The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) received a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in 2020 to explore the potential of open educational resources (OER) to reduce textbook costs for students at smaller and mid-sized independent colleges and universities, especially Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other…

America's diverse higher education landscape includes more than 700 four-year nonprofit colleges and universities that focus on baccalaureate education. These private nondoctoral (PND) institutions are located in almost every state and collectively enroll about 1.6 million students and award nearly 150,000 degrees annually, with the majority of…

Living-learning communities combine curricular, co-curricular, and residential components of college life. They are a relatively new variation on the residential education that has been part of the undergraduate experience at America's independent colleges and universities for centuries. Research suggests that living-learning communities have a…

This paper identifies approaches, challenges, and best practices related to planning and designing today's academic library learning spaces. As part of the Project Information Literacy (PIL) Practitioner Series, qualitative data is presented from 49 interviews conducted with a sample of academic librarians, architects, and library consultants.…

During the most recent decade, interdisciplinary instruction at the undergraduate level has increased rapidly. Independent colleges and universities are both innovators in developing new approaches to interdisciplinary education and strong supporters of traditional liberal arts disciplines. Some observers argue that interdisciplinary approaches…

Postsecondary institutions are under increasing scrutiny to provide evidence of student learning. Despite efforts to increase the number and frequency of assessments of student learning, many colleges and universities need help to make good use of assessment results for the improvement of teaching and learning. To address this need, in February…

A baccalaureate degree is essential to success in the contemporary United States. The degree offers improved economic security and the development of capabilities such as critical thinking, effective communication, quantitative reasoning, creativity, problem solving, personal and social responsibility, and social and cultural capital. Failure to…

Because of their commitment to the voluntary measurement and improvement of student learning outcomes, colleges and universities that are members of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) have been at the forefront of the national shift from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. The institutions participating in the CIC Degree…

Bowing to student demands to "stop supporting genocide," the University of California regents voted earlier this year to divest millions of dollars from companies working in the war-torn African nation of Sudan, the first major public university in the nation to take such action. Since student protests on the subject began at Harvard…

In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in…

This E.D. TAB presents selected findings about the price of attendance and the types and amounts of financial aid received by in-state undergraduates enrolled in public 2-year, public 4-year, and private not-for-profit 4-year institutions during the 2003-04 academic year in 12 selected states. It is based on the undergraduate data in the 2003-04…

Results of a study concerning the relationships between state policies and private college enrollments, enrollment demographics, and finance are presented. After considering national enrollment trends in the independent sector, attention is directed to the impacts on private colleges of state fiscal policies, including aid to private colleges and…

The National Association of State Scholarship and Grant Programs/National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs conference on student aid is reported. Following the conference agenda and lists of registrants and conference speakers, the following papers are presented: (1) "Reinterpretation of Hansen's Census Data" (John B. Lee); (2)…

A study was undertaken to assess the impact of existing state policies toward private higher education on enrollments, finances, autonomy, academic freedom, and other conditions of private institutions. The study included a survey of the presidents and their staffs of 230 institutions, site visits to 28 colleges and universities in five states,…