An op-ed in Politico argues that Chinese international students are often reluctant to discuss their country’s politics. They suggest two reasons. First, they fear punishment for themselves or their families by the Chinese Communist Party. Second, as anti-Chinese sentiments surge in many countries, they worry about discrimination.

Read the piece by Jianyi Yang and Leslie Fu. (September 2023)

Johns Hopkins University, a prestigious research institution in Baltimore, Maryland, boosted its racial diversity by expanding outreach and financial aid, as well as getting rid of “legacy” admissions — those admitted because they have a relative who previously attended the school. However, the U.S. Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college and university admissions earlier this year. Now Johns Hopkins, and other schools, must find a way forward. Susan Svrluga and Nick Anderson report for The Washington Post. (August 2023)

To cut costs, many colleges, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are using robots to deliver food in dining halls and at sports games. Students can order food with an app, and the robot will deliver it to them.

According to the robot's manufacturer, 64% of students surveyed say the service has kept them from skipping meals. Lauren Coffey of Inside Higher Ed has more. (August 2023)

Many prestigious companies in the U.S. are now offering their employees free coaching to get their children into selective schools. The perk is designed to recruit the best workers in a tight job market, but critics say it only worsens inequality.

Jon Marcus has more for The Hechinger Report. (September 2023)

The U.S. college system is different from most others: Students are graded from A to F, and often choose their course of study — their "major" — one to two years after enrolling. Anayat Durrani of U.S. News & World Report explains the differences. (August 2023)

AfterSchool Africa takes a look at the finer points of arranging accommodations for international students. Among the considerations: How close is the housing to campus? How safe is it? What about its proximity to public transit?

Read the full story here.

American college enrollments are falling, even as they are increasing in comparable countries. One culprit could be the cost: while college graduates earn more, the debt they accumulate often wipes out much of that advantage.

Paul Tough investigates for The New York Times Magazine. (September 2023)

The University of Kentucky has spent $805,000 a day for the past decade on upgrades to its campus, and now has one of the highest tuitions in the country, despite serving a lower-income state. Melissa Korn, Andrea Fuller and Jennifer S. Forsyth report for The Wall Street Journal. (August 2023) [[ ]]

Every year, most American college students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It determines how much need-based assistance you can receive and is also important for many scholarships, grants and other opportunities.

Now, the format is being simplified, as Cheryl Winokur Munk of The Wall Street Journal explains. (August 2023)

In the Chronicle of Higher Education, Maggie Hicks writes that ChatGPT frequently invents sources, causing headaches for librarians asked to find them, and getting students in trouble when they don’t learn how to track down information themselves.

With scholars willing to cut corners to get papers published faster, academia could fall prey to a “complicated web of lies,” as one researcher put it. (August 2023)

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has ordered security forces to rescue an unspecified number of female students being held by armed kidnappers following an attack Friday at the Federal University Gusau in northwest Zamfara state.

Police officials say some victims have been rescued, but the incident is the latest in an escalating wave of violence targeting schools in northern Nigeria.

Tinubu's directive to security agencies to secure the remaining female students was contained in a statement Sunday by the presidency.

Tinubu condemned the kidnappings, saying there is no moral justification for such heinous acts against these innocent victims.

He also promised the families that all the girls would be rescued, and the perpetrators would pay.

Zamfara state police spokesperson, Yazid Abubakar, told VOA by phone Monday that security agencies are heeding the president's order.

"Now on the ground we've been able to rescue seven of them and effort is ongoing to rescue the others. Our security has been deployed everywhere, normalcy has been restored, students are even in their lecture rooms," Abubakar said. "All hands are on deck to make sure that such incidents do not occur again."

Eyewitnesses say scores of gunmen on motorbikes attacked a rented facility housing three female hostels early Friday and took away dozens of students.

Police and school authorities say they have yet to determine the actual number of girls taken but say seven rescued victims have been reunited with their families.

The attack is the latest in a three-year wave of insecurity sweeping across northwest and central Nigeria.

The incident triggered an online campaign dubbed Bring Back our FUGUS Girls. The campaign slogan is similar to a 2014 movement, Bring Back Our Girls or BBOG, which spread across the world after more than 270 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram militants in the town of Chibok in northeastern Borno state.

Activist Abba Abiyos Roni is one of the campaigners on X, formerly known as Twitter. He accused authorities of not being proactive.

"The first person to blame is the government. As I see in reports, there were about 50 motorists. Fifty motorists is something huge that the government (security) can easily identify or tackle before they even took the students, we don't know why they did not respond," he said.

Kidnapping for ransom is a major problem in Nigeria. Fixing it was one of Tinubu’s campaign promises. He also faces serious economic challenges that he has been trying to address through policy reforms.

Nigeria is also mired in a protracted war with Islamic militants — lasting more than 14 years in the northeastern region — while violence from separatists has rattled the southeast.

Amnesty International says security gaps are to blame for the persistent attacks and called on authorities to investigate.

In June, protesting the abduction of five students from Federal University Gusau, angry students blocked roadways calling for action.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down race-based affirmative action, but colleges have struggled to implement the ban. The new guidelines stress that affirmative action is now illegal but that there are other ways for schools to diversify their student bodies. Read the explainer from Liam Knox of Inside Higher Ed. (August 2023)

Most students looking to study in the United States are already familiar with prospects for financial aid, but there are some lesser-known scholarships available.

The Times of India has compiled a listing of scholarships — many offered by individual schools — that can benefit students from other countries. (August 2023).

Two years after the Taliban took Kabul, Karin Fischer of the Chronicle of Higher Education profiles a group of Afghan women at the University of Delaware who fled Kabul.

After learning English, mastering U.S. cultural norms and surviving the trauma of separation from their families, these students are now mentoring other new arrivals. (August 2023)