Get the Daily Brief
Latest Higher Education News
States consider mergers, program reviews as budgets pinch public colleges
Two policy moves this week signaled intensifying pressure on public higher education to consolidate and re-evaluate program portfolios. Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission...
Liverpool names provost for Bengaluru campus — Russell Group expands in India
The University of Liverpool appointed Professor Richard Grose as provost of its approved Bengaluru campus as the Russell Group institution moves toward admitting students in August. Grose, a...
Wage garnishment resumes for defaulted student borrowers — 5.3M affected
The U.S. Education Department has begun sending notices that administrative wage garnishment will resume for federal student-loan borrowers in default, putting roughly 5.3 million people at risk...
Reinstated professor, campus closures highlight workforce and financial strain
Higher-ed personnel moves this week highlighted competing pressures on staffing and institutional viability. Austin Peay State University reinstated a tenured theatre professor and agreed to a...
AI touted to boost translational research — experts urge ethical guardrails
A policy paper from Hepi and Taylor & Francis argues that artificial intelligence can accelerate translational research — speeding discovery-to-application workflows, improving search and...
Texas A&M bans Plato excerpt: course purged under gender rules
Texas A&M ordered faculty to remove an excerpt of Plato’s Symposium from a philosophy syllabus as part of a broader review of courses that touch on race and gender. The directive, reported by...
Appeals court preserves university overhead rates – NIH cap blocked
A federal appeals court upheld a lower-court injunction blocking the National Institutes of Health from imposing a 15% cap on indirect-cost reimbursement, preserving negotiated overhead rates for...
UNL chancellor resigns amid cuts — faculty demand reversal
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is facing a governance crisis after Chancellor Rodney Bennett announced his resignation and a separation agreement revealed a $1.1 million payout to the...
Martin University to close: teach-outs and transfer plans begin
Martin University announced an institutional closure after trustees concluded declining enrollment, mounting debt and limited operating cash made continued operations unsustainable. The...
Scottish review delays tough funding choices – experts alarmed
A cross-party review of university funding announced by the Scottish government has been criticised by academics and think‑tank authors as deferring urgent decisions on the sector’s financial...
University of Liverpool names provost for Bengaluru campus – launch on track
The University of Liverpool appointed Professor Richard Grose as provost of its new Bengaluru campus as the Russell Group institution prepares to admit its first cohort in August. Grose, formerly...
Paper: AI can accelerate translational research – ethical safeguards urged
A new Hepi–Taylor & Francis paper argues that artificial intelligence can accelerate translational research—helping convert laboratory discoveries into real‑world applications—while cautioning...
Colleges retool after 2025 visa chaos: digital friction emerges as barrier
Institutions are responding to the visa delays, OPT uncertainty and SEVIS disruptions that disrupted international student flows in 2025 by redesigning admissions, support and recruitment...
Education Dept. restarts wage garnishments: 5.3M borrowers flagged
The U.S. Department of Education has resumed administrative wage garnishments for federal student loan borrowers in default, restarting a collections tool that could affect millions. Officials and...
Cambridge college to target elite private schools – access debate reignites
Trinity Hall, a Cambridge college, approved a policy to proactively recruit applicants from a short list of elite private schools—a move that college fellows say aims to raise applicants’...
Appeals court upholds block on NIH overhead cap: grants shielded
A federal appeals court affirmed a lower-court injunction blocking the National Institutes of Health from imposing a 15% cap on indirect cost reimbursement for research grants. The 1st U.S....
Congress resists Trump science cuts — NSF, NASA face smaller reductions
Appropriators in both chambers proposed budgets that largely reject President Trump’s deep cuts to major federal science agencies. Lawmakers plan far smaller reductions for the National Science...
Education Department resumes wage garnishment — millions of defaulted borrowers targeted
The U.S. Department of Education has restarted administrative wage garnishment for federal student loans in default, sending notices to borrowers and warning employers to expect orders. Federal...
Martin University will close — trustees cite enrollment collapse and debt
Martin University, the only predominantly Black private university in Indiana, announced it will close after a brief operational pause. Trustees said declining enrollment, rising costs,...
Campus censorship spikes: 273 attempts to punish student speech last year
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression recorded a record 273 attempts to investigate, censor or discipline student expression in 2025, the highest number since the watchdog began...