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Fresh From The UIA

Fourth Scale Project

PORTLAND, Ore. – August 16, 2017 – The University Innovation Alliance (UIA) today announced a new scale initiative designed to ensure that students who face financial challenges at the end of their studies aren’t prevented from graduating. The new initiative will provide students at its 11 partner universities with completion grants to alleviate financial pressure in their last semesters.

UIA Institutions Tops Retention

When it comes to the classroom, we don’t want just one winner, which is why in the past we've used the Final Four as an analogy for the kind of thinking higher education should avoid.

We argued that while rounds of elimination may be exciting when it comes to sports, it’s misplaced in higher education where an unrealistic “beat the odds” mentality has traditionally held too much sway and is particularly out of place with respect to low income and first generation students.

Student Success Researcher

Passionate about student success? Great news! Oregon State University is hiring for a brand new Success Research and Data Coordinator position. This is a full-time, twelve month, fixed term professional faculty position that's part of the Division of Undergraduate Studies (DUS).

The DUS works to improve undergraduate eduacation at Oregon State with a particular emphasis on increasing & equalizing student success, retention, and graduation rates for all students. This role will take over the MAAPS data analyst role and work on other leading edge data projects.

New America

With the college degree ever more critical to economic mobility — both at the individual and national level — large public research universities have been stepping up to help America regain its edge. Universities are expanding access to high-quality education, increasing completion rates among first generation and low income students, and adopting new methods for preparing a new generation of students for a rapidly evolving economy.

UIA Career Opportunities

Great news! There's a new UIA fellow position opening at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. The Office of the President at UCF is seeking an early-career professional to support its Alliance-related student success projects.

We're Hiring

Do you create detailed project plans for your vacations? Are you more schedule driven than most cruise directors? Do you love checklists as much as meaningful, important work? Well, great news: the University Innovation Alliance is seeking an Operations Manager.

Job Description:

The Operations Manager will administer and control business operations functions in pursuit of the UIA’s strategic goals. These functions include internal processes and procedures, project management, budgeting, strategic planning, and other functions as assigned.

Michael Crow SXSW

In this bracing seven minute talk, ASU President Michael Crow provides a sweeping view how higher education evolved in America, from the first wave of "colonial colleges" like Harvard, Princeton, Bowdoin all the way to the current and fifth wave in which "full immersion and digital immersion are possible, costs are constrained, and the scale is all scales from individual learner to massive groups of learners."

Launching the Next Wave in Higher Education with ASU President Michael Crow

FAFSA

Last September President Obama announced a key change in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA, as it’s known. Beginning with the 2017-18 academic year, students will be able to apply for FAFSA as early as October first instead of waiting until January first of the new year.

While this change in federal policy was created with the intention of making it easier for students to apply for FAFSA and giving them more time to understand financial aid, it has real implications for institutions.

Beyond the Final Four

When Villanova’s Kris Jenkins hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to win the men’s NCAA basketball championship last month, the nation erupted in cheers. America loves an underdog, and Villanova — a small private school competing against perennial powerhouse North Carolina — wasn’t expected to win. The championship was their first in 31 years and just their second in history.

Underdog stories are inspiring in college athletics because we love to see ordinary people achieve extraordinary success through hard work and determination. And in sports, there can only be one champion.

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