Here are some new resources and news for the field of higher education.

Postsecondary Tuition Capping and Freezing  This Policy Snapshot provides a national perspective on approaches states are taking to structure their tuition and fee control policies, including a sampling of recent legislation related to tuition capping and freezing.

How International Education’s Golden Age Lost Its Sheen  The elevation of international education blended high-minded ideals and bottom-line concerns. Ultimately, it satisfied neither.

Doing More With Data A growing number of colleges and employers are working together to better use labor-market data in postsecondary training. Two experts discuss what’s possible and what’s needed.

Relationship Between Educational Attainment and Labor Underutilization  Labor underutilization has no one set definition, but reflects the extent to which workers are unable to work as fully as they would like. This report presents survey data from a nationally representative sample of adults ages 25 to 64 who were in the labor force (i.e. looking for work) in 2016. One commonly used measure of labor underutilization is the unemployment rate, which indicates the extent to which workers who want a job are unable to find one. Workers also can be underutilized by being “underemployed.” The survey collected two measures of underemployment: whether someone is working part time but would rather work full time (involuntary part-time workers) and whether someone is working in a temporary job but would rather work in a permanent job (involuntary temporary workers). Among the surveyed adults, 9 percent were unemployed, 5 percent were involuntary part-time workers, and 4 percent were involuntary temporary workers. Taken together, these measures yield a labor underutilization rate of 17 percent. Consistent with previous analyses, there was a negative relationship between educational attainment and unemployment. There was also a negative relationship between educational attainment and working “involuntary part time.” But there was no measurable relationship between educational attainment and the second underemployment measure of “involuntary temporary” work. (National Center for Education Statistics)

Modernizing College Course Placement by Using Multiple Measures  This report, released in collaboration with the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness, defines types of multiple measures placement systems, reviews research on how they can improve placement accuracy and help more students pass entry-level math and English courses, reveals which states use these systems and includes policy considerations.

Forging Pathways to Purposeful Work: The Role of Higher Education  Discover actionable findings colleges and universities can use to enhance the undergraduate student experience and increase graduates’ likelihood of finding both meaning and success in their work.

Partial, and Uneven, Recovery From Recession  An early look at state and local higher education funding finds that recovery since the recession has been uneven, with just nine states in 2018 back to pre-recession funding levels—meanwhile, another 11 have seen no recovery at all.

Purpose as Well as Paycheck  A new report from Gallup and Bates College shows most students want to find a sense of purpose in their work, but they aren’t always succeeding.