For those of us in higher education, August and September are the real start of the new year. With that in mind, we are planning more posts for you to read in October after we all get the start of the new year behind us.
In the meantime, here are some interesting facts from MPR News. As we already know at Minnesota State, the article pointed out that today’s college students aren’t who we might think they are. For example, the authors shared these statistics about undergrad students:
- 2 out of 5 attend a two-year community college
- 1 in 5 is at least 30 years old
- About half are financially independent from their parents
- 1 in 4 is caring for a child
- 47 percent go to school part-time at some point
- 25 percent take a year off before starting school
- 44 percent have parents who never completed a bachelor’s degree
The article says that “nontraditional” students are the new normal. That should reinforce our efforts to look at our processes and procedures in a new way.
Welcome back to the new school year!
Dee Anne Bonebright
Higher EDge 