Michelle Obama endorsed the Obama administration's effort to encourage higher education institutions to increase the number of students who study abroad in China, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Although approximately 13,000 Americans study in China each year, the Obama administration hopes to double this number by 2014, The Chronicle reported. This goal may be difficult to achieve, however, since the government is not providing any funding for the initiative. Universities are advised to raise their own funds and attain support from the private sector, according to The Chronicle. Although legislation to provide $80 million in grants to study abroad programs was introduced in the last Congressional session, it was not passed due to the tight federal budget, The Chronicle reported. In addition to funding concerns, the Obama administration's goal is hampered by the limited Chinese culture and language education in American schools. The Obama administration believes that increased student exchanges would enhance the Chinese-American relationship, according to The Chronicle.
Following recent budget cuts at Texas' public universities, the University of Texas at Austin and ESPN announced a joint project to create a network covering the university's sports, Inside Higher Ed reported. In addition to athletics, the network will dedicate up to three hours each day to non-athletic content such as musical performances. The University of Texas at Austin's network will generate an estimated $10 to $12 million per year for the university. The income received from this venture will be divided evenly between academic and athletic purposes, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Although for-profit colleges educate a growing number of health care workers, they are not producing graduates in the most-needed areas of health care, such as nursing, according to a report released by the Center for American Progress on Thursday. Of the almost 250,000 degrees registered in the 2008-09 academic year, only 11,000 were in registered nursing, according to the report. The report which examined the contribution of graduates from for-profit colleges to the health care system projected a need for one million more nurses by 2018 and suggested that Congress provide colleges with initiatives to focus on training for in-demand jobs. For-profit institutions are instead graduating an excess of massage therapists and medical assistants, which might make it difficult for people in these occupations to find jobs in the future, according to the report.
