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Adrian College is among a fast-growing number of mostly small liberal arts colleges that are adding explicitly career-focused programs with a little-noticed innovation called course sharing.
Through course sharing, colleges can cheaply and quickly add the programs students want, attracting critical enrollment while paying other teaching institutions—the ones that provide the already-developed courses—a discounted price per course.

Only 19 percent of California Community College students who intend to transfer to a four-year university successfully do so within four years, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
The University of California aims to change that statistic with a dual admission pilot program that sets transfer students up for success and provides a clear path to a degree.

Fatima Nuñez Ardon took an unusual path to the classroom: She earned her teaching degree through evening classes at a community college, while living at home and raising her four children.
Community college-based teaching programs like this are rare, but growing. They can dramatically cut the cost and raise the convenience of earning a teaching degree, while making a job in education accessible to a wider diversity of people.

Financial aid is tough work. The regulatory changes seem never-ending, while a lack of financial education and increased resentment about college costs put constant pressure on every staff member’s customer-service abilities.
All of that is a big ask, especially for those in this field’s many modestly paid positions. Big enough to put its future in question. Three financial aid veterans offer their perspectives on the state of the financial aid profession—plus three practical solutions.