World Bank President and former College President Jim Yong Kim joined other financial leaders on Sunday to tell Congress to reopen the U.S. government and raise the debt ceiling to avoid major economic issues, The New York Times reported on Sunday. Kim and other leaders originally went to Washington, D.C. to discuss the international economic recovery, but the topic transformed into the United States' fiscal problems, including the increasing likelihood that the Treasury Department will run out of the money needed to pay its bills in the coming weeks. Kim said hitting the debt ceiling would be "a very dangerous moment," especially for developing countries.
The Obama administration is increasing regulation of for-profit colleges and is drafting new rules that would require these programs to prove they are preparing students for "gainful employment," Inside Higher Ed reported yesterday. Some advocates of for-profit institutions said the Education Department is forcing them to go through approval processes that nonprofit institutions are exempted from. Education Department officials said a 2010 law distinguishes between the two different types of colleges, and allows them to treat the institutions differently. Lawyers said the distinctions remain murky and could prompt legal disputes.
After recent battles over intellectual property, the American Association of University Professors released a set of principles for higher education institutions to protect the writing, inventions and course materials created by professors, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on Friday. Most of the principles focused on licensing and managing institute-sponsored research. The association hopes colleges will incorporate the principles in faculty handbooks and contracts and will incorporate the principles into a study to be released in 2014.
