Student Union
Quitting School Means Less Pay in One's Pocket, Research Shows
College students who don't complete their degree programs might jeopardize their earning power, meaning there's less money to repay their student debt, say experts.
In the United States last year, 36 million Americans did not complete their studies, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The European Union found that in 2016, 3 million young people throughout its member nations had suspended their university education.
Across South America, nearly half of all 25- to 29-year-olds in 2017 had left school without earning a degree, the World Bank reported.
South African officials have reported similar statistics in their country.
Students report many reasons for leaving college or university without a degree, said Nichole Torpey-Sayboe, director of research for the Strada Education Network. The difficulty of college programs is not the top reason people give for leaving, she added.
Strada teamed up with Gallup, an American analytics and advisory company based in Washington, and released a report in December on why more than 42,000 Americans left school without a degree.
Researchers found the most common reason was the difficulty of balancing work with their college or university studies. Other reasons included the high cost of higher education and failure to see how their studies related to a career, Torpey-Sayboe said.
As for why so few consider returning to complete their education, she told VOA many Americans feel there is little chance of them succeeding if they do.
"They are afraid that they've been away from the classroom too long or they're just worried that the same situations that caused them to drop out before might still be there and make it difficult to be successful if they try again," she said.
Torpey-Sayboe suggested the problem in the United States is not just that students have less of a chance of finding good-paying jobs. They still have to repay student loans, and because they will likely have less access to better positions, they will struggle to repay that debt.
This makes an already difficult situation harder, noted Justin Ortagus, assistant professor of higher education policy at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
"If you're a low-income, first generation student, you don't necessarily have a parent to say, ‘This is what you need to do to enroll' … or, 'These are the types of courses you need to take to ensure you're up to date in your individual major,'" he said.
"You kind of have to learn on the fly and really rely on under-resourced institutions to provide the support and services that you need."
Community college efforts
Yet Ortagus is hopeful. Last month, he and two other University of Florida researchers released a study on efforts to re-admit students at two-year community colleges across the state.
Community colleges largely serve poor and minority students, many of whom are working in full-time positions and supporting families. Federal studies show that only about 30 percent of individuals who start their education at such schools earn a degree.
The study, however, showed that community colleges were able to help students return in two ways. First, the schools started sending text messages to more than 27,000 former students on their mobile phones. The messages provided links so they could immediately enroll in classes or get advice about the next best steps in their education.
The community colleges also offered to pay for the first class once those students decided to return to school. The text messages alone had little effect; however, the two efforts together made the individuals in the study 21 percent more likely to re-enroll.
Ortagus said that this demonstrates how a little financial aid can do a lot for those in need. And, eventually, the cost to the school is covered when the students are in a better position to pay for the rest of their education.
Nichole Torpey-Sayboe said these efforts are a good start. But she argued greater changes still need to be made to the entire structure of U.S. higher education.
Torpey-Sayboe said one can see evidence of this in the growing popularity of internet-based degree programs. She said colleges and universities need to consider offering more classes outside of normal business hours, and lawmakers need to consider giving more money to schools that serve needy students so they can improve their guidance services.
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- By VOA News
US is now the most desirable country for international students
That’s according to this year’s Emerging Futures research survey, from education consultant IDP Connect. Other Western countries have slipped due to new visa restrictions and caps on international students. Read a summary of the research from ICEF Monitor. (April 30, 2024)
Pro-Palestinian protesters break through barricades to retake MIT encampment
Pro-Palestinian protesters who had been blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday broke through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there, as Columbia University canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests.
Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group has been at the encampment for the past two weeks and that they were calling for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza.
"Specifically, our encampment is protesting MIT's direct research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense," he said.
Protesters also sat in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, blocking the street during rush hour in the Boston area.
The demonstrations at Columbia have roiled its campus and officials said Monday that while it won't hold it's main ceremony, students will be able to celebrate at a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies this week and next.
The decision comes as universities around the country wrangle with how to handle commencements for students whose high school graduations were derailed by COVID-19 in 2020. Another campus shaken by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its commencement from its Atlanta campus to a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions.
Columbia's decision to cancel its main ceremonies scheduled for May 15 saves its president, Minouche Shafik, from having to deliver a commencement address in the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest encampment last week. The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students.
"Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families," officials said.
Most of the ceremonies that had been scheduled for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were taken down last week, will take place about 8 kilometers (5 miles) north at Columbia's sports complex, officials said.
Speakers at some of Columbia's still-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames and Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health.
Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia's green or occupied an academic building were arrested in recent weeks.
Similar encampments sprouted up elsewhere as universities struggled with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.
The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony. Students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.
Other universities have held graduation ceremonies with beefed-up security. The University of Michigan's ceremony was interrupted by chanting a few times Saturday. In Boston on Sunday, some students waved small Palestinian or Israeli flags at Northeastern University's commencement in Fenway Park.
Emory's ceremonies scheduled for May 13 will be held at the GasSouth Arena and Convocation Center in Duluth, almost 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of the university's Atlanta campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.
"Please know that this decision was not taken lightly," Fenves wrote. "It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors and other agencies — each of which advised against holding commencement events on our campuses."
The 16,000-student university is one of many that has seen repeated protests stemming from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Student protesters are calling on their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.
Hamas on Monday announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its "core demands" and that it was pushing ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
"Cease-fires are temporary," said Selina Al-Shihabi, a Georgetown University sophomore who was taking part in a protest at George Washington. "There can be a cease-fire, but the U.S. government will continue to arm the Israeli military. We plan to be here until the university divests or until they drag us out of here."
At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 64 people, including 40 students.
The University of California, Los Angeles, moved all classes online for the entire week due to ongoing disruptions following the dismantling of an encampment last week. The university police force reported 44 arrests but there were no specific details, UCLA spokesperson Eddie North-Hager said in an email to The Associated Press.
Schools are trying various tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to get protestors to take down encampments or move to campus areas where demonstrations would be less intrusive.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Facebook post Sunday that it offered protesters "amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges" if they moved.
"Many protesters left the premises of their own accord after being notified by the police that they were trespassing and subject to arrest," the school said. "Those that remained were arrested after multiple warnings to leave, including some of whom we recognized as SAIC students."
A group of faculty and staff members at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the administration for amnesty for any students who were arrested and suspended during recent protests. UNC Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said in a media advisory that it would deliver a letter on behalf of more than 500 faculty who support the student activists.
Other universities took a different approach.
Harvard University's interim president, Alan Garber, warned students that those participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard could face "involuntary leave." That means they would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and may not be able to take exams, Garber said.
Columbia University cancels main commencement after protests that roiled campus for weeks
Columbia University is canceling its large university-wide commencement ceremony amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests but will hold smaller school-based ceremonies this week and next, the university announced Monday.
"Based on feedback from our students, we have decided to focus attention on our Class Days and school-level graduation ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, and to forego the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15," Columbia officials said in a statement.
The protests stem from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.
The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony while allowing other commencement activities to continue.
- By VOA News
Where Are Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests Happening?
Colleges in the U.S. have been rocked by a wave of campus protests calling for an end to the war in Gaza, and for U.S. colleges to divest from Israel.
The Wall Street Journal’s Steven Russolillo rounds up some of the most important ones. (April 2024)
Pro-Palestinian protests in US could impact 2024 election
Despite the fact that many of their encampments at university campuses have been dismantled, pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the United States are standing their ground. If the protests continue, some analysts say they could have an impact on the 2024 presidential election. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains.
