/r/highereducation

Photograph via snooOG

A subreddit for news and discussion about higher education in an increasingly difficult time. Ideal for people working in and around higher ed— or those interested in joining!


NOTE

We have set the sub to "Restricted" to combat brigading from anti-higher education forces. We will only read requests from those who explain what their connection to higher education is. All others will be ignored.


Please be thoughtful, be engaged, and don't be afraid to share! The updated /r/HigherEducation Content Policies are available here.

Unless otherwise noted, all users speak for themselves rather than their respective employers.


Subreddit Rules

For More Details, Please Read Here

  1. Exercise Respectful Civility and Reddiquette

  2. Keep Posts on Topic

  3. No Self-Promotion

  4. Do Not Facilitate Harassment

  5. Avoid Third-Party Link Shorteners

  6. Do Not Directly Promote Plagiarism Services

  7. No Individual Admissions or Advising Questions

  8. Contribute to the Field, Not Just the Comment Count

  9. Surveys: We realize many of you are hoping to reach our subreddit audience for use in your surveys. However, we want to keep surveys relevant to our users. As such, anyone submitting a survey must receive prior approval. All surveys not receiving prior approval will be removed with no opportunity to resubmit. We hope to be back to anyone requesting permission within 24 hours.


/r/AskAcademia handles questions about academic life with aplomb and insight.

/r/Professors is a community for faculty members to "collaborate, commiserate, vent, whatever."

/r/StudentAffairs is dedicated to college & university programs that encourage student development outside the classroom.

/r/CommunityColleges is for anyone interested in news, trends, and policies related to two-year institutions.

/r/College hosts more general discussion about life as an undergraduate.

/r/GradSchool does the same from graduate school.

/r/FindAPath handles questions and concerns related to career exploration and selecting a major or degree program.


The Reddit Education Network:

  • /r/Education: A place to discuss the news and politics of education.

  • /r/AdultEducation: A place for adult educators to discuss tips and tricks to engaging an adult audience.

  • /r/ArtEd: A place for art educators to discuss the importance of art education and to share and collaborate on resources.

  • /r/CSEducation: A place for computer science educators and education researchers.

  • /r/ECEProfessionals: A place for early childhood educators to learn, grow, and contribute as professionals.

  • /r/EdTech: A place to share news and sites related to educational technology

  • /r/ELATeachers: A place for English teachers to share ideas and lessons and to brainstorm and collaborate on new curriculum.

  • /r/HigherEducation: A place to discuss and share articles related to higher education.

  • /r/HistoryTeachers: A place to discuss and share resources for history educators.

  • /r/ScienceTeachers: A place for science educators to collaborate on and contribute tips, ideas, labs, and curricula.

  • /r/SpecialEd: Where special education teachers can discuss and share resources related to the education of students with special needs.

  • /r/Teachers: A place to discuss the practice of teaching, receive support from fellow teachers, and gain insight into the teaching profession.

  • /r/TeachingResources: A great place to share and discover teaching resources, such as demos, blogs, simulations, and visual aids.


/r/highereducation

59,056 Subscribers

3

Working in admissions at a trade school. Is it different than working at a university?

I’m considering working in admissions at a small trade school. Has anyone done it before? Is it any different than working at a public university?

1 Comment
2024/03/31
00:37 UTC

2

The proportion of racialized people with a bachelor’s degree or higher reached an all-time high in 2021 / La proportion de personnes racisées titulaires d’un baccalauréat ou d’un grade supérieur a atteint un sommet inégalé en 2021

Racialized groups in Canada generally have higher levels of education than the total population. These results are from a new series of 10 updated data tables that are part of the Social Inclusion Framework for Canada’s Ethnocultural Groups. This release presents selected results on education and skill development, in particular for the highest certificate, diploma or degree completed:

  • The proportion of racialized people with a bachelor’s degree or higher rose from 34.9% in 2006 to 47.5% in 2021.
  • Among racialized groups, South Asian, Chinese and West Asian populations had the largest percentage point increases from 2006 to 2021.
  • For the first time, in 2021, the proportion of racialized women with a bachelor’s degree or higher (48.4%) was higher than the proportion of their male counterparts (46.5%).

We are Canada’s national statistical agency. We are here to engage with Canadians and provide them with high-quality statistical information that matters! Publishing in a subreddit does not imply we endorse the content posted by other redditors.

***

Les groupes racisés ont des niveaux de scolarité généralement plus élevés que l’ensemble de la population canadienne. Ces résultats proviennent d’une nouvelle série de tableaux de données actualisées qui font partie du Cadre de l’inclusion sociale relatif aux groupes ethnoculturels du Canada. Le communiqué fait état de quelques résultats sur la scolarité et le perfectionnement des compétences, plus particulièrement sur l’indicateur du plus haut certificat, diplôme ou grade obtenu.

  • La proportion de personnes racisées titulaires d’un baccalauréat ou d’un grade supérieur a augmenté passant de 23,0 % en 2006 à 32,9 % en 2021.
  • Parmi les groupes racisés, les populations sud-asiatiques, chinoises et asiatiques occidentales ont affiché les hausses en points de pourcentage les plus importantes de 2006 à 2021.
  • Pour la première fois, en 2021, la proportion de femmes racisées titulaires d’un baccalauréat ou d’un grade supérieur (48,4 %) dépasse celle de leurs homologues de genre masculin (46,5 %).

Nous sommes l’organisme national de statistique du Canada. Nous sommes ici pour discuter avec les Canadiens et les Canadiennes et leur fournir des renseignements statistiques de grande qualité qui comptent! Le fait de publier dans un sous-reddit ne signifie pas que nous approuvons le contenu affiché par d’autres utilisateurs de Reddit.

0 Comments
2024/03/28
19:39 UTC

5

Newer to leadership and struggling with always feeling behind

For a bit of context, I'm in my first leadership position and oversee a smaller office within a Student Affairs division. I'm the only full-time staff in the office, but do have a few student workers. Our office works with students, staff, and faculty due to the nature of my role, and we are often balancing endeavors in both student programming and faculty/staff initiatives.

Lately, I've been struggling with feeling constantly behind and trying to not burn out. I try hard to practice a healthy work-life balance, but in doing so feel I get behind at times, which in turn triggers my anxiety that I've upset someone or have come off unprofessional. I also struggle with ADHD and am a bit socially awkward due to my neurodivergence, so often find myself working late to try to overcompensate for my feelings of inadequacy.

I've been in my role a little over a year now and just want to do my best. Any advice for trying to not feel constantly behind, or that I've constantly forgotten something / haven't responded to an email fast enough? I'm often off-location at events as well, so sometimes it takes me a little bit to respond since I don't have a team that can take over the professional logistics of programming.

5 Comments
2024/03/27
23:47 UTC

7

U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard

FYI for those who have not yet used the USDE College Scorecard database an excellent, government produced resource on the health and viability of institutions of higher ed.

A search in this database should be the first move for anyone thinking of attending, working, or sending their kids to a particular university.

For example: here is the entry on a particularly miserable school, clearly documented in numbers: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?209603-Pacific-Northwest-College-of-Art

1 Comment
2024/03/16
22:57 UTC

4

Questions on switching between community college and 4-year university

Hi all,

I am about to start my career in higher education. I am currently negotiating a teaching faculty position at a large R1, 4-year university. I am also in the 2nd round of interviews for a community college tenure track position. I am optimistic about getting an offer but there is nothing set in stone just yet.

My preference at the moment is the community college both for higher pay and location. The one thing that I'm concerned about is if down the line I would like to switch to a 4-year university to teach upper level material more in line with my background/interests, would teaching at a community college work against me?

Additionally, does anyone have experience with working in both settings? If so, why did you switch from one to the other?

Thank you for your time!

10 Comments
2024/03/14
21:07 UTC

3

New to Disability and Access Specialist Position

I started a Disability and Access Specialist Position at a university, a few weeks ago. Previously, I worked in the K-12 setting. I feel like I have had very little training and am feeling overwhelmed. Has anybody had a similar experience and can provide tips and advice on navigating the disability and access field jn HE?

5 Comments
2024/03/14
03:27 UTC

3

Job Hunt / Interview Advice?

Hey guys! I just graduated in Dec with a degree in Educational Studies. In college, I worked in the Academic Success Department and Residence Life and Housing. I was also pretty involved on campus and in my sorority. I've put in close to 20 applications for various higher ed roles in the 4 colleges around me that are entry-level / align with my experiences. I had one interview back in January for an admissions role that went well but the committee still has not made a final decision. I've followed up with personal emails for all of the positions I've applied for.

I was just wondering, what interview or job search advice do people who have previously worked in higher ed have? How long can it take to get hired? Thank you guys!

7 Comments
2024/03/12
00:05 UTC

9

Brown reinstates SAT/ACT for class of 2029, keeps legacy admissions

I guess everything old is new again. What’s interesting is that Brown was not only mulling cutting legacies but they also grouped children of faculty and staff in with the legacy group in that discussion. For as little as higher Ed pays, that’s a slap in the face that they would even think about taking away that benefit. But also if you want to talk about preferential treatment and how it’s bad, if they’re able to get into Brown just because their parent works there, that’s not fair either.

Press release: https://www.brown.edu/news/2024-03-05/admissions

11 Comments
2024/03/08
13:54 UTC

4

About to begin teaching a course and my kid is constantly bringing home germs from daycare, how to handle this?

I'm about to begin teaching an 8-week, in-person course. I have a 5 month old baby who started daycare 3 weeks ago and in that time I have already been sick twice, back to back. I'm trying to figure out the best way to minimize how much I expose students to germs (since I will inevitably get sick, probably multiple times over 8 weeks) without compromising the quality of the course. Would really appreciate hearing what other people have done or what they think the best approach would be.

Moves I'm considering:

- Let students know I have a kid who is newly in daycare and bringing home a lot of germs. Pros: aware of risks, can take whatever measures they think are appropriate. Cons: anxiety, avoiding in-person lectures/office hours

- Wear a mask all the time. Pros: reduce risk to students. Cons: mild impediment to communication (or major impediment to students who rely on lip reading). I also had an experience in a previous class where I was wearing a mask and a student misread the tone of a remark as impatience rather than excitement, I think in part because they couldn't see my expression.

- Move lectures to Zoom when I'm sick. Pros: avoid exposing students when I'm most infectious. Cons: disruptive, especially if announced last minute; decent chance this would happen for more than 20% of lectures; student engagement and learning suffer somewhat (especially if classes are not designed for Zoom)

- Give students the option to attend any/all lectures via Zoom. Pros: still able to hold classes in-person, students can avoid exposure. Cons: many students likely to attend remotely for other reasons; hybrid classes are probably the worst in terms of engagement and learning

I'm open to other suggestions as well. Note, moving the course entirely online is not an option per my university. International students have in-person credit requirements to maintain their visas so with a few exceptions courses are required to be in-person.

5 Comments
2024/03/07
18:17 UTC

0

Reddit IPO Implications for Higher Ed Leaders [Public Trust]

I've been ruminating on the Reddit IPO since the prospectus was released a couple weeks ago. My job is to apply social intelligence to higher education, and I've been talking with presidents and senior administrators about Reddit in particular for the last year or so.

I sent the following short essay to newsletter subscribers yesterday, and received excellent initial feedback. Because of the relevant topics (AI, public trust in higher ed), I'd like to engage members of this sub in further discussion—you're likely to have a better understanding of how Reddit works than the average higher ed administrator, since you're already here. In keeping with the rules, I've removed any links to my website. Links to other data and industry sources with editorial oversight remain. Looking forward to your thoughts and feedback, sub.

What the Reddit IPO Suggests for Higher Ed Leaders Seeking to Rebuild Public Trust

Reddit filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange last month. Its prospectus highlights the impact the anonymous forum site has on public trust—and how higher education leaders can leverage the insight within its 17 billion posts and comments to rebuild trust and inform a proactive, audience-centric market strategy.Founded in 2005, Reddit is the last of the 2000s era social media companies to go public. It’s unique amongst this peer group (Meta, Snap, Twitter, etc) because of how it works. The prospectus states, “Reddit’s community ecosystem is organically built upon shared interests, passions, and trust rather than friends, celebrities, and their followers.” This ecosystem is 18 years old. For your youngest students, Reddit has always been a place to learn and seek advice. Adults under 30 are four times more likely to use Reddit than those ages 50–64. This demographic—which extends beyond traditional-aged college students—is more likely to use Reddit than LinkedIn.

Reddit’s prospectus explains that users come to the site and its communities because it is:

  • An open, growing archive of human knowledge
  • Centered on interests, with unmatched breadth and depth of human knowledge
  • People-powered curation for authentic interactions and trusted content
  • A place for authentic and trusted recommendations
  • A flexible canvas for self- and community-expression
  • Using layered moderation, community management, and safety to support trust

These attributes are strikingly similar to the environment colleges and universities strive to create. The authentic, often anonymous conversations happening on Reddit can inform how you build an environment that attracts students and engenders their trust. The proof of the value this insight brings to organizations is in the emerging pillar of Reddit’s business model: licensing user conversation data.

While at the moment Reddit follows the typical social media pattern of generating revenue through advertising, its emerging revenue source is data licensing. The offering prospectus touts “the value of Reddit’s data in sentiment analysis and trend identification” in connection with an estimated $1 trillion artificial intelligence market that uses robust user conversation to train large language models and generative AI. “We are also in the early stages of monetizing our emerging opportunity in data licensing by allowing third parties to access, search, and analyze data on our platform.” Reddit entered into $203 million in data-licensing agreements in January 2024 and expects this revenue stream to grow rapidly.

The AI tools prospective students will use to get information about college will be trained on Reddit data. Colleges and universities that don’t use this data for their own strategic intelligence now are missing an opportunity to keep up with the market as it evolves.

People already trust Reddit. It influences their perception of higher education, where they apply and attend, and what they’re willing to pay. The same week Inside Higher Ed published its survey of college presidents reporting they believed the top factor in public skepticism about the value of higher education is affordability, a 19-year-old posted to Reddit worried about “selling their soul to Drexel” after facing the prospect of a $300,000 degree. This was posted to the Personal Finance subreddit with 19 million members.

Once Reddit content is powering LLMs developed by big tech firms, the opinions and experiences within the site will have an exponentially greater reach and impact. For years, colleges have had the ability to use Reddit’s data to understand markets and audiences, build student community, identify reputation threats, and regain public trust. If higher education doesn’t make use of this data to inform its own operations and strategy and disrupt itself, tech companies will use it to force further consumer-driven market disruption.

3 Comments
2024/03/07
13:11 UTC

6

Difference between Education Specialist and a Doctorate?

Hello all,

I'm still deciding on if I want to pursue a PhD after completing my master's next year. I've seen online that PhD's are mostly for professors or those who want to do research. Is this true, and if I wanted to be a dean of students when my career is all said and done which would be the better option? I would love to hear the experiences of those with either degree :)

5 Comments
2024/03/05
18:57 UTC

5

Tuition Benefits

A lot of positions come with tuition benefits. For those of you that have used them, what degree did you get/are your pursuing? How long did/will it take you to finish? Is there anyone out there that got multiple extra degrees? I really enjoy learning as a hobby and am interested in taking advantage of this perk. Also as added bonus, does earning an extra degree increase your pay? Also are the taxes that would be withheld worth it if the tuition amount waived is over the allowed amount by the IRS?

11 Comments
2024/03/04
20:51 UTC

9

Just received a job in a public higher ed institution

Just received an initial job offer at a large public university in the midwest with a huge hospital system. I'd be working 2 levels up as an associate and part of the duties include managing staff. The pay in the initial offer is abysmal (40k), basically at the ground level in the band of the pay scale, which has a range of 38-70k. The health benefits, 5 weeks vacation, sick leave, are very good.

My background is running a small business for 20 years, so I'm feeling pretty lucky that the interview went well enough to overcome the fact I don't have any experience in a formal job setting - they are taking a risk with someone who isnt used to having a boss and regimented schedule. This university is huge (15k employees) and my goal would be to keep applying to more interesting positions, and I think that being "in" would help my candidacy vs external candidates. The job itself isnt amazing and the hours arent very good for family life (5pm-1:30am)

Appreciate thoughts and would like to hear experiences as far as how job hopping is perceived, as well as suggestions on negotiating the starting salary.

24 Comments
2024/02/29
00:15 UTC

3

ConceptTest questions in higher education

Hi. I'm an academic developer in France (Nantes, IMT Atlantique). During the new teachers formation I present Eric Mazur's Peer Teaching and ConcepTest. I'm looking for open banks of ConceptTest questions in higher education? Any hints?Regards, Jean-Loup Castaigne

2 Comments
2024/02/28
19:52 UTC

2

Models and frameworks for whole of curriculum?

I asked a lecturer if they thought theories, models or frameworks for teaching were useful and did his university have a whole of curriculum model.

he favoured a constructivist approach (no surprise) but there was no particular model to frame or guide teaching across the school.

Is it rare to have a common or unified theory of teaching? is it rare for teaching to be guided by a model? anyone using models - could you post what they are?

It’s for a small writing project - I’m new to thinking through the structural underpinnings of pedagogy, look forward to hearing your thoughts!

5 Comments
2024/02/26
22:40 UTC

0

Disability and mental health advocate wanting to transition into disability services/student support. Seeking professional connections and advice

Hi there! I'm a disabled person and mental health advocate who would like to transition into a career working in disability services and/or student support in higher education (ideally in Canada and NOT the US!)

Unfortunately, I do not have the relevant educational credentials nor the professional experience. However, I do have significant lived experience and have been a vocal advocate for change for many years (which is what is fueling the desire to transition). I don't have a Bachelors, and quite frankly, going back to school is just not affordable right now.

Last summer, I was fortunate to have interviewed for such a position, but (to my utter heartbreak) did not get it, with the feedback that I lack enough experience supporting students in the classroom. I don't want to sound trite, but at this point in my life, I feel that working in such a role would be absolutely perfect for me and just feels so right. I can definitely see myself working and doing it day in and day out.

I'm wondering, is there anyone here who would be willing to connect professionally to discuss this further and share what the job is like? Thanks so much!

2 Comments
2024/02/26
13:06 UTC

14

Looking for advice from former Academic Advisors who left for another field. What did you do instead? I want out.

As the title suggests I am an Academic Advisor for a higher education institution, with a focus in Sciences.

Most of my job involves the usual stuff: meeting with students to field their questions and provide course/program guidance, planning course schedules, running various reports, and providing emotional counselling to students (which isn't really in our job description but you know). All of that might be fine, except I've been in this role for a few years and my biggest challenge with it is 1) feeling so stretched thin (supporting around a thousand students in the program) and 2) doing a lot of random things like social media management and job fairs to pump up admissions. Like other posts I've read, all of the extra work makes every day extremely unpredictable, on top of a workload that is already extremely busy. At the end of the day I do care alot about my students so I end up giving 150% every day, often working late, and it doesn't feel sustainable. My team is OK and working in an office isn't bad, but I am struggling to figure out where I can transfer my skills to so I can get out of academia.

I have an undergraduate degree in Science, and prior experiences were in front-line minimum-wage jobs. I enjoy the parts of the job that use my analytic, problem solving, and reporting skills. I'm a lot less passionate about the person-aspect of my job, I do enjoy some interaction but 1-2 hour counselling sessions every day tend to burn me out.

I would appreciate any success stories or advice anyone may have!

7 Comments
2024/02/24
18:05 UTC

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