Welcome to the Meratas Memo’s Weekly Roundup! This is your weekly fix of higher education and alternative financing news. Here are this week’s stories:
Should Students Consider ISAs?
Here at Meratas, we know that Income Share Agreements offer a new option for those looking to finance their education. With many built in protections under most ISAs, they make a lot of sense in the uncertain times we find ourselves in. Many students are also starting to see their benefits.
In this post on the Daily Herald, Cecilia Clark of Nerdwallet discusses why some students are beginning to consider Income Share Agreements during the pandemic. She outlines the basics behind ISAs and why they might be right for some students but not others.
Read the full story on the Daily Herald here.
Students and Professors Reflect on an Unusual Start to the Semester
It’s no secret that there has never been a start to a school semester as strange as the one we find ourselves in now. Schools and Universities are split on how to handle classes during the pandemic. For most students and professors, this new semester has just been “weird”.
In this post on Edsurge, students and professors reflect on their first week back in classes. They talk about the challenges that a hybrid classroom brings, the effectiveness of online courses, and their outlook on the rest of the semester.
Read the full story on Edsurge here.
Who Leads Colleges After the Pandemic?
As colleges and universities have found themselves in a totally unprecedented situation, many have simply scrambled in their response to the pandemic. Scrambled to pull students out of in-person classes in the spring, scrambled to put together traditional classes this fall, and scrambled to pull many of these students again and move to online classes. Many are thinking in the short term but this pandemic will go on to affect higher education for years to come.
In this post by Inside Higher Ed, college and university leaders are asked about their response to the pandemic as well as the need for leadership beyond the short term and a restructuring of what higher education might look like in the future.