At New Mexico’s community colleges, student parents represent a significant portion of the student body.
And although the state has taken steps to help them, graduation is an uphill struggle for them.
A study of nine public high schools in New Mexico conducted by the Child Trends Research Center found that most parents pursuing graduate degrees are taking six to 11 credits.
Renee Ryberg, chief scientist at the nonprofit, said most of them have more than one child – meaning they have to juggle children, studies and work.
“Three-quarters of them are employed and to fit all that into the 24 hours of a day,” said Ryberg, “they are mostly studying part-time – 85 percent are pursuing a degree or certificate.”
According to Ryberg, almost 60% of student parents work at least 30 hours a week.
In New Mexico, three-quarters of student parents are mothers, and 33 percent report having no formal child care, while the same percentage rely on unpaid help from relatives or friends.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, many student parents without access to child care may miss classes and drop out.
Ryberg said community colleges offer students greater educational opportunities with less financial burden, more flexible schedules and smaller class sizes.
Currently, the average tuition for full-time study at an in-state public college offering a two-year degree is about $4,000 per year, compared to $11,000 at a public college offering a four-year degree.
Still, Ryberg said many parents, especially women, would ultimately benefit from keeping their children in school a few more years.
“If that single mother has an associate’s degree, she will earn $367,000 more over her lifetime,” Ryberg said, “and if she has a bachelor’s degree, she will earn over $600,000 more over her lifetime than a single mother with a high school diploma.”
A recent report on the best community colleges by personal finance website WalletHub lists Santa Fe Community College and Southeast New Mexico College as ranked 4th and 5th in the country.
San Juan College was ranked 15th among the top 20 in the country.
Support for this reporting was provided by the Lumina Foundation.
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A new partnership makes it easier for Dallas College students to transfer to a four-year university.
The college has joined forces with Texas A-and-M University-Commerce, Texas Woman’s University and the University of North Texas-Dallas to form the Dallas Transfer Collaborative.
Justin Lonon, chancellor of Dallas College, said a new hub will connect all four institutions to a central portal, streamlining the transfer process.
“It also provides technologies that allow students to say, ‘Hey, these are the courses I took at Dallas College,’ and integrate those courses into the broad range of programs offered by those universities,” Lonon explained.
The program is funded in part by the Commit Partnership’s Opportunity 2040 Fund, whose goal is to reduce child poverty in Dallas County by half and double the number of young adults earning a living wage.
Dallas College has more than 64,000 students enrolled across seven campuses, and Lonon said they hope the center will help more of those students continue their education after leaving community college.
“Almost half of our students come to us saying they intend to transfer, but only about one in four do so within three years,” Lonon stressed. “There can be many reasons for this, but we do not want there to be institutional barriers between our university partners.”
Lonon noted that they hope to add more universities to the group and that the program will serve as a model for other universities across the country.
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Idaho is suffering from a shortage of health care workers. Technology could help the state recruit and retain more doctors and nurses.
The Gem State has the fewest doctors per capita of any state in the country.
“Young healthcare professionals could benefit from integrating technology into their training, especially in rural states like Idaho,” says Dr. Teresa Conner, former dean of the College of Health at Idaho State University.
“We recruit our own people and train them in their communities that they grew up in and love,” Conner said. “They have bonds, and technology really helps us solve the equation of how we can bring providers into rural communities using the resource that they really already have – their people.”
Conner is now dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences at North Dakota State University.
She said enhanced communications technologies are helping to connect people across long distances and enable distance learning in rural areas.
Conner said another important technology is simulations.
She said that during her time at Idaho State University, grants from the Idaho Workforce Development Council and the Portneuf Health Trust helped her develop these tools.
Conner said these will be of great importance for healthcare education.
“The great thing about it is that it creates a safe error,” Conner said. “So in a simulation, if they get the wrong answer or fail, it’s OK because nobody gets hurt. And then they can discuss the error and learn from it.”
Conner said simulation technology could also help address the biggest bottleneck in healthcare education: the limited number of clinical placements.
She noted that this technology cannot replace real-world training, but said it provides an opportunity to show students important situations they may not encounter during their clinical experience.
“Through simulations,” says Conner, “we can ensure that students are exposed to a wide range of different cases, all of which we want them to be exposed to.”
Support for this reporting was provided by the Lumina Foundation.
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With students soon returning to universities, professors may see an increase in the number of international students. A new report finds that these enrollment numbers are rising and may be influenced by policy.
Nearly 27,000 international students are enrolled at Indiana’s universities.
The survey of nearly 2,500 international students found that 44 percent of respondents would be more likely to choose the United States as a place to study under a democratic government because they perceive the United States as more culturally welcoming.
Caitlin Andersen, founder of a graduate admissions consulting firm, said others would feel more comfortable with a Republican administration.
“Thirty percent of people who said they would be more likely to consider studying in the United States under a Trump presidency said the reason is that it inspires us because there will be more jobs, more opportunities and he will be less concerned with meddling in international affairs,” she said.
About a third of respondents said politics would make no difference in their college choice. Andersen said many international students come here to pursue STEM degrees. More also seek advanced business courses at Ivy League universities, which in turn actively recruit international students.
Andersen added that international students come to the United States to advance their careers and build an international network.
“They’re just very passionate about it,” she continued. “And that’s true of all cultures, really. The other motivator will be that they’ll take the skills home with them, to their families, and use them in their home countries.”
She noted that universities are reforming their screening processes by actively using artificial intelligence to facilitate an unbiased application process. The goal is to uncover information before a human admissions officer sees a student’s name or information that could reveal their country of origin.
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