Digest of Education Statistics, 2009
The 45th in a series of publications initiated in 1962, the Digest's primary purpose is to provide statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons.

Campus Legal Information Clearinghouse – NACUBO Award Winner
Colleges and universities must comply with more than 200 federal statutes. To address this challenge, the Catholic University of America (CUA) has created a Web-based preventive law-compliance program, and made it available to the entire higher education community. The initiative, known as Compliance Partners, is an outgrowth of earlier work centered on the university's own needs, and addresses areas such as affirmative action, FERPA, HIPPA, ADA compliance, copyrights, and student life. The comprehensive site and its expanded reach recently earned Compliance Partners recognition as NACUBO's 2009 innovation Award recipient.

U.S. Plans New Rules on Student Privacy
U.S. Education Department announced in the Federal Register its intent to revise the rules to carry out the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, with two goals in mind. One would be to "strengthen enforcement" of the law, commonly known as FERPA; the other would be to "clarify" how states can use information from statewide longitudinal data systems to inform policy decisions without running afoul of the student privacy law. Regulations could be controversial - see the article the Obama administration risks running afoul of federal law.

Bachelor’s Degree Recipients with High Levels of Student Debt
The College Board Advocacy & Policy Center has issued a new report on 2007-08 bachelor’s degree recipients with high levels of debt (more than $30,500). While about two-thirds of all recipients graduated with some student debt, 17 percent of four-year college graduates were in the high-debt category. The frequency of high debt is higher for independent students than for dependent students. Among dependent students, high debt levels are not correlated with family income, but middle-income students from each sector are somewhat more likely than either lower- or higher-income students to have accumulated as much as $30,500 in debt.

Understanding Transfer Admissions
The National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) included a supplement on its annual Admission Trends survey to learn more about how colleges evaluate candidates in the transfer admission process, as well as acceptance and yield rates. The survey, based on fall 2006 data, found that the postsecondary GPA is the most important factor for transfer admission, although factors vary to some extent based on institutional characteristics such as public vs. private, enrollment size, and transfer selectivity.

The Commission on the Future of Graduate Education
The Commission on the Future of Graduate Education in the United States, a joint effort of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and Educational Testing Service (ETS), recently released a major research report in support of its goal to create a national conversation on how to increase graduate degree attainment by all segments of the country's population. The report outlines research findings and recommendations to universities, industry, and policymakers, and is a result of the Commission’s charge to oversee a research effort to examine the political, demographic, socioeconomic, educational, and financial trends that impact participation in graduate education. The assumption underlying this work was that the global competitiveness of the U. S. and capacity for innovation hinges fundamentally on a strong system of graduate education. The 18-member Commission includes university presidents, graduate deans, provosts, industry leaders, and higher education scholars. Read the full report.