Universities are not immune to the effects of the slumping economy, yet many of them are reporting their highest application and enrollment rates ever, as hard times compel people to look for new ways to increase their skills. Students' efforts to improve their job prospects, along with colleges' marketing efforts, have, indeed, translated to…

Discusses the increasing dropout rates at many colleges and various efforts by institutions to retain students, including a greater emphasis on smaller "learning communities," special programs for high-risk students, tuition credits, development of early warning systems. Notes, however, that some students and colleges are mismatched and that some…

Kingsborough Community College's New Start Program, designed to prevent dropping out, allows students on the verge of academic failure at three participating senior colleges to enroll as students in good standing, earn credits, and reenroll in any City University of New York senior college. (MSE)

Albertus Magnus College (Connecticut) has addressed the problem of declining enrollment offering a bachelor's degree program compressed into three years. Three full semesters are squeezed into an academic year. The semester is shortened by two weeks, but class time is lengthened. The third semester's tuition each year is discounted. (MSE)

Hundreds of companies are beginning drives to prepare "at-risk" schoolchildren for higher education and eventually pay their tuition, a major change in emphasis from recent corporate giving patterns. (MSE)

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities will begin testing a comprehensive project to reverse the low educational attainment of Hispanic students in Texas. The project aims to increase high-school graduation, raise college-going rate, increase graduation rate of college students, and raise transfer rates of community college…

A group of college presidents has decided to expand campus public-service programs by encouraging college students to tutor disadvantaged young people, mentoring fourth through ninth graders in danger of not graduating from high school. (MSE)

Reports that anecdotal evidence and studies by individual institutions suggest that course completion and program retention rates are generally lower in distance education courses than in their face-to-face counterparts. Suggests some of the causes may be that distance students are often older, have more obligations, or that lack of face-to-face…

Describes the Posse Foundation program which sends "posses" of 10 carefully chosen graduates from inner-city high schools, en masse, to selective private colleges seeking a more diversified student population. Reports that in the past 10 years, almost 90 percent of Posse students have graduated within five years. Also identifies problems, such as…

California's problems of educational and occupational underachievement for Hispanics, a large and growing proportion of the state's population, are examined in light of the state's efforts and concerns in providing equal education, lowering the language barrier, and encouraging academic persistence. (MSE)

A 24-city program called "Career Beginnings" designed to encourage students who might be on the verge of dropping out to finish high school and attend college is described. The program brings together colleges, high schools, and businesses in an effort to improve the prospects of disadvantaged high-school students. (MLW)

Governor Mario Cuomo has proposed that New York State guarantee enough state aid for all poor seventh graders finishing high school to attend a state college or an equal amount of money to attend a private college in the state, the first such effort at the state level. (MSE)

A committee of the North Carolina Board of Governors will recommend that each state university create or enhance programs to improve campus race relations, engage minority students in campus life, increase numbers of black students and of black doctoral candidates, and achieve higher minority enrollment. Focus is on both recruiting and retaining…

A new program linking the Phoenix Union High School District with local community colleges and state universities identifies high-risk high school students, brings their work up to college level, counsels them, and monitors their progress to graduation. The high dropout rate forced institutions in the different segments to cooperation. (MSE)

California's sometimes controversial efforts to keep Hispanic students in school and interested in college education include tutoring programs, financial aid, curriculum development, partnerships between school districts and higher education institutions, Spanish-language and Hispanic-oriented recruitment and encouragement efforts, and transfer of…