome presentation in front of my friends and family.”

In reality, her outfit is jeans and the one dressy shirt she brought with her to Boston, way before COVID-19. And the “vibe” is muted: coronavirus casual. Still, almost everyone who matters has Zoomed in: Rasmussen’s thesis committee, minus one member, who is ill (no word on what’s wrong), family members and friends -- plus some supportive randos (this reporter included).

Initial awkwardness aside, Rasmussen’s 30-minute talk on her research on first-generation, metal-poor stars goes smoothly and quickly. There is a short question-and-answer period with all viewers before her thesis committee kicks everyone else off the call, as convention dictates.

A short while later, after answering committee members’ questions, Rasmussen emerges from the call a doctor of astrophysics. She celebrates by ordering herself a cheese pizza. Dessert is the apple crisp her MIT supervisor made for the occasion.

Ashton Merck, a historian at Duke University, also earned her doctorate this week following a Zoom defense. She celebrated with her partner in their off-campus home by finishing off the bottle of prosecco in their fridge. As soon as she’s able, she wants to invite her dissertation committee members to her home and cook everyone an air-chilled chicken dinner. But as her research was on food safety, she said she’ll be offering a vegetarian option, as well -- just in case she sent anyone down that path.

This was not the way Merck imagined her defense would go, either. But she said it would make for an interesting story eventually -- just like the new lines in her curriculum vitae that say "canceled due to COVID-19" or "delivered remotely due to COVID-19."

“It feels like that will become a marker of where people were in their career when this happened,” she said.

There were some clear disadvantages to the scenario: Merck said it was harder to gauge her committee's reaction to things, for example. And even with a Zoom "happy hour" among friends afterward, she said, “It just didn't quite feel real. Still doesn’t.”

That said, Merck, like Rasmussen, gained observers by going virtual. History defenses are typically private affairs, Merck explained, whereas 15 viewers saw her Zoom presentation. (Her committee members went into a Zoom breakout room alone to deliberate.)

Many more have since seen the informal paper Merck wrote for and on her experience. The document, which she shared with her committee members in advance, includes notes on where to position your screen, what to wear (shoes do matter, at least for the candidate!) and hints for the committee and chair (this is how you access Zoom; leave your microphone on mute).

Tri Keah Henry defended her work in criminal justice and criminology virtually this week, as well, via Zoom with colleagues at Sam Houston State University.

“My technical advice would be to become really familiar with the platform that you’re using,” she said, noting that she’d never used Zoom before practicing for the talk.

In the end, Henry said defending virtually was actually a "little less stressful than an in-person defense, simply because I had more control over the presentation." She was also less distracted by her surroundings and her audience and therefore more focused on what she was saying.

The New Normal?

Virtual defenses have quickly become the norm, thanks to the social distancing and stay-at-home orders related to the coronavirus. But they are not new. Graduate students who cannot be on campus, or whose committee members can't be there, have been Zooming and otherwise virtually defending research for years. Merck notes, for example, that her own how-to guide was inspired by thoughts from Alyssa Frederick, who conducted her Ph.D. defense remotely in November, due to a new job.

Ethan White, an associate professor of interdisciplinary ecology at the University of Florida, said his research group has had a remote component for most Ph.D. defenses for years so that family, friends and former lab mates may participate. Of entirely virtual defenses, White said he worried that a major life accomplishment could feel “anticlimactic.” Still, there are ways for committee members and other viewers to combat this, as he suggested in a recent series of tweets on the subject: leave your video feed on, consider exaggerating your engagement with thumbs-ups and nods, and make a big deal of the student passing -- even if you’re stressed about other things.

The question, White said, is, "How do we try to match the energy and feeling of accomplishment that comes from presenting to a live audience?"

He argued that there are also benefits to remote defenses, including gaining experience presenting research in this way.

"This is becoming more common," he said, "and it's definitely a skill to learn how to present effectively and enthusiastically without an audience in the room."

As for whether virtual defenses might catch on, post-pandemic, White said he hoped so -- at least as an option. Remote presentations provide more flexibility for students who are away from campus and those who have started other positions.

“The more flexibility we provide students and faculty to work and interact remotely, the better," he said. (White recently co-wrote a paper on supporting remote postdoctoral work.)

Vinicius Placco, research assistant professor of astrophysics at Notre Dame and one of Rasmussen’s supervisors there, said he thought “everything went really well with regards to technology” during her defense. But he noted helpful tweaks that could be made going forward, such as having students screen-share their slides instead of projecting them, for better clarity, or using Zoom’s webinar function to prevent viewers from accidentally interrupting a presentation.

Placco said he didn’t know if a virtual defense can ever really replace an “in-person” experience. But he called remote defenses “a very welcome option, especially in difficult times like this, but also when committee members are traveling or if you have external members from other universities.”

Placco’s own defense happened in Brazil, he said, with a U.S.-based committee member joining by Skype. He agreed that another major benefit of remote defenses is that they're inclusive.

“I could tell that Kaitlin felt really supported by family and friends, which made everything even more special and hopefully a bit less stressful to her.”

Edward Balleisen, professor of history and public policy at Duke and Merck’s adviser, said having to go with a virtual defense “was of course a disappointment. We have rituals at milestones for a reason, and they don’t conjure up the same atmosphere nor elicit the same emotional punch when mediated by cyberspace.”

Even so, the intellectual exchanges at Merck’s defense were “excellent,” he said. “I can’t say the quality of the discussion among Ashton and the five members of her committee was significantly affected.”

Could virtual defenses catch on? Balleisen said Duke, like other institutions, had a rule that only one faculty member of a dissertation committee could attend a defense remotely. Members also signed physical dissertation exam cards.

Now, he said, “I would not be surprised at all to see both of these rules fall by the wayside.”

The current crisis will likely “accelerate changes that have been in the works for some time,” Balleisen continued. As more faculty members become accustomed to digital “modes of engagement, I expect there will be fresh thinking about whether and how to deploy them,” in contexts from scholarly presentations to meetings to job searches.

Henry, the criminologist, said, “Defending in person is a very special part of the process, and if I had to choose, I would’ve defended in person. I do, however, think it’s a good option for those who can’t do a face-to-face defense for whatever reason.”

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Virtually all of higher education is coping with severe disruptions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Several questions about the crisis that readers submitted in response to requests from Inside Higher Ed revolved around teleworking and employment status, or on college fundraising efforts during the crisis.

To seek answers from experts, Inside Higher Ed reached out to Andy Brantley, president and CEO of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR); Matthew Lambert, vice president for university advancement at the College of William & Mary; and Linda Durant, vice president of development at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Their lightly edited responses via email are below. Inside Higher Ed plans to make Q&As like this one a regular feature in coming weeks or months. So please keep your questions coming, as comments on articles or sent to Covid19@insidehighered.com

Q: What goes into making the big shift to remote work happen at colleges and universities?

Brantley: During the last two weeks, human resources leaders have worked with presidents, provosts, vice presidents, deans and other managers to make unprecedented changes to work assignments and work processes. Teleworking, which was the exception just two weeks ago, has now become the norm. These changes and transitions have required policy changes and the creation of new policies to manage workforces more diverse than other employers across the country.

Q: What sort of policy changes?

Brantley: Human resources leaders will need to make more changes during the next weeks as teleworking employees attempt to complete their job duties while caring for children who cannot go to daycare, teaching their children who must now be homeschooled and addressing the other challenges created by this crisis.

Human resources leaders will also have to provide guidance and support for employees who are not able to work from home. How long can the institution continue paying all employees? Are there part-time assignments these employees can complete from home? If employees have to be laid off before the institution can resume regular operations, what policies and practices need to be in place to provide as much support as possible and return these colleagues to work as quickly as possible?

Q: Which institutions are handling this challenge well so far?

Brantley: Here is an example from the president of Indiana University at Bloomington. All institutions will not be able to make this commitment, but I am so pleased to see that IU leaders are making this commitment to their employees. The challenges we face as higher ed and as a nation have created significant stress and uncertainty for everyone. For IU employees, the promise that their pay will continue through at least June 30 removes one significant uncertainty that is still a burden for many Americans.

Q: How is the crisis affecting college and university fundraising campaigns?

Durant: Many institutions have not stopped their campaigns and instead may be changing the funding priorities during this time of crisis. One lesson learned during the last recession is that it was especially important during this time to continue talking and communicating with donors, alumni and all constituents. These conversations often lead to the donor deciding to make their gift or pledge despite the current situation or because of the current situation.

A good fundraiser does not make assumptions about their donors and what they want to do or are feeling at this time. That is why these conversations are vital to the campaign and the institution. All donors have unique situations, and it is ultimately their decision as to what they want to do now; for many, their loyalty and trust in the institution means they want to give back now and show their support.

Q: How has William & Mary shifted its approach to fundraising?

Lambert: Like most senior leaders (in advancement or elsewhere) in higher education around the country, we’ve had to build a new playbook, since this is quite different from previous crises such as Sept. 11, Hurricane Katrina and the Great Recession. We are in a unique place, in the final three months of our campaign, so we are close to our finish line but not yet quite there.

Over the past few weeks, as events related to COVID-19 have transpired at such a rapid pace, at William & Mary we have refocused our fundraising efforts on helping students facing emergency situations, including our international students who have no way of returning home to their families. William & Mary is currently fully operational, and we have moved all our classes online.

We are doing all we can to facilitate a healthy and safe virtual teaching and learning environment for our students and faculty. As you can imagine, in order to fully transition to virtual learning, we needed to take swift action. We needed to be agile and innovative. Private support will enable us to continue to be nimble and innovative.

Q: Can a college raise funds to help with this crisis?

Durant: Colleges are indeed actively fundraising during these times. Critically important to them are appeals for emergency loans and financial aid funds for students, in order to continue their education, and for some to have a safe place to live and provide for their basic needs. Emory University and the University of Cincinnati are examples of just two that are doing this now.

Also, universities with medical schools and centers are fundraising to provide critical funding to continue their research and/or their services to the community. Institutions continue to do their annual appeals, and the money raised will be for these priorities. A good number of the alumni donors understand the need for the institution to have unrestricted dollars at a time like this to help them keep the mission of the institution alive.

Lambert: While the pandemic has been (and will continue to be) devastating -- from a public health and financial standpoint -- it has brought our community together (at a distance, of course) like never before. We’ve been able to create a micro-campaign, if you will, that will enable us to meet the immediate needs of our most vulnerable students while serving as strategic partner in the effort. We also know that our faculty are completely reinventing their teaching model in real time -- for many, this is their first time teaching in a virtual environment. So we also have enormous opportunities to support the kinds of retraining that will enable our faculty to deliver a high-quality education in a new mode. That is a tremendous opportunity for this short-term emergency, but also for the longer term.

Q: Should new campaigns be postponed or changed?

Durant: These types of decision are not made lightly and are done so after many conversations with the institutions’ leadership, the advancement professionals and the campaign leadership, which typically includes a number of trustees of the institution. There really isn’t one clear-cut answer to this -- it depends on the institution, what their circumstances are now, how far along in the campaign are they, what are the priorities of the campaign.

Lambert: While I would never presume to answer that question for another university, this is probably not a time to be launching an ambitious new campaign. Our campaign director often shares quotes from the late Jerry Panas, who reminded us after the Great Recession that “There is no ‘perfect moment’ to raise money. There is no such thing as a time when all possible factors are in your favor.” Launching a campaign often involves crystallizing and sharing of objectives, goals and vision, and engaging donors in a “join our movement” moment. While that does not need to and should not stop, you do have to reimagine your approach and ensure you are not tone-deaf in your outreach (particularly if launching a campaign includes the traditional pomp and circumstance).

Fundraising should not stop during a time like this but rather can be directed to help those being impacted by the crisis. Now is a time to be in even more regular and thoughtful communication with donors to deepen the relationships and assure them that the institution is committed to leading and serving during this difficult time. I am personally calling donors every single day, and we are encouraging our team to do the same -- to check on their health and well-being, to ask how they are coping with the emergency in their business or organization, and to remind them that William & Mary is their 80-year home and we stand ready to help however we can. Two-thirds of our alumni donor base consists of consecutive-year donors, so we feel optimistic and confident that we have developed a base that can weather a crisis such as this -- we will be there for them, as they are for alma mater.

Q: How does the appeal to potential donors change?

Lambert: We must do all that we can to be sensitive to the evolving situation and adapt a different set of messaging and priorities that align with current circumstances. As you might imagine, among my leadership team we have had healthy debate about how and when and in what ways we can resume “normal” fundraising activities, and right now there is no easy or clear answer.

Instead, we are taking the approach of remaining committed to our core philosophy -- in essence, we are seeking to establish 80-year relationships with our alumni and donors that last throughout their lifetimes and will span numerous emergencies, tragedies, celebrations, campaigns, highs and lows. If we do our jobs thoughtfully and well, those relationships will endure any single episode along the way, and they will see and understand the ongoing priorities of the university, the ways they can help and have an impact, and we will know that when they can help, they will.

With that in mind, while we are only a few months from successfully concluding our $1 billion For the Bold campaign, we decided we had to change course a bit. So, we made some tough decisions -- the right decisions -- because our students, faculty, staff and William & Mary as a whole are relying on private support during this crisis. We pivoted and reprioritized. We even moved our biggest day of giving (One Tribe One Day) back several months from April to June. And we are creating new and interesting virtual events for our alumni to engage with one another and the university. We’ve asked ourselves, “How do we remain relevant to our alumni and donors? How do we help them as they work through these challenges in their personal and professional lives? How do we continue to build those 80-year relationships?”

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The $2.2 trillion stimulus bill Congress is set to pass includes a one-time tax break this year for annual employer contributions of up to $5,250 toward their employees’ student loan debt. The provision is drawing both praise and criticism.

A growing number of mostly large companies have begun offering student loan payments as a benefit for both current employees and new hires.

A survey conducted last year by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans found that 4 percent of 772 responding organizations offer such a plan, with 2 percent in the process of creating one. Another 23 percent of employers, however, said they were considering such a benefit.

For example, PricewaterhouseCoopers last year announced it had paid $25 million toward the student loan debt of employees. The auditing and professional services company offers $1,200 in loan repayment per year for up to six years for its associates and senior associates.

A bill introduced last year by Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, sought to make employer-paid student loan benefits tax-free. Companies that help manage such plans said the space would explode if the bill passed, with some saying all major employers would have to offer the benefit.

The 619-page draft stimulus bill would do just that and appears to mirror the proposal from Warner.

Section 2206 of the bill would exclude from taxation any payment made this year "by an employer, whether paid to the employee or to a lender, of principal or interest on any qualified education loan incurred by the employee for education of the employee." It appears to only be in effect for 2020, although pulling back a tax break is rarely an easy political move.

The benefit likely would be lucrative for both student loan borrowers and employers, wrote Adam Looney, a senior fellow of economic studies at the Tax Policy Center from the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.

“Under the terms of the bill, employers could establish educational assistance programs, which currently allow employers to provide tuition assistance for courses taken by an employee, to provide up to $5,250 per year, per worker in tax-free assistance for employees repaying student loans,” he wrote. “Instead of being treated as wages, those payments would be excluded from income and payroll taxes (both the employee and employer portion).”

Among those applauding the provision was Scott Thompson, CEO of Tuition.io, which works with companies on employer-paid student loan benefits.

“Providing a tax subsidy for employer student loan repayment doesn’t just benefit individual workers, it will help reduce a major drag on the overall economy as we recover from the COVID-19 shock,” he said in a statement. “Even if only temporary, this groundbreaking legislation will enable companies large and small to help America's working people make it through this historical crisis.”

Looney, however, said the perk will help student loan borrowers who need it least.

Only borrowers with jobs will be able to receive it, obviously. And he said most people don’t work for an employer with benefits that are generous enough to offer student loan payments, noting that only four in 10 people with debt work for an employer that is even willing to establish a matching 401(k) plan.

In addition, employers that offer broad benefits tend to have higher-income workforces. And Looney said the tax break will be more valuable for workers in higher tax brackets.

“Beyond simply being regressive, the bill targets loan relief to those who need it least,” he wrote. “Low-income, unemployed borrowers who can’t make payments and default at high rates get no relief. But borrowers who are already making payments -- at or above the $5,250 annual level -- get the full benefit.”

The proposed tax break is bad policy on several levels, said Jason Delisle, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. And he said the provision obviously is not aimed at addressing the financial distress people are experiencing due to the coronavirus.

“It rewards employers for paying employees who have student loans more in total compensation than their employees who do not,” Delisle said in an email. “As a result, it also encourages people to take on student debt even when they don’t need to -- otherwise they will miss out on being able to pay for the education in pre-tax dollars, or through an employer-provided benefit.”

Student debt will rise as a result of the benefit, he predicted.

"Yet again, the implicit message from Congress is, unfortunately, that in the eyes of the loan program, it is better to have an expensive graduate degree and be employed than to have a low-cost degree and struggle to repay," said Delisle. "The former is showered with loan forgiveness and now tax breaks; the latter is stuck paying back every penny he borrowed."

A different take came from Adrienne L. Way, CEO and owner of Edcor Data Services LLC, one of the more established players in the employer benefits field. She said a nontaxable benefit for student loan assistance benefits payments would be a win for employers and employees.

She said the tax benefit would help employers of all sizes, in part because it would be easy to implement under the stimulus bill’s provision and would be effective in recruiting and retaining employees.

“This benefit allows smaller employers to compete for the top talent that oftentimes goes to larger organizations with more lucrative benefits,” Way said in a statement.

Student loan repayment programs are a new, rarely offered form of benefit. Way said many employers had been waiting to see what would happen in Congress. The stimulus bill was what companies were waiting for, she said.

“This is not just about paying off student loans; assistance from the employer helps the employee free up income to put into a 401(k) or save money for large purchases such as a new home,” she said. “Over all, this benefit helps anyone and everyone who is employed pay down their student debt, which is ultimately good for the economy. It also becomes an excellent incentive for those unemployed to search out employers that offer this benefit.”

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Although help for student borrowers in Congress’s massive economic stimulus package has been widely publicized, including a six-month reprieve from making loan payments, more than a million people with loans may be surprised to learn they will not get any relief under the new measure.

Borrowers with Perkins and commercially held Federal Family Education Loans are excluded from the $2 trillion bill, which is expected to pass the U.S. House today after being approved by the Senate Wednesday.

As higher education policy experts pored over the bill over the last few days, several consumer groups said the next relief Congress takes up should include those who won't be reaping new benefits, including a waiver of federal interest on student loans and a moratorium on having overdue payments taken from wages, tax refunds and Social Security benefits, as well as temporarily being excused from making monthly payments.

A Senate Republican fact sheet on the bill said those left out make up 5 percent of all student loan borrowers, which the National Consumer Law Center estimated to be 1.2 million borrowers.

“There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be included,” said Michele Streeter, a policy analyst for the Institute for College Access & Success.

She said excluding certain borrowers will cause confusion. They'll hear about the loan payment deferrals, interest fee waivers and the wage garnishment suspensions that the legislation mandates and think, "I don't know why I'm not getting this," she said.

“This differing treatment based on loan type will create confusion among those with older loans that don’t qualify for the suspension,” said Alexis Goldstein, a senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform, a progressive advocacy group.

“Leaving out borrowers with Perkins and commercially held FFEL loans is fundamentally unfair, and it will be difficult for these borrowers to get answers. Many of these borrowers are already having trouble contacting servicers due to reduced hours and the closing of call centers” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Goldstein said.

Scott Buchanan, president of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, agreed that confused Perkins and FFEL borrowers will swamp loan servicers with calls. As a result, it’s important for those getting the new benefits to be aware that they will get them automatically. However, borrowers who can’t make their payments or who have economic hardships should call their loan servicers, he said.

A spokesman for Republican senator Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate education committee, didn’t reply to an email asking why these two types of borrowers were left out.

In a fact sheet for borrowers, the Education Department noted that borrowers in the two programs not covered by the new stimulus legislation can have the interest on their loans waived by getting a direct consolidation loan. But Goldstein noted that the fact sheet states that once the interest waiver ends, those who consolidated loans could end up paying higher interest than under their old loan programs. Additionally, any accumulated interest would be added to their principal, further increasing the amount they pay in interest.

“The Senate picked winners and losers by giving certain federal student loan borrowers a short break from making payments, from interest accrual and from involuntary collection, but withholding that help from others,” Persis Yu, director of the National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, said in a statement.

Education advocates want any new stimulus package proposed to address the disparity between different types of borrowers. Yu's and Goldstein’s groups also continued to urge Congress to cancel at least $10,000 from every federal student loan borrower’s debt, including those with Perkins and FFEL loans, as Senate and House Democrats proposed.

Colleges and universities also want more funding to help them with the cost of dealing with the crisis. Craig Lindwarm, vice president of congressional and governmental affairs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, said the next package needs to strengthen a provision in the most recent bill aimed at discouraging states from cutting higher education funding. The provision requires states to maintain funding in order to receive part of $3 billion grant for governors to use for either K-12 or higher education.

States could seek a waiver from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos if they are in financial crisis. And to determine if they are maintaining a level of spending for higher education, the feds would look at a three-year average for spending. But if, for example, a state increased spending in 2019 and 2020, counting the lower spending in 2017 would lower the three-year average. Indeed, Lindwarm said the three-year average of 48 states is lower than what they are spending on higher education this year.

While the focus of the impact of the bill on borrowers was on the question of debt cancellation, little noticed was a technical provision Senator Patty Murray got into the bill.

Under current regulations for federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, or SEOG, which institutions give to undergraduates with exceptional financial need, colleges were required to asses students' financial status, taking into account such factors as tuition costs and the expected amount their families can pay, to determine eligibility.

But it was unclear, as campuses close and offer students remote instruction during the pandemic, how the Education Department would view giving grants to help students pay for things such as airline tickets to go home because of campus closures, or to buy computers so they can have access to online instruction, said Robert Shireman, director of higher education excellence and a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.

“Schools were afraid the Department of Education in a year or two would do an audit and say you have to return a bunch of money to the federal government,” he said.

But Karen McCarthy, director of policy analysis at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said Murray's provision waives the requirement for institutions to calculate the amount of need before giving a student an emergency grant. Another provision also allows institutions to give students up to the amount of a Pell Grant in emergency aid, on top of their grant amount, thus clearing up institutions' uncertainty over how much the institutions could give.

“With the waivers, Congress is basically saying we trust you to use your best judgment on who most needs it,” Shireman said.

Removing the bureaucratic obstacles was important to advocates, because the bill allows institutions to use federal funding allotted for work-study jobs for the SEOG emergency grants. In addition, the legislation gives $14.25 billion to institutions to provide emergency help to students during the outbreak. That money does not carry the same restrictions as the supplemental grants.

“This is an emergency moment when paperwork requirements shouldn’t get in the way of people getting the help they need,” Shireman said.

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Exchange students have been left stranded across Europe by the coronavirus pandemic, as flights are canceled and borders erected amid mixed signals over whether to stay or go, according to student groups.

There are fears for the mental well-being of students now under lockdown away from their families in a foreign country, with universities being urged to provide as much support as possible.

But for the moment the general advice is that students should stay put, because of the sheer difficulty of leaving and the risk of spreading the virus back home.

Gohar Hovhannisyan, vice president of the European Students’ Union, an umbrella organization for national unions, described the situation as “very, very chaotic.”

Member unions have been inundated with inquiries. “They are trying to find out the answers, which don’t exist,” she said.

One problem is that many countries have told their students to return, said Kostis Giannidis, president of the Erasmus Student Network, yet some students felt trapped after their host countries announced that they were closing their borders.

In reality, he stressed, students were still allowed to travel back home on the whole, but confusion reigned nonetheless. “There is mixed communication coming from each side,” he said.

Some students had received contradictory advice -- being told to stay in place by their home institution but told to leave by their host, Giannidis added. It is a “big mess,” he said.

The situation is so fast-moving and complex that no group that spoke to Times Higher Education wanted to give definitive advice about what students should do.

But the ESN says that students should stay in place “if possible” unless recalled by their countries or universities.

Worse, getting home has become logistically difficult, with entry restrictions meaning transiting through an airport in a third country was sometimes forbidden, Giannidis said, while students in some countries were only able to leave on a plane chartered by their government, not commercially. Flight prices had also soared, he said. “It’s a bit of a risk for any international student to travel back.”

“At this point in time I wouldn’t try to get home to anywhere,” cautioned Michael Harms, communications director at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), which last year granted about 145,000 scholarships to students in Germany and abroad but has now canceled all its summer semester grants because of coronavirus.

German students returning from abroad could find themselves in quarantine, he pointed out, adding that although hard figures are unavailable, “my hunch is that the majority will want to stay and stick it out … We are not overwhelmed by people saying they want to get out [of Germany].”

Still, the ESU believes students should have a “right to go home if they want to,” said Hovhannisyan.

In response, DAAD has promised its scholarship holders that it would financially support whatever decision they make, while the European Commission has said there will be “maximum flexibility” for Erasmus programs, so they can be extended or delayed.

For students who stay, it is crucial that universities look after their mental health, said Hovhannisyan. Some universities are providing online mental health support, but this was not “common,” she warned.

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TGIF.

The Senate has approved a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package that includes one-time $1,200 checks for many Americans, as well as billions for higher education and interest relief for student loan borrowers. But some advocates say more should be done, like relieving months of federal student loan payments and providing more for minority-serving institutions.

Before we dive into the news, let's look at some palate cleansers.

Please turn your sound on for this.

God bless the internet. (Credit: unknown) pic.twitter.com/lcNYlIRUMM

— Jack Moore (@JFXM) March 25, 2020

Got some time this weekend? You could try replicating this experiment and frying 42 eggs.

There's some uplifting news from higher ed, too. A cohort of researchers, including a professor from Metropolitan State University of Denver, are playing around with 3-D printing to find a solution for pressing ventilator shortage. One possible answer? Scuba masks.

All right, let’s get to it.

Unemployment claims are way up. Last week, 3.3 million people filed for unemployment -- which shattered the previous record.

Colleges are feeling the heat, with hiring freezes already in place at many places. Contractors are feeling the brunt of the loss in many places now, as some institutions keep staff on payroll but let go of those on contracts.

However, one institution -- Ohio University -- is pausing its previously planned personnel cuts to reassess due to the public health crisis. A previous assessment found the university needed to cut $26 million from its about $759 million budget over three years.

In another round of bad news, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is lowering its payments to institutions. Division I institutions will receive $375 million less in total than originally budgeted for 2020.

Here’s a quick roundup of our latest stories, in case you’ve fallen a bit behind (we don’t blame you):

Kery Murakami continues to keep you up-to-date on what's happening on the Hill. Here, he talks with advocates about what they're pushing for in the next round of relief.

Ever heard of "Zoombombing"? Well, if you're an educator, you will probably encounter this phenomenon at some point. Elizabeth Redden has the ugly details.

Remember just waiting for Title IX regulations to drop? Simpler times. Now, universities are deciding whether to move forward with Title IX proceedings during a health crisis, Greta Anderson reports.

News From Elsewhere

The Atlantic has a look at four possible timelines for when things will return to "normal."

College students are very stressed and anxious right now, according to a survey the Los Angeles Times reported on.

An upside? It might be easier for high school seniors to get accepted into colleges this year, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Percolating Thoughts

This is a time when everyone has an opinion. As journalists, we try not to have opinions, but we've gathered some interesting ones from others.

A professor and Bloomberg opinion writer says universities shouldn't spend endowment funds on coronavirus relief.

What will happen to sports, ponders one sportswriter in The New York Times.

Liberal arts faculty have been reluctant to embrace online learning, according to a dean and professor at Oxford College of Emory University. How are they faring now?

Have any percolating thoughts or notice any from others? Feel free to send them our way or comment below.

We’ll continue bringing you the news you need in this crazy time. Keep sending us your questions and story ideas. We’ll get through this together.

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It’s disrupted their research and funding, muddied the job-market waters, and complicated questions about their status at their institution.

The Great Recession showed how a crisis can fuel state disinvestment. ├ó┬Ç┬£If past is prologue,├ó┬Ç┬Ø one university official said, ├ó┬Ç┬£we have reason to be concerned.├ó┬Ç┬Ø