Wally Boston, Author at Wally Boston

Shifting Paradigms – Microcredential Perspectives from the Entrenched Degree Issuers

Posted on March 23, 2022 (October 17, 2023)

I am never surprised about the naivete of many in higher education about the changing perspectives regarding degrees and microcredentials. Earlier this week, I read an article in The evolllution entitled Enrollment Management and The 60-year Curriculum: An Organization Development Imperative. Quite frankly, I thought the article missed the point. It was far too theoretical. […]

The 60x30TX Higher Education Plan Revisited for Its Student Debt Metrics

Posted on March 18, 2022 (October 17, 2023)

In June of 2021, I published an article about Texas’ ambitious 60x30TX strategic plan. There are four major goals for the plan that has been in existence since 2015. By 2030, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) wants the following to be achieved: At least 60 percent of Texans ages 25-34 will have a […]

NC Promise Expands

Posted on March 16, 2022 (July 3, 2026)

In a blog article that I titled The Signs Are All Around Us, I included a few thoughts about the NC Promise program. That write-up is republished below as a refresher about the program and a few of my questions. An update is published below my original article. The Chronicle of Higher Education featured an […]

Are Full Tuition Reimbursement Programs Utilized by Front-Line Employees?

Posted on March 10, 2022 (July 3, 2026)

In September 2021, Amazon announced that it would pay full college tuition for its 750,000 front-line employees. The benefit not only included tuition but also the cost of books and fees. The new benefits were an expansion of the company’s Career Choice program which 50,000 employees had participated in over the past 10 years. Amazon […]

Is there an upside to the downward trend in higher education enrollment?

Posted on March 7, 2022 (October 17, 2023)

In a recently published article, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute president Michael Petrilli writes that the “sky is falling” arguments lamenting the decline in college enrollments are “entirely too pessimistic.” Furthermore, Mr. Petrilli writes that the current enrollment declines are encouraging for three reasons. First, there’s a good chance that students who are deferring college […]

Why Aren’t More Adults Finishing Community College? – Part II

Posted on March 3, 2022 (July 1, 2026)

In my recent commentary on the Brookings article about why more adults weren’t finishing community college, I noted that the authors had published a more extensive research paper in the Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis Journal. I was able to obtain a copy of the journal article. It provided much more detail about the research […]

Why Aren’t More Adults Finishing [Community] College?

Posted on March 1, 2022 (August 13, 2026)

In an article published by Brookings, co-authors Kelli Bird, Ben Castleman, Brett Fischer, and Benjamin Skinner write about their research investigating the labor market trajectories of adults who earned some college credits but not a degree or certificate from the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). The students included in the study left VCCS between the […]

SUNY System and University of Texas System Announce Microcredentials Initiatives

Posted on February 25, 2022 (October 15, 2024)

Shortly after I posted my blog article about the Rory McGreal and Don Olcott paper, A Strategic Reset: Micro-credentials for Higher Education Leaders, I read that the SUNY System and UT System had announced microcredential initiatives for their institutions. SUNY’s announcement was made by New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul. The governor’s press release states that […]

Micro-credentials for Higher Education Leaders

Posted on February 24, 2022 (October 15, 2024)

There are no shortages of articles and books about the shift in higher education from a focus on degrees to a focus on short-term certificates and other credentials that provide students with a career boost as well as applicable credits towards a degree. Recently, I wrote about a Burning Glass Institute paper that reported a […]

Cutting Academic Programs at the University of Kansas

Posted on February 21, 2022 (October 17, 2023)

Inside Higher Ed’s Josh Moody reported last week that the University of Kansas (KU) leadership team was seeking to cut 42 academic programs while the KU University Senate only agreed with 28 of the 42 recommendations. Mr. Moody noted that the 28 programs agreed to by the University Senate were mainly inactive. It should be […]

Author: Wally Boston

Posts by Wally Boston

Shifting Paradigms – Microcredential Perspectives from the Entrenched Degree Issuers

The 60x30TX Higher Education Plan Revisited for Its Student Debt Metrics

NC Promise Expands

Are Full Tuition Reimbursement Programs Utilized by Front-Line Employees?

Is there an upside to the downward trend in higher education enrollment?

Why Aren’t More Adults Finishing Community College? – Part II

Why Aren’t More Adults Finishing [Community] College?

SUNY System and University of Texas System Announce Microcredentials Initiatives

Micro-credentials for Higher Education Leaders

Cutting Academic Programs at the University of Kansas

Subjects of Interest

Artificial Intelligence/AI

EdTech

Higher Education

Independent Schools

K-12

Science

Student Persistence

The Future of Work

Workforce