higher education

Now in its sixth edition, Karen Levin Coburn’s “Letting Go: A Parents’ Guide to Understanding the College Years” gives parents an insider’s look at campus life and helps them navigate the complex emotions both they and their child will experience during the transition to college.

Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton has written the Missouri congressional delegation to express continued concerns about the serious negative impact that sequestration, expiring tax provisions, and other elements of the “fiscal cliff” could have on the mission of higher education and the nation as a whole.

Today, a group of the nation’s leading universities announced plans to launch a new, innovative program that transforms the model of online education. The new online education program, Semester Online, will be the first of its kind to offer undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous, online courses for credit from a consortium of universities. The program is delivered through a virtual classroom environment and interactive platform developed by 2U, formerly known as 2tor.

Washington University in St. Louis has taken a leadership role in helping to shape the future of online education by being a catalyst to bring together a consortium of the nation’s leading colleges and universities that plans to launch Semester Online. This program is a transformative new model for online education, offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous, online courses for credit from consortium schools.

More students with an autism spectrum disorder gravitate toward science, technology, engineering and math majors in college than other students. But they have low college admission rates because of gender, finances and other barriers, finds a new study, co-authored by Paul Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

How do students learn the skills necessary to work with those who are different from them? How do they come to understand the global ramifications of local actions? How does higher education effectively train this generation for the global workforce? The answers to these questions can be found through international volunteer service, which is increasingly seen at a broad range of institutions of higher education in a multitude of forms. “While it is not new to higher education, international service pedagogy is at the threshold of a new era,” she says. “We have both the opportunity and responsibility in higher education to support and critically assess the international service performed by our students,” says Amanda Moore McBride, PhD, associate professor and research director at the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

College eating habits can pack on extra pounds.New work from researchers at Washington University in St. Louis confirms that most students gain weight in college. Reporting in the Journal of American College Health, the research team found that about 70 percent of students gained a significant amount of weight between the start of college and the end of sophomore year.

College eating habits can pack on extra pounds.College students talk about the “Freshman 15.” That’s the typical number of credit hours a full-time student takes during a semester. Some also claim it’s the number of pounds students gain eating dorm food and studying all night. New work from researchers at Washington University in St. Louis confirms that most students do, indeed, gain weight in college. Reporting in the Journal of American College Health, the research team found that about 70 percent of students gained a significant amount of weight between the start of college and the end of sophomore year.

Mary Butkus/WUSTL PhotoFoster care teens have a desire to attend college, study shows.A solid education is considered the foundation for a productive future, but for teens in foster care, education beyond high school is rarely a reality. In fact, a Westat study found that only 44 percent of 18-year-olds leaving the independent living program of the foster care system completed high school. But despite common thought, this dismal percentage is not due to a lack of educational aspirations among teens in foster care. According to a recent study at the George Warren Brown (GWB) School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, a surprisingly high percentage — 70 percent — of teens in the foster care system have a desire to attend college.

Washington University in St. Louis is participating in Independent 529 Plan, a new prepaid college tuition plan tailored specifically for private colleges, announced Benjamin S. Sandler, the university’s special assistant to the chancellor. Independent 529 Plan responds to a national call to make higher education more affordable and more accessible to students, Sandler said. Washington University has joined with more than 200 other private colleges and universities across the country to offer this tax-advantaged way for families to save for tuition.