Student Loan Blog : research

Senator Pushes Colleges for Enhanced Oversight of Funded Research and Endowments

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:57:00 GMT

Sen. Charles Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, wants colleges to be held more accountable in both their academic research and their endowment spending, according to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Sen. Grassley Pressures Universities on Science Conflicts and Financial Aid,” July 25, 2008).

In an exclusive interview with the Chronicle, Grassley said the National Institutes of Health should revoke any of the grants it awards to scientists if a researcher fails to report a conflict of interest with her or his institution. The senator has singled out several institutions of higher education, including Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of Cincinnati, after his office determined that some scientists at these schools had not fully reported their own financial interests in research projects supported by the NIH, as research institutions are required to do by law.

Grassley has asked 20 other colleges and universities to provide details about possible financial conflicts of interest between university researchers and the NIH.

Colleges Need to Direct More of Their Endowment Funds Toward Financial Aid

The senator has also criticized academic institutions with large endowments for spending too little on financial aid for disadvantaged students. The senator recently asked 136 schools to specify how they spend their endowment income.

Institutions that responded indicated that much of these endowments comes from donors who have earmarked their financial gifts for purposes other than financial aid. The senator said he wasn’t persuaded by the argument and noted that he may still pursue legislation that would require universities to spend as much as 5 percent of their endowments each year, although he hopes such a requirement won’t be necessary.

Grassley stated that he may not sponsor such legislation if more schools begin voluntarily following the example set by some of the nation’s elite institutions that began funneling more of their endowment funds to student financial aid packages earlier this year.

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Medical Institute Awards $600 Million to 56 Biomedical Scientists

Student Loan Girl — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:25:00 GMT

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, one of the largest sources of private funds for biomedical research, named 56 of the nation’s most gifted biomedical scientists as HHMI “investigators” this week (“HHMI Selects 56 of the Nation’s Top Scientists,” May 27, 2008).

HHMI investigators, who maintain faculty positions at universities and other research institutions, are scientists who embody the HHMI commitment to discovery, research, innovation, and to “extend[ing] the boundaries of science.” Previous appointees include 124 members of the National Academy of Sciences and 12 Nobel Prize winners.

HHMI honored 42 men and 14 women from 31 different institutions, with seven organizations gaining HHMI investigators for the first time: the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, Boston University, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cornell University, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

HHMI selected its new investigators from among 1,070 applicants — researchers who had four to 10 years’ experience as faculty members at institutions across the country — in a nationwide competition that began in 2007.

In their first term of appointment, this year’s honorees will collectively receive more than $600 million to cover salaries, benefits, research funds, and other expenses. And because the HHMI philosophy is to support individuals as opposed to a specific course of research — to appoint investigators rather than award research grants — these investigators will be given the flexibility and financing to explore evolving ideas, to change the direction of their research if necessary, and to complete the course of their investigation, even if it takes many years.

“These 56 scientists will bring new and innovative ways of thinking about biology to the HHMI community,” said Thomas R. Cech, president of HHMI. “They are poised to advance scientific knowledge dramatically in the coming years, and we are committed to providing them with the freedom and flexibility to do so.”

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Fewer Foreign Students Seeking Advanced Degrees in the U.S.

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:44:00 GMT

The growth rate of international students studying at American colleges and universities has slowed, despite an increase in foreign applications to U.S. educational institutions for the third straight year in a row, according to a recent survey.

The 2008 edition of the International Graduate Admissions Survey, a review conducted annually by the Council of Graduate Schools, found that the number of international applications increased by just 3 percent in 2008, compared to a 9-percent increase in 2007 and a 12-percent increase in 2006.

Applications are down for students from China, Korea, and India, who together account for the vast majority of international students studying in the United States each year.

The CGS survey also found a continued slowdown in the number of foreign students applying to U.S. science and engineering programs — two fields that draw heavily on international students.

In the physical sciences, applications increased by only 7 percent this year, after gains of 12 percent in 2007 and 15 percent in 2006. Meanwhile, the number of engineering applications rose by just 1 percent, following a 13-percent increase last year and a 19-percent jump between 2005 and 2006.

International Applicants Hampered by Tighter Visa Requirements

The decline in applications may be partially attributed to increased competition from advanced degree programs abroad, Karen Klomparens, dean of the graduate school at Michigan State University, told The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Growth in Foreign Applications to American Graduate Schools Slows,” April 14, 2008).

Klomparens points to Australia, New Zealand, and Europe as favored student destinations offering increased choice in doctoral education.

Some international students may also be deterred by stricter U.S. student visa requirements following the September 11^th terrorist attacks in 2001. Foreign students applying for U.S. visas must now submit to extensive record checks, a rigorous interview process, and continued monitoring.

“There’s a growing perception among international students that the United States is not as welcoming to international students as it has been in the past,” study author, Ken Redd, told the Seattle Post Intelligencer (“More Foreign Graduates Forsaking U.S. Colleges; Visa Crackdown Cited,” April 13, 2008).

Redd’s review of international graduate applications is the first phase in the three-part CGS survey that will also track offers of admission and final enrollment numbers.

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Study: College Courses Taught by Part-Time Faculty Lead to High Freshman Dropout Rates

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:39:00 GMT

College freshmen are more likely to drop out of school before their sophomore year when they take introductory-level courses taught by part-time, rather than full-time instructors, a recent study suggests.

Increasingly, part-time and adjunct instructors are being assigned to teach first-year classes, also referred to as “gatekeeper courses.” Less than one percent of the students enrolled in these courses are continuing on to earn their associate’s degree, writes David Glenn of The Chronicle of Higher Education (“ ‘Gatekeeper’ Courses Should Not Be Assigned to Part-Time Instructors, Research Suggests,” March 27, 2008).

With the number of part-time and adjunct professors teaching introductory classes having more than doubled in the past 35 years, the study poses significant implications for the impact of first-year instruction on degree-earning rates, say the study’s authors, Audrey J. Jaeger, an assistant professor of higher education at North Carolina State University, and M. Kevin Eagan, Jr., a graduate student at the University of California at Los Angeles.

The Dropout Effect

Jaeger and Eagan’s paper, which will appear in the New Directions for Teaching and Learning journal later this year, was discussed at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in March.

As part of their study, Jaeger and Eagan analyzed transcripts of 30,000 students who were enrolled in introductory classes at four public four-year universities in a southeastern state between 2002 and 2005.

The researchers found that when the colleges assigned part-time faculty, lecturers, and postdoctoral fellows to teach these introductory-level courses, students were significantly less likely to return to school their sophomore year.

There was no such dropout effect, on the other hand, in gatekeeper courses taught by graduate assistants or full-time, non-tenure-track instructors.

Personalized Attention Often Absent With Part-Time Faculty

Jaeger, the paper’s lead author, says that the chief reason for such high dropout rates among freshmen taught by part-time instructors may be attributed to the fact that adjuncts tend to have limited office hours, restricting their ability to communicate face-to-face with their students.

As a result, Jaeger speculates, students often become frustrated or disengaged with the course material.

This theory would seem to be reinforced by data pulled from the National Survey of Student Engagement.

In a review of this data, Paul Umbach, a professor of higher education at the University of Iowa, found that part-time and other contingent faculty tended to spend less time interacting with students and fewer hours preparing for class than their full-time counterparts.

Increasing Teacher Support Is Key

Jaeger and Eagan emphasize that their analysis is not intended as a criticism of part-time faculty. In fact, they urge university officials to better support their part-time professors, and propose specific courses of action administrators could take:

Assign part-time professors to smaller courses less vulnerable to dropouts
Allocate larger office spaces where part-time faculty can better interact with their students
Provide resources that facilitate interaction and support outside the classroom

A less sympathetic member of the AERA conference panel offers an alternate, if extreme view of what should be done instead: Stop hiring part-time faculty.

Asked Leonard L. Baird, executive editor of The Journal of Higher Education, “Could administrators be shown a cost-benefit analysis that might demonstrate that the money they save by hiring these people is outweighed, or even overwhelmed, by the revenue they lose when students drop out?”

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Malls and Retail Stores a No-Go for Depressed Shoppers

Student Loan Girl — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 06:33:00 GMT

Signs of depression:

Loss of appetite
Loss of interest in daily activities
Loss of energy
Hopelessness
Self-loathing

Recommendations for treatment:

Don’t go shopping.

Primed for Sadness, People Spend More

A recent research experiment shows that people who exhibit signs of depression tend to be more willing to cough up the dough, according to a TIME Magazine article by Barbara Kiviat (“Depressed? Don’t Go to the Mall,” Feb. 8, 2008).

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Pittsburgh split up their experiment participants into two groups: one that watched a sad video clip involving the death of a boy’s mentor and one that watched an emotionally-neutral video clip about the Great Barrier Reef.

The two groups were then asked how much of the $10 they were getting paid for the experiment they would be willing to pay for a water bottle. Participants in the sad video group were willing to spend about four times more than those in the Great Barrier Reef video group ($2 on average, compared to 50 cents).

Researchers say the results from their experiment indicate that people who are unhappy tend to overcompensate by buying new things.

“Feeling blue causes people to have a devalued sense of self, so spending more money on a new object — which people may identify, in a way, as an extension of themselves — starts to undo that deflation,” Kiviat writes.

This “emotional hunger,” as the researchers call it, may also contribute to other acquisitive behaviors, like looking for a new relationship or trading big on the stock market.

Shift Gears and Step Outside Yourself

The study’s findings, the researchers say, hinge on self-focus: When researchers looked at how much the participants were dwelling on themselves, they found that those who were sad but not self-focused didn’t spend as much.

Cynthia Cryder, a Carnegie Mellon doctoral candidate and co-author of the study, says that spending is a common way for people to try to breathe value into their lives, but that there are alternatives for cheering yourself up besides doling out cash.

“If you’re sad, maybe you should seek out something other than shopping. A new book to read, a new friendship. Something that’s novel and attractive to fill the need you’re seeking to fill,” Cryder told TIME.

Or, she added, break the cycle of self-focus by shifting your mindset outward and thinking about other people.

“You could try to think about others by rehearsing a series of sentences that involve others as the subject,” she said.

Or try calling a friend, Kiviat offers, “and instead of suggesting a trip to the mall, ask how her day is.”

5 Ways to Get Happy Without Spending

Next time you come down with a case of the blues, instead of throwing the credit cards in your wallet and speeding off to the mall, try some of these activities instead, that cost nothing and feel great.

Go for a walk. Sometimes just getting some fresh air and experiencing a natural environment can boost your mood. And exercise produces endorphins, which serve as natural uppers. Plan your route to go through your neighborhood or a nearby park to reduce your chances of coming across a spending opportunity.

Volunteer. As Cryder points out, shifting your thoughts from yourself to someone else can do wonders for your mood and self-esteem. Instead of buying another pair of shoes you don’t need, more downloads for your iPod, or the latest Xbox game, donate your time to someone really in need.

Get rid of clutter. Sifting through old belongings you’ve outgrown or no longer need can help you appreciate all the things you have in your life. You might even discover items you forgot you had, turning a tedious task into a home shopping spree.

Trade with friends. Gather up a group of friends and swap your give-away clothing, CDs, or anything else. You’re killing three birds with one stone: socializing, shopping, and saving.

Plant a garden. Taking responsibility for something living can feel extremely rewarding and uplifting. Gardening not only provides you with a daily activity to keep your hands — and mind — busy, but it’s good for you. The American Horticultural Therapy Association says gardens have healing capabilities, improving health and well-being.

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