iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Karin Fischer @karinfischer.bsky.social · 2h

After a summer of speculation, the first hard data on international enrollments is in. The number of students from overseas on American campuses this September is about 8 percent lower than fall of 2025, the second year of declines. www.chronicle.com/newsletter/l...

chronicle.com

A Rare Bright Spot for International Enrollments?

Although foreign students at American colleges have declined, more are seeking Ph.Ds.

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Joshua Goodman @joshua-goodman.com · 4h

Had a blast visiting @utknoxville.bsky.social to present our work on the academic impacts of private tutoring chains like Kumon and Sylvan. Great to see @ckcarruthers.bsky.social, @mikekofoed.bsky.social, @robertkelchen.com, and others in truly impressive econ and education departments. Go Vols!

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 7h

Free research idea: Will the inevitable handful of universities that rebrand AI credentials as "super intelligence" see any changes to enrollment or federal funding relative to those who chose to keep the name AI (or just couldn't get through the bureaucratic process for name changes)?

whitehouse.gov

Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Every child deserves a safe and nurturing home where they ...

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 8h

This is how institutional research staff described the new IPEDS admissions survey. The most recent year of data might be of sufficient quality for analysis, but older years will be full of guesses and many selective colleges are missing due to successful lawsuits. www.urban.org/research/pub...

Colleges described an unusually difficult reporting process at every stage of the collection.

Most institutions spent at least 250 staff hours on ACTS, well above the Department of Education’s original 200-hour estimate, and more than a quarter of institutions spent 400 hours or more.
Only about one in six respondents had all the undergraduate data ACTS asked for. Older records on student characteristics, admissions, and financial aid were commonly incomplete or missing entirely.
Just over half of survey respondents were very or extremely concerned about the accuracy of their submitted data. Definitions that were ambiguous and that shifted partway through the collection period undermined confidence further.

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Ezra Jack Skeets Wants Expanded Public PreK, 3K, and 2K @ezrahowru.bsky.social · 18h

Oof. And this is why I’m on my spouse’s insurance through the state.

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 22h

I try to help people understand this so we don't just automatically suggest lowering tuition as a silver bullet college affordability remedy when lots of public institutions already have low tuition

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Austin Slaughter @austinslaughter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

New survey data from the Philadelphia Fed shows that financially-distressed borrowers deprioritize student loans relative to housing, auto loans, and credit cards www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/FRBP...

Dot plot showing the difference in payment probability of auto loans, credit cards, and student loans relative to housing. The probabilities are approximately -10pp for auto loans, -30pp for credit cards, and -50pp for student loans.

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Jeffrey Wooldridge @jmwooldridge.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

In case anyone is interested, here is a new working paper on non-binary treatments with staggered interventions. Essentially, I show under what assumptions it is valid to estimate cohort x time dose-response functions. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.com

A Heterogeneous Slopes Approach to Difference-in-Differences with Non-Binary Treatments

I extend the approach of Wooldridge (2023, 2025) to allow for heterogeneous gains to treatment in the context of staggered interventions for non-binary treatmen

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Bryan Alexander @edufuturist.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

When I'm interviewed, one of my goals is to speak so that I won't be "edited for length and clarity."

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 28/09/2026

(1) My kids would totally do this. (2) See below.

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Morgan Polikoff @mpolikoff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

So excited to be launching this request for proposals on state policies to improve k-12 educational outcomes at Arnold Ventures. I'm stoked to be supporting the team in carrying out this RFP. Take a look, share, and send in an LOI www.arnoldventures.org/stories/what...

arnoldventures.org

Arnold Ventures | What State Policies Improve Student Outcomes in…

With student achievement still below pre-pandemic levels and states poised to remake key education policies, Arnold Ventures is launching a new request…

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 28/09/2026

I'm reading Inside Higher Ed as usual this morning and this ad pops up. It has so many signs of an AI-supported scam that a big ad vendor didn't catch. I feel bad for @insidehighered.com for getting taken for a ride by a company that is trying to scam readers.

A McDonald's ad for a "special meal" for "0$" running on Inside Higher Ed thanks to an ad vendor.

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 28/09/2026

I'm in the midst of doing required annual performance reviews for my tenure-line faculty. This piece on how to give feedback to those craving it is giving me things to think about, although I also have to balance it against the time taken with about 25 direct reports and other job responsibilities.

wsj.com

The 20-Something Employees Who Want Feedback to Be Gentle

Bosses are turning to bots and consultants to give younger workers the more helpful, frequent direction they say they crave.

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 27/09/2026

This is quite an anecdote about how our current Secretary of Education got the job. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Linda McMahon was in her living room late one night, shortly after Trump won his second election, when her phone rang. Trump wanted to know if the woman who had led the Small Business Administration in his first term — and had been CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment before that — wanted to be his secretary of Education.

“Mr. President,” McMahon recalled telling him, “you know that I have not been in the world of education.”

“Well, you did graduate from college, didn’t you?” he responded, according to McMahon’s recollection.

Trump wasn’t looking for someone with education credentials. What he wanted instead was another business leader that would deliver a “return on investment” in the Department of Education. He also said her goal would be to put herself “out of a job” with the eventual downsizing of the department, she recalled.

“That’s not necessarily how I would expect to be courted,” she chuckled before accepting his request. McMahon would be the only one of two members from Trump’s first Cabinet — along with budget director Russ Vought — to be invited back for the second.

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Casey Drottar @caseydrottar.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

My goodness, what an incredible moment. After Justin Verlander secured the final out of his career, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch came out of the dugout...to summon Verlander's daughter out to embrace her dad on the mound.

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 26/09/2026

Heck of an effort by Tennessee. I hope the rest of the day goes smoothly on campus.

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Matt Brown @mattbrown.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

a song about killing federal agents THAT DOLLY PARTON USED TO SING its the best fight song in the country imo and I'm dumbass from Ohio www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq94...

youtube.com

Dolly Parton ( Rocky Top )

YouTube video by DollyParton35Yrs

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 26/09/2026

Whatever you do, don't smoke an entire brisket at a job interview, it's a lot of equipment to bring in, it takes a really long time to do it right and those conference rooms have notoriously poor ventilation

Someone smoking a brisket and poking it with a meat thermometer to see what the internal temperature is

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 25/09/2026

Employers want community colleges to train future employees, but they won't stop hiring away the faculty needed to train those employees. It's one of the biggest challenges facing workforce development in certain fields, and has been around for years (ex: nursing). lailluminator.com/2026/09/23/l...

Major companies investing in Louisiana are looking to the state’s community and technical colleges to supply their workforce, and they are also poaching the instructors who teach there, the school system’s leader said this week.

A series of major industrial projects are coming to Louisiana, touting numerous high-paying jobs that require specialized training, most notably the Hyundai steel plant in Ascension Parish, the Meta Hyperion data center in Richland Parish and a Space X launch facility in Vermilion Parish.

Their staffing demands are straining the state’s ability to train enough students to ensure the new jobs go to Louisianians, Louisiana Community and Technical College System President Richard Nelson told the Board of Regents at its monthly meeting Tuesday.

Another challenge for the system as it tries to fill those jobs is the companies hiring highly-skilled tradespeople from community colleges who are training the next generation of workers, higher education leaders said at a budget hearing Tuesday.

“We can’t produce 10 times, 100 times more welders or plumbers if everyone is poaching all of our faculty,” Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed said. “So that issue has to be resolved, and companies need to stand in partnership with us as we try to do this work.”

In addition to luring away faculty, Nelson said some companies are hiring students before they complete their training to meet their need for workers with even basic technical skills.

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I don’t know the answer to the specific question “does CUNY want research?” but I think the policy consensus among Dems and Dem-coded groups is that most of higher ed should do less research (which is read as status of vanity) and focus more on teaching and student success, ROI, etc.

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A lot of universities will be facing big deficits and looking to cure what ails them. I just want them to be thoughtful about it.

Screenshot of article which reads: At the same time, new job-focused majors may not be sustainable — and can even backfire. Dominique Baker, an associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware, pointed to the rise in computer-science degrees in the 2010s. At the time, they seemed like the best way to secure a high-paying salary after graduation, she said. But with the rise of generative artificial intelligence, computer-science jobs are increasingly hard to find, and enrollment in such programs is falling significantly.
“When you tie the viability, the financial viability in particular, of an institution really tightly to jobs creation on that scale,” especially as a four-year institution, she said, “you have to be really careful, because you can find that in 10 years that program that you poured all your money into — worthless.”

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 25/09/2026

This is a thoughtful and well-sourced piece on the growth of tuition resets at private colleges. It's always great to see a reference to research in a higher education journal!

wsj.com

Colleges Once Saw High Tuition as a Sign of Quality. Now They’re Slashing Prices.

As more families balk at costs, some schools are starting to make changes.

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 25/09/2026

After a contentious NACIQI meeting, ED is likely to strip federal recognition of accreditors for law and psychology programs. It's a way to influence how institutional accreditors act without pulling financial aid from most students.

insidehighered.com

Accreditation Panel Recommends Suspending APA, Punts on ABA

But, the panel also didn't make a decision about the status of the law school accreditor, deadlocking once again on the issue.

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Daniel A Collier, PhD @dcollier74.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Uncertanity is driving most of this. It's pretty simple - the economy is shaky right now, the federal budgets are unknown, research funds are being messed with, state budgets are real stressed generally, international student enrollments... yea, and who knows what enrollment will truly look like?

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Eric Kelderman @erickelderman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

holy cow - NACIQI votes to suspend Accred Commission of Am Psych Assoc. for one year! Recommendation will go to senior dept official - who has final say - but could mean that recognition would be removed immediately after his decision -

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Eric Kelderman @erickelderman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Not the only tie vote today! NACIQI members voted on a motion to deny recognition to accred council of the Am Psych. Assoc. - not recommended by staff report -- but tied 6-6 with 1 abstention, 1 recusal and 4 absent.... Midway through day 2, they have 4 more agencies on the schedule!

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Eric Kelderman @erickelderman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

crazy outcome at NACIQI on the ABA accreditation council - the committee approved a motion that they couldn't agree - punting it to the 'senior department official' to make the determination

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Stata @stata.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

DID when treatment doesn’t stay treated. 𝘅𝘁𝘀𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗱𝗶𝗱 in StataNow handles multivalued and switching treatments, so you can estimate event-study effects as groups move between treatment levels or exit treatment altogether. See how it works → www.stata.com/statanow/DID...

stata.com

DID with switching treatments for panel data

If you have a multivalued treatment or groups that switch in and out of treatment, traditional difference-in-differences (DID) estimators are of little use. The new xtswitchdid command handles both…

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

People typically want to start something new instead of contributing to the maintenance of something that already exists

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

NBER @nber.org · 24/09/2026

Open call for paper submissions: The Economics of Community Colleges conference April 6-7, 2028 in Cambridge, MA. Full information www.nber.org/economics-co...

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 24/09/2026

Also: If you want crispy edges and gooey middles, form the dough for each cookie into a cylinder instead of a sphere, and keep the dough super cold until it goes in the oven. That way, the dough doesn't spread as much, and the middle stays super soft.

A tray of homemade chocolate chip cookies

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Eric Kelderman @erickelderman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

AT last... they voted to table the vote on this until tomorrow... Absences may play role in the outcome....

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Colleen Flaherty @cflaihe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

@robertkelchen.com pointed this out: Just 4% of provosts in our annual survey @insidehighered.com said their institution's adjusting research expectations due to cuts in federal research funding. Many m🧐re are trying to close the gap with other funding sources www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

insidehighered.com

From AI Use to Funding Cuts: How Provosts Navigate 2026

Inside Higher Ed’s annual CAO survey reveals a fractured landscape, where academic leaders rely on personal AI tools amid broader technological and political disruption.

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Alex Freidus @alexfreidus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Last year there were 6 faculty hires at UConn. Total. Across all departments. (Also, working with Robert is a dream and you should apply!)

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 23/09/2026

IHE's annual survey of provosts is always worth reading. I'm struck by the responses regarding research funding, where quite a few leaders think they can grow their share of a shrinking pool of funds instead of resetting research expectations. www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

To make up for declining research funding, specifically, some provosts said their institution is diversifying funding sources (31 percent), developing more industry partnerships (24 percent) and expanding grant-writing support (17 percent). Only 4 percent reported that their institution is reducing research expectations.

Amid all of the funding uncertainty, a quarter of all provosts said they are “somewhat” or “very confident” that the U.S. research enterprise will remain strong over the next decade. Though provosts at public doctoral institutions more frequently reported funding declines of more than 10 percent, they were more optimistic—43 percent said the research enterprise would likely remain strong.

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Eric Kelderman @erickelderman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

In unusual news, the Federal Trade Commission submitted comments supporting the ED Dept's proposed rules on accreditation... "The Commission vote authorizing the filing of the comment was 2-0." www.ftc.gov/news-events/...

ftc.gov

FTC Endorses Education Department Proposal to Expand Higher Education Accreditation Options

The Federal Trade Commission strongly endorsed the Department of Education’s proposed reforms to promote competition among accreditation agencies.

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Reposted by Robert Kelchen

Eric Kelderman @erickelderman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

real press release I just got: "xxxxxx University has been named one of The Princeton Review’s 2027 Best 392 Colleges, placing the University among a select group of institutions recognized nationally for academic excellence and considered worthy of prospective students’ attention."

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 22/09/2026

My department and college are searching for FOUR new tenure-track assistant professor colleagues! Please share, and application reviews begin October 15.

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 22/09/2026

Monocles are dropping across the 1% of higher education after the US News rankings changed more than normal this year after an earnings metric was added and student debt was removed due to stale data. I have done rankings for 15 years. Here are my thoughts. www.morningstar.com/news/marketw...

Nonetheless, the small movements among the top schools that so many in the media and higher education focus on are probably just noise.

"It should not be the case that moving up or down two spots in the rankings is changing what you do," Kelchen said. "But institutions, especially at the high end, are really concerned about status; this is a change that is outside of their control and they don't really like it."

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Eric basically asked "Why are you so big on criticizing universities publicly but not the administration?" The response was...lacking.

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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 21/09/2026

When students and families are contacting financial aid offices as frequently as during the FAFSA fiasco a few years ago, it's clear that implementing new federal loan limits on an extremely tight timeline has been a challenge. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

At Saint Louis University, students and families have inundated the financial aid office with calls and emails, asking about the loan changes.

Alex DeLonis, assistant vice president of student financial services, said his office received 5,000 calls—the same call volume SLU experienced during the bungled launch of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid in 2024. Emails, he said, followed a similar pattern.

“We thought FAFSA simplification might have been an anomaly … but to have two pieces of legislation that have completely flipped things upside down and we’ve had to implement so closely together—it’s just a lot,” DeLonis said. “It’s hard to predict and plan when the rules change along the way.”

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Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Whatever happened to nanotechnology? That was supposed to be really big. Also blockchain. Blockchain was definitely going to change everything. Most universities were meant to have disappeared by now because MOOCs. I wonder why we are not a bit humbler about predictions and technology.

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