Academics

Public colleges may be using grade inflation or tightening admissions standards to comply with performance-based funding, survey finds.

More students enrolled in college when the recession began, new data from the National Student Clearinghouse show, but a smaller percentage graduated within six years.

Michigan, Purdue and the Wisconsin System give competency-based education a try, but carefully and with targeted new programs.

The Degree Qualifications Profile aimed to better define what a degree should mean. As its sponsors release a new version nearly four years later, the document has spurred discussions about learning at hundreds of colleges, but tangible impact has been limited.

Audit critical of the Education Department's review process for alternative to the credit hour raises questions about direction of federal policy and could discourage some colleges.

A new group of 11 public research universities says it can set aside competition and prestige-chasing to work together to graduate more low-income students.