Online program managers (OPMs) are third-party companies that work with colleges and universities to develop, launch, and deliver online learning. Despite the prevalence of these companies in higher education, cost details are often buried or asserted with legal protections as trade secrets or business models unavailable for public review.3…

Based on a review of 48 online program manager (OPM) contracts and 44 chief online learning officer (COLO) interviews, this policy brief highlights potentially problematic contract provisions between colleges and OPMs, raising concerns about their effects on federal compliance, students' learning, and openness about government contracting.…

White-label programs in higher education, designed and supported by online program management (OPM) firms, pose unique challenges to current policy. In part this is because OPM firms and services are either exempt from policy or fall into a gray area that policy has not yet considered. Policymakers, however, do not need to develop entirely new…

In this article, the researchers interrogate the media discourse on the national students financial aid scheme (NSFAS) crisis, as well as how the language used by politicians and students, shaped the decision-making of stakeholders. A qualitative approach was employed to analyse online media articles. Content analysis was used to organise the…

This article engages with the teacher education (TE) reform approach adopted in India's National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. It locates the policy recommendations in the context and challenges of TE in India and makes sense of the NEP's vision for the domain. It examines the knowledge traditions and global education policy (GEP) discourses that…

Music teachers commonly lack basic awareness of and skill in navigating various education policy areas. One explanation for this lack of policy acumen is the general absence of policy content within the preservice music teacher curriculum. While music teacher educators have primary responsibility for curricular decisions, music education program…

Since the advent of online education, some colleges and universities have looked to third-party companies for help developing, marketing, and providing their online degree and certificate programs. But in recent years, those companies have expanded to run more and more of their clients' online programs. An industry has developed around online…

The "Nature PhD Students Survey 2019" is a worldwide study on the wellbeing of PhD students and their attitudes towards academia. The Wellcome Trust's report on research culture, "What Researchers Think About the Culture They Work In" (2020), examines the attitudes of academics at all stages of their careers, including PhD…

Over the last two years the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) staff conducted a thorough program review to determine the current relevance and value of the Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP). This culminated in the report "Student Reciprocity Programs and MSEP in the 21st Century" (ED627191) which utilized historical MHEC…

In the past few years, dozens of states, localities, and schools have proposed or enacted "free college" policies, also known as College Promise programs. While a handful of states have run Promise-like programs for decades, the 2014 launch of the Tennessee Promise and the Obama administration's focus on the concept catalyzed several…

Because funding for many higher education institutions is based on student persistence and graduation rates, and because competition for online student enrollments is fierce among public and private institutions, quality and competitiveness in online course development, instruction, and administration is imperative. Additionally, because distance…

This article explores the status of student feedback channels and the role of student representatives in the quality assurance and enhancement of Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) programmes. It provides an analysis of 1941 open-ended survey responses, covering 87 EMJMD programmes and involving respondents of 129 nationalities. The…

This paper examines the expansion and management of quality of parallel programmes in Kenya's public universities. The study is based on Privately Sponsored Students Programmes (PSSP) at Moi University and its satellite campuses in Kenya. The study was descriptive in nature and adopted an ex-post facto research design. The study sample consisted…

Within California, there is widespread understanding and consensus that college affordability is a challenge that needs to be addressed. Along with this consensus on the nature and implications of California's college affordability problems, there is also emerging agreement about how to tackle it. While this convergence can form the backbone of a…

In 1994, the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) joined its sister compacts in offering a regional student reciprocity and tuition exchange opportunity known as the Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP). The program allowed students from one MHEC state to attend an institution at a reduced tuition rate in another MHEC state when the…