Very small study and sample size, I must say, but something to explore further.   Excerpt:  ”A recently published study in the JOURNAL OF COLLEGE STUDENT RETENTION finds that frequent Facebookers are actually more likely to return to their initial college after their freshman year. It’s the latest in a series of studies exploring possible links between Facebook and academics…those who were more active on the social network were likelier to return for their sophomore year. On average, returning sophomores had 27 more friends and 59 more wall posts than did students who didn’t return.”   Full article at http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-Latest-Stay-in-School-Tool/26705/.

A national publication has ranked six two-year colleges in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system among the top 50 community colleges in the country. These rankings are based on the results of Community College Survey of Student Engagement and graduation rate information. Though any rankings of this kind are going to present an incomplete picture of any individual college, what a great picture of higher education in Minnesota!  Dane Smith, commenting on this fine showing put it well: “with less than 2 percent of the nation’s population, Minnesota has 14 percent of its very best two-year colleges.”  More information at http://www.mnscu.edu/media/newsreleases/current/article.php5?id=170.

The first of what will be a monthly column for the SUN newspapers in our college service area on national and local  higher education topics.  View the full column here: Sun Guest Column 081210

Watch the Frontline program “College, Inc.” on for-profit colleges.  The recent Chronicle article is also eye-opening and occasionally jaw-dropping.  Whatever your opinion on for-profits,  public higher education needs to better understand what’s going on, learn from it, and respond appropriately.  Summary of the Frontline program from PBS site:  Even in lean times, the $400 billion business of higher education is booming. Nowhere is this more true than in one of the fastest-growing — and most controversial — sectors of the industry: for-profit colleges and universities that cater to non-traditional students, often confer degrees over the Internet, and, along the way, successfully capture billions of federal financial aid dollars.  In College, Inc., correspondent Martin Smith investigates the promise and explosive growth of the for-profit higher education industry. Through interviews with school executives, government officials, admissions counselors, former students and industry observers, this film explores the tension between the industry –which says it’s helping an underserved student population obtain a quality education and marketable job skills — and critics who charge the for-profits with churning out worthless degrees that leave students with a mountain of debt.