by Julia Pflaum, Blackboard Blogs
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education announced that they will be ramping up efforts to not only increase enrollment to colleges and universities, but also to encourage more students to graduate. The announcement comes only a few days after President Obama introduced a slew of policy proposals aimed to improve the current state of higher education. In the last five years, the cost of tuition has dramatically increased, which can certainly have a negative impact on enrollment and graduation rates as a result. Of course, in an economic downturn, it is easy to attribute enrollment challenges to increased financial uncertainty. However, in a recent publication by Public Agenda, With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them, the study authors set out to better understand the challenges facing current university students by debunking a handful of myths and widely-held assumptions about those students that fail to complete college. In addressing the realities of college drop-outs, the study paints a dramatically different image of the average university student.
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