Sharing articles February 26 2014

I thought these two stories today were both worth sharing:

“Risk Management”

“The U.S. Education Department needs to do more to ensure the billions of dollars it offers in financial aid aren’t wasted on students who fraudulently enroll in distance education programs, the department's Office of Inspector General has concluded in a critical new report.”

“The OIG audited eight distance education providers between 2009 and 2011 to assess how each college or university complied with Title IV of the Higher Education Act, which governs federal student grant, loan and work-study programs. Despite the Education Department’s efforts in recent years to curb cases of fraud where students enroll in courses to exploit those financial aid programs -- schemes known as fraud rings -- the audit found the institutions struggle to verify students’ identities and track their attendance and academic engagement.”

““The 8 schools disbursed nearly $222 million to more than 42,000 distance education students who did not earn any credits during a payment period,” the report reads. “Collecting and analyzing sufficient and appropriate data would help the department appropriately address risks, proactively adapt policies to address those risks, and better target its school compliance monitoring.””

Read it all here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/26/audit-urges-education-department-tighten-distance-education-regulations

Please preserve this privilege for future generations; let us make sure all schools are being compliant (this phenomenon is not new so do not place all blame on the non-traditional).

“Bob Jones U. Revives Study of Responses to Sex Abuse”

“Bob Jones University has faced considerable criticism for its announcement this month that it had ended a contract with an outside group to investigate how the university has responded when students have reported sex abuse. The university was vague about why it ended the study, and many noted that abuse victims who shared their stories with the investigators would feel betrayed. But the university has now announced that based on additional discussions with the investigators, they have been rehired to finish their work.”

Read here: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/02/26/bob-jones-u-revives-study-responses-sex-abuse

This is what can happen when you pay attention! Embarrassment can be a powerful tool; let us hope they actually pay attention to the results.

Have a good rest of the week everyone.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam