Higher Ed Dive’s 2022 Outlooks

Here are the trends and questions facing higher education that we're watching, from enrollment pressures to key court cases and for-profit colleges' future.

By Higher Ed Dive Staff • Feb. 8, 2022

Higher ed groups call for stricter oversight of accreditors

Accreditors that manage low-performing colleges are seldom disciplined, 16 experts and advocacy groups wrote to the Education Department.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Feb. 7, 2022

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial Intelligence

As AI continues its forward march in education and the workplace, colleges are grapplling with how best to incorporate the emerging technology into admissions, courrsework and elsewhere

By Higher Ed Dive staff

Public colleges must change accreditors every 5 years, Florida bill proposes

Lawmakers introduced legislation shortly after an accreditor inquired into political influence at two of the state's universities.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Feb. 4, 2022

Federal Title IX probe into Brigham Young U unlikely to yield consequences

It's another chapter in a long struggle over LGBTQ rights on campuses, but the Mormon institution has a religious exemption from anti-discrimination law.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Feb. 3, 2022

How does higher ed define a rural-serving college?

The Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges created metrics for gauging an institution's rurality and wants policymakers to take note of its findings.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Feb. 1, 2022

Virginia AG elevates wife of GOP donor to George Mason's interim top legal post

The pick comes weeks after new Republican AG Jason Miyares fired counsels at U of Virginia and George Mason, spurring concerns the move was political.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Jan. 28, 2022

Cardona calls for 'reset' in US education system

The U.S. secretary of education specifically urged schools to address pre-pandemic inequities and support students who are academically behind.

By Kara Arundel • Jan. 27, 2022

SUNY stops withholding transcripts from students with debt

The move by the nation's largest public comprehensive higher ed system represents a win in a campaign to end the practice.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Jan. 26, 2022

Supreme Court agrees to hear race-conscious admissions challenge against Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill

Court combines cases challenging race as one of several admissions factors, fueling speculation its conservative majority could strike down the practice.

By Rick Seltzer • Jan. 24, 2022

U of Florida can't control professors' participation in lawsuits, judge rules

A preliminary injunction means the institution currently can't enforce a controversial conflict-of-interest policy that spurred three academics to sue.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Jan. 21, 2022

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will examine private student lending

The CFPB will look at practices like colleges restricting enrollment for students behind on loan payments and accelerating payments for those who withdraw.

By Rick Seltzer • Jan. 20, 2022

Former Kentucky State president sues financially embattled university for $270K severance

M. Christopher Brown II alleges he was forced to resign, but the university argues he breached his contract by mismanaging the budget. 

By Natalie Schwartz • Jan. 18, 2022

Student loan giant Navient inks $1.85B settlement over fraud claims

The company will cancel the student loan debt of about 66,000 borrowers in an agreement with 39 state attorneys general.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Jan. 13, 2022

SCOTUS upholds stay on OSHA’s vaccine mandate

The justices opted to dissolve injunctions placed on a separate vaccination mandate for healthcare workers.

By Ryan Golden • Jan. 13, 2022

6 higher education lawsuits to watch in 2022

We're keeping an eye on cases including a challenge to affirmative action that could reach the Supreme Court and alleged price fixing by wealthy colleges.

By Natalie Schwartz • Jan. 11, 2022

Top-ranked colleges illegally conspire to limit financial aid offers, lawsuit alleges

Five former students say 16 selective colleges violated antitrust laws, artificially raising the price of attendance and favoring wealthy students.

By Natalie Schwartz • Jan. 10, 2022

New York's governor shares ambitious new vision for SUNY

The plan calls for boosting enrollment to 500,000 students but could pit newly designated flagships against others in the 64-campus system.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Jan. 6, 2022

Legislation would create new routes for sexual assault survivors to sue U of Michigan

A proposal would open a 30-day window for students abused by a former sports doctor to file lawsuits beyond the statute of limitations.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Jan. 6, 2022

Government encouraged to step up on college accountability

Simply providing data about student outcomes won't overcome the higher education market's failures, an education policy expert argues.

By Laura Spitalniak • Jan. 5, 2022

Bates College fights federal labor board's decision on union vote

The liberal arts institution says that nontenured faculty shouldn't be grouped together with staff, who have different interests.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Jan. 5, 2022

7 higher education trends to watch in 2022

Politics bleeding into college operations, new regulatory action, continued expansion of online ed and more are stories we'll be following in 2022.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Jan. 4, 2022

What happened when one campus flip-flopped on mask mandates

To faculty, on-again off-again requirements at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville looked like sinking time and resources into pleasing lawmakers.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Dec. 22, 2021

Arizona scholarship to start covering tuition for low-income students attending 4-year universities

The promise program is meant to boost college enrollment in a state where just 17% of current 9th graders are on pace to have four-year degrees by 2029.

By Laura Spitalniak • Updated Dec. 23, 2021

Ed Dept expects to issue Title IX proposal in April 2022, displeasing advocates

The Biden administration moved up the release date by a month, but survivor advocates call for more steps to change enforcement in the meantime.

By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf • Dec. 13, 2021

Colleges roll back employee vaccine requirements after injunction blocks federal contractor mandate

Colleges kept encouraging vaccination, even after removing requirements that employees get the shots.

By Rick Seltzer • Dec. 8, 2021