Student Union
- By Julie Taboh
Students Who Study Abroad Fare Better in Job Market
Collaboration between U.S. and foreign nations is essential to higher education, said educators meeting this week in Washington.
“We believe always as educators, and as scholars, that we grow from interaction with others,” said Sri Zaheer, dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. “We grow from ideas from working off the developments of others. That’s how knowledge advances.”
“We’re not just concerned about a particular country or a particular state,” she added. “We are concerned about our impact on society and our impact on the world. And the only way we can do it is through better collaboration.”
Students adapt better
Mary Dana Hinton, president of College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota, agreed.
“U.S.-China collaboration enlivens our work in higher education, both a professional impact on our students as well as what I would call a peace-building or humanistic impact,” she said.
She noted that 97% of students who study abroad are likely to be employed within 12 months of graduation, according to a study at the University of California-Merced, compared with 49% of the population overall.
“So, U.S.-China collaborations, like other international education programs, equip our students to go out into the world and find employment,” Hinton said.
Another benefit of global education abroad is that 80% adapt to diverse work environments better, and alums of global education programs make at least $6,000 more in starting salaries than those who don’t study abroad, Hinton said.
“So, you can certainly make an economic, business or professional case for the value of global education,” she said.
Humanistic element
There’s a transformational element, too, Hinton said, that comes out of U.S.-China collaborations: a “humanistic and peace-building” component.
She cited the nearly four-decade-long partnership her university has had with Southwest University in Beibei, China, where the two institutions have a robust student exchange program.
“When you have the student exchanges, it creates a climate of familiarity, a climate of trust, a climate of respect, that enables that research dialogue that enables faculty development.”
Hinton quoted slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., to buttress her point:
“I am convinced that men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other. They don’t know each other because they don’t communicate with each other, and they don’t communicate with each other because they are separated from each other.”
“At its best,” Hinton said, “a U.S.-China collaboration enables us to know each other, to communicate with each other, and to be together in the world.”
Sense of misunderstanding lingers
Kenyon Chan, chancellor emeritus at the University of Washington, said he was a little more skeptical than his colleagues on the panel. He said he feels there’s “a deep sense of disconnection and misunderstanding between the American and Chinese cultures.
“Between America and the rest of the world actually,” he added. “Because we’ve faced hundreds of years of Orientalism where America has viewed the Orient as some mysterious thing and could never understand that thing over there called ‘Asia,’” Chan said. “We always are ‘the other,’ and Asia continues to be, at the very least, a mystery to the American government, a mystery to many Americans, and so the foreignness, the lack of respect for that culture, I think needs to be overcome.
“So, when you do these student exchanges for collaborations, personally I think we first have to get them to confront their Orientalism and go over there with an open mind,” he added.
Reasons for optimism
Sri Zaheer said she feels more optimistic.
“Frankly, the best thing that we can do as educators is to expose young people to international experiences, to have them have international students in their classes, to send them abroad as often as possible,” she said.
Her school, Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, has an almost 100% student study abroad participation, which she feels has given them an advantage.
“We have about 2,700 undergraduates at the school at any time. They cannot graduate unless they have completed an international study experience,” she said.
Carlson started its collaborative program in 1993 with the Warsaw School of Economics in a joint executive master’s of business administration program. They now offer three degree programs in China.
“So our faculty had developed a global mindset” and “they felt that it was really important for our students to have that global mindset as well.”
Employers are positive, too, about graduates with global exchanges.
“They wanted students who are flexible, adaptable, happy to move to other places, comfortable with dealing across cultures, across differences, and there’s nothing quite like a global experience to make that happen,” Carlson said.
Her graduates have had above average job placement, she added.
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NCAA's $2.78 billion settlement with colleges to allow athlete payments gets preliminary approval
A judge granted preliminary approval Monday to the $2.78 billion legal settlement that would transform college sports by allowing schools to pay players.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken released an order setting a timeline for a deal that would put millions of dollars into the pockets of college athletes, who can begin applying for payment on October 18.
A final hearing is set for April 7, 2025, the day of college basketball's national title game. If finalized, the deal would allow the biggest schools to establish a pool of about $21.5 million in the first year to distribute to athletes via a revenue-sharing plan. Athletes would still be able to cut name, image and likeness deals with outside groups.
"We are pleased that we are one step closer to a revolutionary change in college athletics that will allow billions in revenue sharing," said plaintiff attorney Steve Berman.
The judge's approval comes 11 days after attorneys tweaked wording in the original settlement agreement to address Wilken's concerns. The main change involved getting rid of the word "boosters" and replacing it with a better-defined description of whose potential NIL deals would be subject to oversight by a neutral arbitrator once the deal goes through.
That did not, however, strike to the heart of the settlement, which sets up a revenue-sharing arrangement between schools and the athletes. The $21.5 million figure comes from the 22% of average revenue that power conference schools generate through media rights, tickets and other sources. It will be recalculated periodically through the 10-year window that the agreement covers.
"We are thrilled by Judge Wilken's decision to give preliminary approval to the landmark settlement that will help bring stability and sustainability to college athletics while delivering increased benefits to student-athletes for years to come," NCAA President Charlie Baker said. "Today's progress is a significant step in writing the next chapter for the future of college sports."
This settlement also allows former players to apply for payments to make up for lost revenue they would have received through NIL deals that weren't allowed in college sports before 2021. It sets up a framework to regulate future NIL deals and replaces scholarship caps with "roster limits," which will grow to 105 for football, the biggest sport at most major universities.
This settlement resolves three major antitrust lawsuits filed against the NCAA, including one spearheaded by Grant House, a former swimmer at Arizona State University. Berman's law firm says the value of new payments and benefits to college athletes is expected to exceed $20 billion over 10 years.
Still unknown, however, is how long the terms of this deal will last. Litigation regarding the rights of players to unionize and potentially be considered employees remains unsettled. Meanwhile, the NCAA is pushing for federal legislation to knit together a streamlined policy for NIL, which is currently regulated by a patchwork of state laws, legal settlements and NCAA rules.
Grace period for US student loan payments is over. Here's what you need to know
The 12-month grace period for student loan borrowers ended on September 30. The "on-ramp" period helped borrowers who are struggling to make payments avoid the risk of defaulting and hurting their credit score.
"The end of the on-ramp period means the beginning of the potentially harsh consequences for student loan borrowers who are not able to make payments," said Persis Yu, Deputy Executive Director at the Student Borrower Protection Center.
Around 43 million Americans have student loan debt, amounting to $1.5 trillion. Around eight million of those borrowers had enrolled in the SAVE plan, the newest income-driven repayment plan that extended the eligibility for borrowers to have affordable monthly student loan payments. However, this plan is currently on hold due to legal challenges.
With the on-ramp period and a separate program known as Fresh Start ending and the SAVE plan on hold, student loan borrowers who are struggling to afford their monthly payments have fewer options, added Yu. Student loan borrowers who haven't been able to afford their monthly payments must consider their options to avoid going into default.
If you have student loans, here's what you need to know.
What was the on-ramp period?
The Education Department implemented this grace period to ease the borrower's transition to make payments after a three-year payment pause during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this year-long period, borrowers were encouraged to keep making payments since interest continued to accumulate.
"Normally, loans will default if you fall about nine months behind on making payments, but during this on-ramp period, missed payments would not move people towards defaulting and then being subject to forced collections. However, if you missed payments, you still be falling behind ultimately on repaying your loans," said Abby Shaforth, director of National Consumer Law Center's Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.
Since this grace period has ended, student loan borrowers who don't make payments will go delinquent or, if their loans are not paid for nine months, go into default.
Borrowers who cannot afford to make payments can apply for deferment or forbearance, which pause payments, though interest continues to accrue.
What happens if I don't make my payments?
Borrowers who can't or don't pay risk delinquency and eventually default. That can badly hurt your credit rating and make you ineligible for additional aid and government benefits.
If a borrower missed one month's payment, they will start receiving email notifications, said Shaforth. Once the loan hasn't been paid for three months, loan servicers notify to the credit reporting agencies that the loan is delinquent, affecting your credit history. Once the borrower hasn't paid the loan for nine months, the loan goes into default.
If you're struggling to pay, advisers first encourage you to check if you qualify for an income-driven repayment plan, which determines your payments by looking at your expenses. You can see whether you qualify by visiting the Federal Student Aid website. If you've worked for a government agency or a non-profit organization, you could also be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which forgives student debt after 10 years.
What happens when a loan goes into default?
When you fall behind on a loan by 270 days — roughly nine months — the loan appears on your credit report as being in default.
Once a loan is in default, it goes into collections. This means the government can garnish wages (without a court order) to go towards paying back the loan, intercept tax refunds, and seize portions of Social Security checks and other benefit payments.
What if I can't pay?
If your budget doesn't allow you to resume payments, it's important to know how to navigate the possibility of default and delinquency on a student loan. Both can hurt your credit rating, which would make you ineligible for additional aid.
If you're in a short-term financial bind, you may qualify for deferment or forbearance — allowing you to temporarily suspend payment.
To determine whether deferment or forbearance are good options for you, you can contact your loan servicer. One thing to note: interest still accrues during deferment or forbearance. Both can also impact potential loan forgiveness options. Depending on the conditions of your deferment or forbearance, it may make sense to continue paying the interest during the payment suspension.
What is an income-driven repayment plan?
The U.S. Education Department offers several plans for repaying federal student loans. Under the standard plan, borrowers are charged a fixed monthly amount that ensures all their debt will be repaid after 10 years. But if borrowers have difficulty paying that amount, they can enroll in one of several plans that offer lower monthly payments based on income and family size. Those are known as income-driven repayment plans.
Income-driven options have been offered for years and generally cap monthly payments at 10% of a borrower's discretionary income. If a borrower's earnings are low enough, their bill is reduced to $0. And after 20 or 25 years, any remaining debt gets erased.
What is the latest with the SAVE program?
In August, the Supreme Court kept on hold the SAVE plan, the income-driven repayment plan that would have lowered payments for millions of borrowers, while lawsuits make their way through lower courts.
Eight million borrowers who had already enrolled in the SAVE plan don't have to pay their monthly student loan bills until the court case is resolved. Debt that already had been forgiven under the plan was unaffected.
The next court hearing about this case will be held on October 15.
What happened with the Fresh Start program?
The Fresh Start program, which gave benefits to borrowers who were delinquent prior to the pandemic payment pause, also closed on September 30. During this limited program, student loan borrowers who were in default prior to the pandemic were given the opportunity to remove their loans from default, allowing them to enroll in income-driven payment plans, or apply for deferment, among other benefits.
